Nightmare in Blood

Written and Directed by John Stanley



Emblazoned on the cover of this Image DVD is the phrase, "The 70's Cult Horror Classic!" Uh, doesn't a film have to have an audience to be considered a cult classic? Nightmare in Blood was a lost film for a long damned time and I have never met anyone that saw it before this DVD was release. And not too many have seen it since.

If you don't know who John Stanley is, you should. John hosted San Francisco's Creature Features show from 1979 to 1984, and he featured many guests from the movies. John worked harder than most and he had elaborate skits and interviews that were often more entertaining than the movies that he showed. Of course, this was no substitute for a drive in, but I suppose we had to have something to watch on those rainy nights. John authored a number of editions of the Creature Feature Movie Guide, an exhaustive encyclopedic guide to all sorts of fantastic cinema. His tastes might be a bit tame for most gorehounds, but John was and is a real fan and his insights are often dead on target.

John Stanley was also a pioneer in the horror small press field with his Creatures at Large Press. He published deluxe limited editions of his movie guides as well as a collection of humorous Robert Bloch stories called Through Time and Space With Lefty Feep and an autobiography of Robert Mitchum's brother (huh?). John also turned his hand to fiction with his remarkable World War 3, a sweeping story of a future war that is fought with chimpanzees. Sounds silly and it is. Sort of. World War 3 is world class satire and it is as biting and intelligent as something created by Kurt Vonnegut.

In addition to these feats, John Stanley wrote and directed a low budget horror movie called Nightmare in Blood. The premise to this film is an irresistible one for most horror fans. A horror convention is being held in San Francisco and the guest of honor is an actor that specializes in Hammer Studios-type vampire movies. It turns out that he is actually a real bloodsucker.

For me, Nightmare in Blood gets off to a rocky start. The acting is straight out of a Herschell Gordon Lewis movie, but it gains momentum as it proceeds. John has a good time poking barbs at horror movie trappings and those that love them. We are introduced to horror nuts, nerdy and pretentious comic book geeks, mystery mavens and of course those lovable costumers that make conventions so much fun to make fun of.

Nightmare in Blood starts off silly, but as it goes it begins to insidiously get under the viewers skin. Stanley injects some original ideas into his plot as we discover that the vampires henchmen/publicists are the real Burke and Hare, the notorious European body snatchers from the early 1800's. We meet an Israeli seeking vengeance for Nazi crimes that were committed by the actor/vampire. Add some el-cheapo red paint gore effects and you end up with a pretty good time.

Nightmare in Blood is not the unearthed genre masterpiece that Image would have you believe, but it is a good movie that is well worth the price. Especially in this day and age of shitty remakes and sequels and gutless PG-13 family friendly horror. John Stanley is a good guy and I recommend this movie with minor reservations and I recommend his movie guide with zero reservations.