Day of the Nightmare

1965 "THE HORROR of Half Man, Half Woman, ALL KILLER!"
4.7| 1h34m| en
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A young wife's marriage begins to crumble after she's attacked by a knife-wielding woman whom the police believed was already dead.

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Reviews

Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Manthast Absolutely amazing
Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
MartinHafer "Day of the Nightmare" is a dandy psycho picture. Now I am not saying it's a great film, but in light of the very low budget, it's awfully entertaining.The film begins with two strange events. The first is when a couple are heard arguing violently in their apartment and the police are called. The couple is gone, but their dog has been viciously kicked to death--and the police assume the woman was murdered since some neighbor saw a man hauling away a large trunk nearby. The second involves a woman stalking another lady--you think there's going to be a murder, but a friend shows up and frightens away the attacker. The problem is, that the intended victim doesn't know she was almost killed. How does all this fit together? See the film for yourself to find out.For 1965, this is a rather scandalous film and must have caught audiences by surprise. I guessed the surprise twist--but that is because now in 2013, practically anything goes on TV and in films! My only serious complaint is that this twist was revealed a bit too early and impaired the suspense just a bit. Still, worth seeing and really strange for the time in which it was made.
melvelvit-1 Problem artist Jonathan Crane likes to beat barely dressed models with a belt in his L.A. studio and, apparently, carry on with his neighbor, the weird-looking Doris Mays, even though he has a pretty wife and expensive tract home in suburban San Diego. When the downstairs tenants of his L.A. complex have their orgy interrupted by sounds of violence coming from Miss Mays' apartment and later see a man putting a large trunk into his car, a police detective (John Ireland, who looks as though he'd rather be anywhere else) begins questioning, and then tailing, Jonathan. Meanwhile, in San Diego, Jonathan's wife notices a strange trunk in their garage and, unbeknownst to her, is being followed by a creepy-looking, knife-wielding woman... This Grade-C psycho-drama somehow manages to hold the interest in spite of itself. Made in the wake of PSYCHO, mommie-motivated "Doris Mays" looks about as much like a woman as Michael Caine does in DRESSED TO KILL (which the movie, as well as "Doris", also resembles) so there's very little in the way of surprises. On the plus-side, it's got a good deal of sexual swinging, spanking, stalking, a stabbing, childhood flashbacks, psychiatric mumbo-jumbo, dry-humping, and lots of topless babes in 60s hair-dos. A tad too long at 94 minutes and photographed in crisp B&W by director Ted V. Mikels (THE CORPSE GRINDERS), this "nightmare" of a movie "stars" a no-name cast (with the exception of a tired-looking John Ireland and Elena "House Of Frankenstein" Verdugo as Jonathan's boss). Gangster Mickey Cohen's girlfriend, stripper Liz "Desperate Living" Renay, appears (uncredited) as the lascivious "Mrs. Sisterman" ...get it?5/10 -but fun, nonetheless.
shepardjessica Nice locations and decent "daytime" cinematography in La Jolla, but a terrible low-grade exploitation flick..YUCK! Lots of booze bottles and tacky paintings in this movie. The father and son look to be the same age. The cross-dressing psycho is completely idiotic..he has such a pretty wife. What's his problem? Best line of dialogue - "People go crazy...every day people go crazy". What is John Ireland doing in this one? I know he made some bad flicks, but this is too much. Some nudity. A 2 out of 10. Best performance = Beverly Bain. Ms. Bain plays the attractive and very normal wife of the crazy. Elena Verdugo from MARCUS WELBY, M.D. has a small role as does Liz Renay from John Waters flicks.The Good Deed Mission guys are right out of the Bowery Boys. Not much to recommend here with the acting low-grade and repellent passivity of most of the characters, especially Mr. Ireland as the world-weary detective. Terrible!
thomandybish Contrary to what the plot summary says, this is NOT about a woman returning from the dead! The story concerns Jonathan Crane, an artist with a decidedly sick way of getting his models in the mood to pose. The movie opens with Jonathan having a topless lovely lay across a couch, then binding her ankles and wrists and beating her back with a belt while wailing, "Unclean!Unclean!" Ooohkaaay. To top THAT off, Jonathan's wife is being stalked by a mysterious woman who slips into the house and chases the wife out and through some woods. The wife is baffled as to who the woman is, but she's someone closer to Mrs. Crane than she realizes . . .A weird psychosexual drama with all kinds of dysfunctional kinkiness. In between the story concerning Jonathan's kinkiness and the mystery woman are some sleazy scenes including an orgy and a flashback revealing an adolescent sex encounter between Jonathan and an older woman that indicates where he got his taste for whipping from. Grotesquely fascinating.