American Nightmare

There are quite a few American Nightmare-named films, but the one I’m reviewing is the mid-80’s slasher produced in Canada. When a young prostitute disappears (although we know she’s been brutally murdered), her rich brother goes looking for her, since there is a killer whipping off the strippers at a particular strip joint. Will the young man be able to find out what happened to her sister on time, and at the same time be able to protect Louise (Lora Staley), the pretty stripper he’s fallen for? And will the policeman, played by the always awesome Michael Ironside, be able to help?
This movie is definitely an underrated gem in the sea of slasher films of the early eighties. It was produced by the same team that gave us Happy Birthday To Me and My Bloody Valentine, although here the budget is way smaller. The main attraction to this film is the female cast, particularly Lora Staley, who is great in her role as the main stripper who is worried to death about what happened to her roommate. But not to be undone, we get Michael Ironside, one of my favorite badass character actors, here playing a good guy for a change. And he’s great in it too, I wish I would have seen him more of these kinds of roles. The suspense is spot on and the cinematography is gritty as fuck, making you feel like you really are living in a sordid underworld.
Curiously enough, this movie has tons of nudity. Not that it should change your opinion on whether a movie is good or not, but it seems you can’t go twenty minutes without watching a topless striptease. And for that, I salute this film, for being ballsy enough to keep it where it counts. One of the nudes is Alexandra Paul, who would go on to work in Baywatch. The murders are pretty violent as well, and bloody but in a realistic way. So if you want a slasher movie that delivers on the goods but you probably haven’t seen, this comes highly recommended.