Nightmare

Haunted by visions of her deranged mother, a young girl (Jennie Linden) slips slowly into madness.

Nightmare is worth watching. This may not be apparent from the film’s opening which, despite the great crisp black and white photography, quickly devolves into an exercise in patience with Jennie Linden.

Linden, who replaced Julie Christie at the last minute, is over the top from the very beginning, and her incessant screaming becomes something of an endurance test. Director Freddie Francis is clearly better suited directing the camera then the performers, as he’s unable or unwilling to reign Linden in, a mistake that nearly ruins the film.

That said, if you stick it out, Nightmare gets much better.

The script by Jimmy Sangster is clever and tense, with a plot tricky enough to keep you guessing, but creditable enough to be at least somewhat believable, and while Francis may not be an actor’s director, he is a top-notch cinematographer capable of crafting some really gripping gothic atmosphere.