The Daily Dig: Nightmare Island (1982)

An early, lost slasher that benefited from being dubbed a video nasty, “Nightmare Island” plays with tropes that would permeate the genre.

Plagued by dreams of an unseen murderer, dreams become reality as two couples vacation on a secluded island. Let’s dig into 1982’s NIGHTMARE ISLAND, directed by J.S. Cardone!

As I See It

Also known as The Slayer (previously covered here), there’s a big hullabaloo made about this film when you give it the old Google search.

It’s been regaled with praise, being compared to a phoenix rising from the ashes of early eighties slasher obscurity and video nasty censure. It is also quite often referred to as the spiritual predecessor of Wes Craven’s genre-defining A Nightmare on Elm Street, for which the only similarity I see is a line of dialogue, “Just stay awake. That’s all you have to do,” before the character burns her hand to accomplish this.

It’s pretty silly and hardly in the same ballpark as Mister Krueger.

On paper, the story is intriguing. A woman who has been haunted by vivid, ghastly dreams since childhood copes by creating abstract art. It sounds like a dissection of what drives an artist.

In execution, the story unfolds in a somewhat confusing chronology. Dreams aren’t delineated enough from “reality” in my opinion. Blending reality and nightmare does seem like the way to go when filming a story like this, but it comes off too clunky.

I’m not going to go back and count, but the number of times they call out for “David” surely must rival that of the calls for “Josh” in The Blair Witch Project.

I’m not hating on TBWP. I vividly recall being a teenager opening night, believing the marketing hype that it was a “real found film”. As an older friend drove me home, I dreaded the solitary thoughts that would creep into my head as I lay in bed that night. But Heather Donahue’s shrill “Josh!” would invade my mind for years longer than that nightmarish night.

I’m often asked by my better half how I “predict” where a movie is going. This film does things that can explain my writer’s intuition. The characters portend their demise with early dialogue. Most films do this, but writers can be clever when they have circumstances to hide these devices behind. No offense to this film, but it’s out in the open.

[SPOILER: Normally, explaining the happenings of a film away by making it all a dream is lame, gutless writing. Cardone chose a slight variation on that trope (that might not have been a trope, yet) by making the whole thing the dream of a young girl, therefore making it a prophecy. It’s clever enough to leave you thinking.]

Famous Faces

Frederick Flynn (Eric), sometimes credited as F.J. Flynn, is a J.S. Cardone regular, having starred in eleven of Cardone’s films.

Alan McRae (David) is the dad in 3 Ninjas. I need to say no more.

Of Gratuitous Nature

We do get a gratuitous shower scene, but at least it is an interesting shot, through some slightly opaque glass.

Heartthrob

The classic eighties-style practical special effects are the stuff of nightmares. I love it. The pitchfork scene is especially impressive, and I had to rewind it (yes, as in VHS) a few times to try and catch the mechanism, but I could not see one. The tines of the pitchfork retracting look as realistic as they can.

If you blink, you’ll miss the big reveal of the titular Slayer, and trust me, you don’t want to miss it. It’s phenomenally grotesque. Like an anthropomorphic, razor-toothed fish. As brief as the encounter with this demon is, they probably made the right choice by concealing it for the entire film, minus a few seconds. It would most likely have retained its striking visual appearance, but would be impotent.

Ripe for a Remake

Others will have you believe that ANOES was the inevitable successor and wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on without this film. That’s not hyperbole on their part; that’s plain lying. The tropes, simple structure, and themes that make a home in the slasher genre did not start with The Slayer, nor were they perfected by it. You’re not going to find anything here to mine that hasn’t been exhausted.

Spawns

No progeny to report.

Where to Watch

A Blu-Ray with 4k restoration is available from Arrow Video. It’s available to stream on Tubi and Arrow’s proprietary streaming service. YouTube has it streaming for free, though I don’t know how long that will last.

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