Released: 1980
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Running time: 92 mins
Do you know how to give constructive feedback? It is a great interpersonal skill to have. I’ll teach you:
The first step is to ask the person if they’re available to hear/receive your feedback. Be prepared to receive a hard “no” and if you do, that’s okay! Giving feedback is all about timing but it’s important to check in. Ask, “Hey, is now a good time to talk? I was just wondering if I could give you a little feedback.”
The second step is to lead with something encouraging. Make it as specific as possible - try to stay on topic. Irrelevant shit doesn’t work here. Nobody cares if you think their Magrudergrind t-shirt is cool if you’re about to tell them they wash dishes for shit. Example: “I really appreciate how dedicated you are to making movies, Umberto Lenzi.”
Next, unload the constructive piece to work on - whatever it is that you’re hoping to address through this conversation. Shoot ‘em between the eyes with the direct issue at hand. “But I was wondering if you could try to channel some of that dedication into supporting your team to complete their work wholly.”
Finally, tie it all off by ending on another positive note. Consider suggesting an alternative course of action or extend an offer to help the person in problem solving the issue so you can avoid it together in the future. “I’d be happy to assist if you think your team could use a hand in the plot development department at all. I really appreciate your openness to creative problem solving. Thanks for hearing me out.” Giving (and receiving!) constructive feedback is not a task you can master in 92 minutes but it is a skill worth practicing.
I mention constructive feedback to you having recently viewed the 1980 classic Nightmare City. Let me lead by saying first, that I am not particularly crazy about the idea of attempting to quantify what makes a “good movie”. I also don’t subscribe to the idea of it at all being okay to criticize something without any sort of call to action or opportunity to improve. All art and artistic expression is valid. Boost your girls. Bang for your team. Etc. You know the drill. With that said however, I am ready to file this movie under the ‘bad’ column. Immediately. I wanted to avoid this route of sharing with you subjectively whack movies but here we are. We got here together a lot faster than I had anticipated -- Nightmare City is the most lazily executed horror movie I have ever seen.
Nightmare City isn't like other zombie movies. It's a Cool Zombie Movie. Truthfully, I don’t really know how to categorize what it actually is but the antagonists are a lot like C.H.U.D.s minus the subterranean condo livin'. They exist somewhere on the spectrum of mad-man and zombie. I suppose then that this makes the protagonist/hero of this movie, television reporter Dean Miller. In addition to furrowing his brow, Dean is an exceptionally skilled marksman for a scrawny-assed journalist. Dean and his coworker, Unnamed Cameraman, are among the first civilians in the know of this Non-Zombie apocalypse. They are on site at the local airport for an interview when an arriving plane opens its doors and unleashes droves of violent humanoids. They feast on their victim for sure but as a fun twist: they also utilize weaponry such as knives in their murderous pursuit. Now despite the runway being littered with military personnel, the frenzied homies eat almost everyone and begin their descent on the city limits. Then, as is Zombie trope tradition: chaos.
Perhaps the most chaotic element of Nightmare City is the practical make up effects. The infected persons are supposed to be victims of radiation exposure. The makeup does not make it easy for the viewer to discern this. People from every corner of the internet have written volumes on Lenzi’s scat-zombies. As a movie viewer, I tend to eat with my eyes first. I hope to take a lot of my fill from movies on how they look. If this is a common practice in your life as well, I think you'll be left wanting. Our antagonists look a lot like meatloaf covered in a burnt BBQ sauce/ketchup combination. Perhaps this was the intended effect but I struggle to believe that there’s someone on this Earth who is more grossed out by meatloaf than me - so much so, that they made their movie-creatures look as though they were covered in it in an attempt to convert everyone who has ever set eyes on this film to never eat it again.
The Sauce Combo Makeup Effect used does a fantastic job of blending the unique features of the non-zombies thus making a) everyone look identical b) making the plot of this movie even more scatterbrained as you're not sure if it's the same creep throughout the entirety of these 92 minutes and c) mentally taxing to give a shit about anything happening on screen. Mostly, I find myself curious as to why this makeup was given the green-light. Who looked at these creatures and was like, “Yes, good. This is cute. I like this.” Did the makeup person hate their job? Why didn’t a single person have an obvious wound? For a movie that seems to take itself deadly serious, this is a huge misstep. It's a joke. Such is the scourge of Italian film, though. Fuck!
The mellow-drama of this movie makes you want to pluck out your eyes with a dull Tupperware lid. Dean is the fucking worst, it's hard to look at and there isn't a single thoughtfully set filming location. The entire movie radiates, "I started this project two nights before it was due". Horror movies get a bad rap for being lazy and unoriginal. Lenzi and his team, through not focusing any amount of energy into creating a coherent plot, a single likeable character or even makeup that doesn't look like absolute shit perpetuates this trope. Nightmare City is half assed and hurried. I cannot respect that.
I will say however in an attempt to uncover literally anything positive to speak to in Nightmare City, I had to consider other zombie movies that I love. What about those movies resonated? What elements did I find the most terror in? That's when I found it; what works here. Which shockingly enough turns out to be the humanoids themselves. Nightmare City's influence in the shaping of future zombie movies is undeniable. Before this, movie-goers really only knew the Romero type; slow moving, stumbling. Shaky. With the Lenzi humanoid, we’re introduced to a creature that possesses high-functioning motor skills, an ability to communicate and potentially some sort of remaining cognition that allows for problem solving/thinking ahead skills. These humanoids work together to trash cars, corral humans into inescapable corners. They hunt. We are thrust into a reality where our enemies can out maneuver us even in death. Having grown up loving the world of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead, I suppose I can only thank Nightmare City for laying this groundwork. I mean, maybe I just don't like Italian cinema. That's highly likely as someone who doesn't appreciate lazy, half assed bullshit. But does that make this movie suck any less? Definitely not. I won't suggest that you watch this unless you're drunk as hell for its entirety. Maybe if it was 2012 and you were having Sunday afternoon pints at Filthy McNasty's when the dude from the Lobby would screen shitty movies behind the bar. I would tell you to watch it then for sure. But otherwise: Avoid, avoid, avoid the bad dream that is Nightmare City.
Comments