Horror Movie Review: Twisted Nightmare (1987)

Twisted Nightmare is a violent 80’s slasher horror that has a storyline that is ripped from the horror rule book about camps. A group wins free tickets to a camp they all used to frequent when they were younger. A chance for them all to catch up, drink & have lots of sex.

There’s just the small matter of the death that occurred when they were all last there. The mentally-challenged brother of one of the girls self-combusted (basically) & burnt to death. Or did he?

It’s not long before the big & forgettable cast are being murdered by a hulking & roaring figure. A figure that is kept shrouded in darkness up until the final few minutes. Even though it’s obvious who it is once the flashback scene of the burning brother is shown.

Comparisons to the likes of Friday the 13th are easy to make, especially as the location is the same as the one used in Friday the 13th Part 3. However, Twisted Nightmare is more like a combination of Scalps & Madman. The former because of the side-story about murdered Native Americans, something that feels jammed in to make this a more compelling story.

It doesn’t work. Hardly ground-breaking on release, it has aged horribly & doesn’t have an original bone in its body. The cast are boring & bland to watch, when they’re not having sex (there is a lot of nudity) they wander off alone & just get killed. They also care so little about where their friends disappear too. Someone is killed & when questions come up about where they’ve gone, everyone basically shrugs their shoulders.

With a high body count, you’d at least hope that Twisted Nightmare is a gory flick but disappointingly a lot of deaths occur off-screen. What ones we do get to see are shrouded in such darkness that they can hardly be enjoyed.

The twist ending… it’s nothing special mainly because it’s never really a mystery. The attempts to lead you down other paths fall flat. There are so many better slashers out there. Many better 80’s slashers. Twisted Nightmare can’t really be recommended as a watch.