Nightwish (1989)

 

So from what I understand this was released in 1990 but made in 1988. I was in the middle of the St. Louis regional slasher, Fatal Exam (1990) and just had to tap out. I will go back to it at some point. I tried, I really did. I went to a film I've never seen before, available on Tubi, Nightwish (1989). This film took up the nightmare logic route and went batshit crazy. I loved this insane movie. Jack Starrett is this parapsychologist professor with students at Cal U participating in dream experiments, hoping one of them will follow their nightmare/fear while "under" up to death, not pulling out. They are in these chambers with water similar to Ken Russell's Altered States (1980). The difference is William Hurt stays in that chamber and remains too long with effects changing his body and mind.

I loved the opening dream sequence where Elizabeth Kaitan is in a red prom dress (she looks VERY good in red, with red lipstick, as well), encounters zombie Clayton Rohner, giving chase, trying to keep away from him. It immediately throttles us, with her awakening from the chamber tank as Starrett shows disappointment because she just wasn't willing to go far enough. Only one student was left to go, Alisha Das' Kim. Starrett wanted at least one student to go all the way, face their fear, and awaken from that experience successfully.

So the film toys with us. I'll say, the film takes us on a trip where Kaitan, Rohner, Das, and Brian Thompson drive to a remote multi-room cabin with a lot of bad history. It's an old house seemingly with a lot of negative energy. There is a mine, even. Starrett is there with another student, Artur Cybulski, setting up a series of experiments in the hopes of drawing out a demonic entity and testing the fear and paranoia of all involved. Thompson seemed like just a van driver paid to get the students to and from that cabin. The touchy-feely front seat interaction between Thompson and Das (and later outside when Thompson is changing a tire, killing a rattler on the verge of biting her with a tire iron) is interesting because Das doesn't push away his hand when fondling her leg and the murder of the snake really seems to arouse her. But he drops them off after purposely runs over a rabbit in the road (seriously, WTF?!), telling them the "road is mine!" Oooookay.

The experiments include drawing out a snake seemingly made of green light -- I swear Das seemed so turned on, I almost expected her to open her legs for the snake to fuck her! -- and pulling up a demon in the form of a tornado made up of green light. The second experiment is fucked up because Starrett handcuffs his students (and himself for a while) and expects them to not react in terror to the entity emerging from a pentagram on the floor. He is freed from his handcuffs but won't allow his students out of theirs. Starrett has a contentious relationship with Cybulski, a student who is supposed to be his closest ally, but Cybulski simply rejects the methods behind locking all of them to wooden pillars as a demon is conjured from the pits of hell. He's so freaked out, Cybulski pisses his pants. Cybulski makes a mistake by telling the others that Starrett was let go from two former universities and threatens to expose him for what is happening to them. So Starrett pulls a knife, shanks him, and calls on a subservient "patient", Stanley (Robert Tessier), to clean up the mess! Obviously, Rohner, Kaitan, and Das are shocked and realize this whole experience has took a major turn for the worse.

I think I felt the film was off-kilter right after it was revealed Kaitan was having a dream, and Starrett issued that challenge to stay in the tank until death. Thompson behind the wheel of the van, his behavior screamed off-the-wall. And when Rohner has his finger cut with pliers by Tessier, goes unconscious during the demon tornado, sees Kaitan and Das with amphibious heads, calls Starrett "sir" when it appears he might be killed if he doesn't, and doesn't try to get away when he might have the chance, these are warning signs that something is clearly off. Not to mention, Kaitan grabbed from behind by "Rohner", putting her head in a square plastic case, while releasing a case of spiders into her case is a brief but telling hallucinatory sequence. On top of all that, Das has her share of experiences involving bugs, constantly hitting Tessier over the head (or knocking him down the stairs) with some object that never seems to kill the guy, alien cocooning human hosts in a mine, Cybulski somehow alive and talking to her despite being stabbed earlier, and laying on a floor (with red light and smoke) caught in this state of stimulated sexual arousal, groping herself and unbuttoning her shirt. Now on the floor horny groping with Das, while I'm not at all complaining, because this petite beauty seems to be ready for lots of naughty behavior. Anytime something dangerous seems to be on the horizon, there is this look of lust on her face I found fascinating. So the twist at the end with Das would seem to say that all of the weird shit going on at the cabin was tied to her specifically. She's the one often independent of Starrett, fending off Tessier, locating the alien cocoons, consistently out front trying to get her fellow students away from Starrett. But all that lust and desire really reveals a lot about how important Das is to all that is going on.

The film throws a lot of crazy at us, allowing the young extraordinary KNB effects team to lay on the ick factor, with those lighting effects of the snake and just this green light, in general, popping off the screen. See, I appreciate the door A Nightmare of Elm Street (1984) seemed to open for the horror genre in terms of nightmare logic, where filmmakers were freed to explore all kinds of options in terms of "reality rules" being undermined in favor of surreal imagery and fractured narrative with a plot allowed to run askew. Granted, the film does seem to answer how all this madness occurs with Das emerging from the tank, but when Tessier closes those doors to a dark room she gets lost in, calling out to Tessier's Stanley to "wake up" that turns everything on its head. The nightmare never ends, I guess. 

Starrett looked quite sick but soldiered through, definitely making his unethical Frankenstein scientist appropriately morally questionable and eventually quite maniacal. 

I will admit, though, that seeing Kaitan in the credits was a nudge towards checking this out. She actually has a lot more to do here when compared to other horror films often killing her off with a rather insignificant character. She does offer some nudity, as probably contractually obligated at that time. She's a dynamo. 4/5