''Nightmares'' (also known as ''Stage Fright'') is a 1980 Australian
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
Gary Sweet
Gary Sweet (born 22 May 1957) is an Australian film and television actor known for his roles in '' Alexandra's Project'' (as Steve), ''Police Rescue'' (as Sergeant "Mickey" McClintock), ''Cody'' (as Cody), '' Big Sky'' (as Chris Manning), ''Bod ...
's feature film debut.
Plot
A young girl named Cathy (Jenny Neumann) tries to keep her mother from making out with a man while driving one day, and she inadvertently causes her mother's death in the ensuing crash. Sixteen years later, Cathy is now named Helen and has become a psychotic actress and is starring in an upcoming play called ''Comedy of Blood'', where the actors are picked off one by one by an unseen assailant with a shard of glass.
Cast
* Jenny Neumann as Cathy/Helen Selleck
** Jennie Lamond as Young Cathy
*
Gary Sweet
Gary Sweet (born 22 May 1957) is an Australian film and television actor known for his roles in '' Alexandra's Project'' (as Steve), ''Police Rescue'' (as Sergeant "Mickey" McClintock), ''Cody'' (as Cody), '' Big Sky'' (as Chris Manning), ''Bod ...
as Terry Besanko
* Max Phipps as George D'alberg
*
John Michael Howson
John-Michael Howson (born 8 August 1936) is an Australian writer, reporter, entertainer and Melbourne radio commentator. His involvement in the Australian entertainment scene as a writer, producer and performer spans more than 50 years.
Early ...
as Bennett Collingwood
*
Nina Landis
Nina Landis is an Australian stage and screen actress, who trained in Australia and New York. Her feature film credits include the title role (Rikky) in ''Rikky and Pete'', '' Komodo'', '' Four of a Kind'', '' Handle with Care'', and '' Blackj ...
as Judy
*
Edmund Pegge
Edmund Pegge (born 1 April 1939) is an Australian actor, who has worked in both Australia and the United Kingdom.
Arriving in Adelaide as a teenager, Pegge completed his education at St Peter's College before graduating from the National Inst ...
''Nightmares'' should have been a lot better. We used the Steadicam camera for the first time in Australia on that. It was all right, but it didn't have any story. The technique was all right. Brian May's music was great. It was dumped by the distributor. No-one tried, nobody did anything. But it should have been better. Because it was a real quickie. I had the chance to make a real quickie, they said if you don't take the money we'll give it to somebody else. That was back in the old tax regime. You had to get the money, make the film, be finished by a certain time, you couldn't take longer.
Lamond says it was
John Michael Howson
John-Michael Howson (born 8 August 1936) is an Australian writer, reporter, entertainer and Melbourne radio commentator. His involvement in the Australian entertainment scene as a writer, producer and performer spans more than 50 years.
Early ...
's idea to set the movie in a theatre.
The film features a bitchy theatre critic called Bennett Collingswood (played by John Michael Howson) who many observers felt was a veiled attack on Colin Bennett, film critic of ''The Age'' who was often critical of Australian films.
It was the first professional job for Gary Sweet who later called the film "terrible, diabolical" but says it got him thinking "acting was, you know, all right."Graeme Blundell, 'Class working man', ''The Australian'', 4 September 2010 p31
AustLit
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...