MBunge American Nightmare is supposed to be a suspenseful horror film. The only real emotion it provokes, however, is pity. Not self-pity because you watched such a cheap piece of crap, but actual pity. Not for the cast, because there are better actors out there who never get to be in any film, even a cheap piece of crap like this one. And not for the crew, because given the shoddy production values, all the folks who worked on this movie had to go back to their full time jobs in the food service industry when filming was complete. No, the person you feel sorry for when viewing American Nightmare is writer/director Jon Keeyes. That's because you can't help but imagine all the time and energy and struggle he put into making a film that does nothing but illustrate how absolutely talentless he is.After a silly prologue that's notable only for featuring the fakest looking punches outside of a 1953 pro wrestling match, we finally get to the main story that's supposed to be about 7 friends confessing their fears to a radio DJ and then having a killer use those fears against them. I say supposed to be because only 4 of them actually confess their fears to the DJ and only two of them end up dying in a fashion vaguely related to their fears. One other character does die exactly in the way she was afraid of, but she never told the DJ about her phobia. It turns out the killer was in the same room with them, eavesdropping on their conversations, so the whole radio thing was utterly unnecessary. Yeah, this is the sort of movie that's so bad it doesn't even bother to follow its own premise.I'm not going to bother going into the plot of this thing. Suffice to say that it involves a murderer who, in order to do everything she does, has to be super-fast, super-strong and possess the stealth abilities of a ninja. She plays a game of cat-and-mouse with her victims where both the cat and the mouse are mentally retarded. One character winds up in the midst of the world's wussiest mosh pit. Another spends most of the film sitting in a coffee shop cruising internet chat rooms like a lonely pedophile. And, of course, the whole thing ends with a twist that's supposed to make you wonder what it all meant. What you really wonder about is how much trouble it would be to track down Jon Keeyes and give him a tittie twister until he refunded the money you spent to watch American Nightmare.The acting on display here is not good at all. It's like these performers signed up for the same acting class where the instructor was blind, deaf and talked with a lisp. One of these actors thought that someone in intense pain would look exactly like someone with the dry heaves. Another thought being afraid was the same thing as having an obstructed bowel. The movie is specifically set in Austin, Texas, yet only one member of the cast even attempts to pull off an appropriate accent and her dialect is about a steady as a drunk driver in the Daytona 500.The camera work and dialog of American Nightmare is in fact worse than the performances, if you can believe that. The look of this film is 95% dollying the camera from one side of the set to the other, 3% panning the camera from one side to the other, 1% having close ups that are too far away and wide shots that are too close and 1% having something in the shot be out of focus. Based on this, neither the director nor the director of photography should be able to get jobs videotaping pet weddings. I have also seen pet wedding videos that had more memorable dialog than this thing.Now, two of the actresses do take their tops off, so I suppose American Nightmare has some value to desperately horny social misfits that have moral objections to hardcore pornography. But then watching this would just be enabling their dysfunction, so even they should find something better to do.

Michael O'Keefe Seven friends meet in a favorite café before getting dressed for a Halloween party. Commemorating the massacre of four college students the previous year; host Caligari(Chris Ryan)of a dusk to dawn pirate radio show called "American Nightmare" invites listeners to call in and reveal their deepest and worst fears. The friends dare each other to call Caligari as they listen to the broadcast before going off to their fun night festivities. Also listening is the psycho responsible for the killings the year before. As the friends go their separate ways, they are taunted by sinister calls to the radio show. With fears at a feverish pitch the night becomes long and dangerous.Not the best, nor the worst of flicks...but interesting enough. Some of the acting may be over-the-top; but the message is there. A person's own fears can be fatal. Starring are: Debbie Rochon, Kimberly Grant, Johnny Sneed, Kristin McCollum, Kenyon Homes and Rebecca Stacey. And being a former air personality myself, I was impressed like hell with Ryan, who actually is on the air in Dallas.

bhy1976 This film didn't knock me off my chair or anything, but it did hold my attention, and, towards the end, even had me speculating about how it might end, which, for me at least, is a clear indication that the plot has some depth to it. Nevertheless, though, the plot does drag in some places, as the serial killer and her victims get into a rather drawn out cat-and-mouse game, which is not very suspensefully depicted in the film.For the most part the acting is believable but there are some weak links, particularly in the very last scene (why wasn't that cut?!) The soundtrack/score is noteworthy and supports the macabre mood of the film well.Particularly noteworthy is the skillful use of lighting in the film for the purpose of supporting the story-line.All in all an enjoyable film.

dwpollar 1st watched 11/07/2004 - 1 out of 10(Dir-Jon Keeyes): Over-the-top rehash of 70's supposed horror flicks like Friday the 13th(versions 1 thru whatever…). I can't think of much redeeming here except(or can I think of anything?)…The story revolves around a bunch of stupid people listening to a radio program one year after some kids were slayed in the woods as an 'homage' to this, supposedly. But, lo and behold, one of the stupid people, have connections to the actual event because her sister was one of the ones murdered(again, how stupid is this that she would even be a part of this). Guess what? The murderer is at it again and we're tipped off from the very beginning who it is(so there goes any mystery whatsoever). And besides all this, where are the 'cops' and why doesn't someone call them. I can't believe this movie was financed by someone and made. You would think that by now the American people would be judged a little higher, at least in their movie-going experience, but not so by this filmmaker.