I like Tobe Hooper's work, but like all artist he has hits and misses. I think that horror is a very personal thing, akin to what turns a person on sexually. What is hot for one is an off for another. The movie has an interesting concept. I feel the acting is good. Robert Englund is wonderful as the Marquis De Sade and it was nice to see William Finley again. (He is also in one of my all time fav's "Funhouse" also directed by Hooper. )Set design, editing, costuming, score and photography all have a very 80's feel to it although the movie was filmed in 1993. It has that high glossy feel to it. The movie is neither as artist as it would have like to have been, nor is it completely terrible. Trust me there are A LOT worse out there. If you like Robert Englund, or have a kind of fascination for the Marquis, then this maybe worth your time. But if you are looking for chills, gore or T&A skip it.

What the hell have I just seen? This is one utterly weird flick! Tobe Hooper, though generally regarded as a capable director, missed more than a few curves with this one. The plot is almost totally incomprehensible and incoherent. You'll practically go nuts trying to figure out this movie. But I must say it is strangely fascinating.From what I could gather, this is the main storyline: The movie begins with Marquis de Sade (Robert Englund) being tortured and thrown away in a cell, where he swears revenge to a portrait of Madame Beaumont. Then, flash-forward to Alexandria, a desert city in 1993. Eugenie Matteson (Zoe Trilling) arrives to live with her archaeologist father. After a while she meets Paul Chevalier (Robert Englund), who is a descendant of de Sade and seems to believe that Eugenie is the re-incarnation of Madame Beaumont.Looks like a basic plot line to you? Think again! The fun begins when Eugenie gets invited by the mysterious Sabina (who seems to have had a bondage-thing going with Eugenie's over-religious father) to enjoy the local nightlife. They do some drugs and by the looks of it, it's pretty strong stuff. Eugenie starts hallucinating and having nightmares through-out the entire movie. Those scenes are bizarre and often very atmospheric, though utterly pointless most of the time. But from that point on, the movie becomes fragmented, lacking any form of consistency.Here are some things you can find in this movie, in no particular order: Drug-abuse, nudity, steamy hetero-sex, torture, a naked Egyptian dude riding a horse, decapitation, lesbian sex, a mermaid-worshiping cult (in the desert, mind you!), a lot of snakes, scales(!?!?), crucifixion, simulated fellatio by a woman with a snake (and a bunch of other things). I won't tell you how all these things fit into the plot, but you can imagine that it's bound to make no sense whatsoever. And the crazy thing is: I kinda liked it.Robert Englund is pretty good as the eye-poking and occasionally poëtic phrases uttering sadist. Zoe Trilling is decent and definitely hot. The blood & make-up effects are scarce but good. The logic is way out there.So this is a movie you'll either love or hate. There's nothing in between. I dig it anyway, even if I don't understand what Tobe Hooper was trying to prove with it. However, he seems to be back on the right track with the more than decent slasher-flick the TOOLBOX MURDERS (2003).If you do decide to see NIGHTMARE (aka NIGHT TERRORS), I'll leave you with the following warning: Even though it might be tempting, I suggest you do NOT see this movie under the influence of drugs, because you might have the most disturbing trip of your life, leaving you fairly dis-orientated (either that or you'll laugh your ass off!). And if you like Zoe Trilling, check out her enjoyable performance in NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 2.

Genie (Zoe Trilling) arrives in Egypt to visit her hypocritical, bible-quoting archeologist father (William Finley) and attracts the attention of a group of cultists led by a descendant of the Marquis de Sade (Robert Englund). Englund also plays de Sade in flashbacks, ranting in his cell. Genie is led astray by Mohammed (Juliano Merr), who rides around naked on a horse and Sabina (Alona Kamhi), a bisexual who introduces her to opium smoking, which leads to a wild hallucination featuring topless harem dancers, a woman simulating oral sex on a snake, an orgy and her father preaching in the background! Meanwhile, black hooded cult members decapitate, gouge out eyeballs and slit throats. When Genie is slipped drugs in her tea, she imagines de Sade hanging from a cross, a gold-painted woman in a leafy g-string and herself bloody on a bed covered in snakes. It's all because she's the reincarnation of de Sade's lost love.This typically sleazy Harry Alan Towers production is redundant, seedy and pretty senseless, but the sets, costumes, cinematography and location work are all excellent and at least there's always something going on.Score: 3 out of 10

Normally I would never rent a movie like this, because you know it's going to be bad just by looking at the box. I rented seven movies at the same time, including Nightmare on Elm Street 5, 6 and Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Unfortunately, when I got home I found out the videostore-guy gave me the wrong tape. In the box of Wes Craven's New Nightmare I found this lame movie.This movie is incredibly boring, the acting is bad and the plot doesn't make any sense. It's hard to write a good review, because I have no idea what the movie was really about. At the end of the movie you have more questions then answers.On 'Max Power's Scale of 1 to 10' I rate this movie: 1PS I would like to correct Corinthian's review (right below mine). He says Robert Englund is ripping off lingerie, riding horses naked, etc. The guy that did those things was Mahmoud, played by Juliano Mer, not by Robert Englund.