In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Friday, August 2, 2019

Sleaze in the 6ix


This week's VHS is my recently acquired copy of 1983's American Nightmare.


Eric (Lawrence Day) travels into the city's underbelly to find his missing sister.

Hey, you know you've been doing this a long time when you start duplicating movie posts. I remembered I watched American Nightmare a few years back at Trash Palace, but didn't think I'd actually done a review. But I did. And now it's Thursday night and I'm already committed so now you can compare and contrast.

Lora Staley as Louise in American Nightmare.



















So first off, I have to reiterate that American Nightmare is basically the closest thing that exists to a Canuck giallo. I was once again surprised by how grimy this movie was for a Canadian joint. Practically every female character gets naked and a good chunk of the movie is padded with strip tease performances – some by actual Toronto peelers. I feel like this would make a good double bill with Strange Shadows as they both exude – save for their less than stellar treatment of transvestites – the best traits of the grindhouse era.


Hey, even though my first review might have had an exceedingly witty jab at the NDP, this one has Gifs!

The biggest laugh about this movie still remains that though it is called American Nightmare, it couldn't possibly be more Canadian. You've pretty much got every familiar face of the time, including Michael “Mike” Ironside, Tom Harvey and Lenore Zann, actors drop a-boot's at will and there was a driving scene where shops like Color Your World and Bi-Way streamed by. I mean, the climax takes place on the roof of Channel 47/Cable 4 with the CN Tower in the background for Christ's sake!


So what have we learned here? Well first, Toronto can be pretty greasy when it wants to be and second... I should really double check my database before picking my posts. Anyhoo, happy Simcoe weekend everyone!

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