Nightmare at Noon (1988)

Arrow's latest Blu-ray release from the Nico Mastorakis back catalogue is NIGHTMARE AT NOON, a film that encapsulates many of the elements designed to appealed to the home video rental generation back in the day.

Evil albino Brion James discharges a canister of green liquid into the water supply of the small Utah town of Canyonlands using his swooshy gun. A beardy farmer pulls up in his truck while this is going on and is despatched by Brion's gang using the usual 1980s stealth method of multiple hails of machine gun bullets. For one farmer. 

The next day. An annoying lawyer who doesn't like soggy croissants (Wings Hauser) and his wife who survived FRIDAY THE 13TH THE FINAL CHAPTER (Kimberly Beck) pick up Bo Hopkins, Hauser's co-star from John Bud Cardos' 1984 MUTANT which this film resembles albeit in an inferior way. Scarcely are they in town than a different beardy farmer in dungarees goes mad and suddenly develops the ability to deliver kung fu kicks and become a stunt car driver, a skill he demonstrates by stealing the sheriff's car and running over a lady in curlers who swears a lot.

By the time our heroes, including George Kennedy, have worked out 'it's the water', enough cars have exploded to keep a young Michael Bay glued to the screen and with good reason because in a bit it's going to be helicopters as well.

NIGHTMARE AT NOON could never be described as being particularly good, but it boasts some superb Utah location work and it is a lot of fun, especially if you're of the generation who might have had a wild time with this one at a festival or just used it to cheer up a rainy Saturday afternoon. It's silly but the action never stops, and we even get a score from frequent Mastorakis collaborators Stanley Myers (HOUSE OF WHIPCORD and THE DEER HUNTER) and Hans Zimmer (you know his stuff or you wouldn't be here).

Arrow's extras include The Films of Nico Mastorakis Part III, in which the director himself provides voiceover narration to the making of the film in this 33 minute piece. You also get another 49 minutes of behind the scenes footage as well as a total of 50 minutes of interviews with Hauser, Kennedy, Hopkins, Beck, Kennedy and James all filmed at the time of shooting, as well as a trailer and an image gallery accompanied by 12 minutes of the score. 

Nico Mastorakis' NIGHTMARE AT NOON is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 5th December 2022