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Runaway Nightmare
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: June 30th, 2014.
Director: Mike Cartel
Cast: Mike Cartel, Al Valletta, Seeska Vandenberg
Year: 1982
Purchase From Diabolik DVD
The Movie:
Written, directed, edited by and starring Mike Cartel (who appeared in Pets!), 1982's Runaway Nightmare is aptly titled. While at first glance it might seem like a typical early eighties horror movie it turns out to be a film that cares not for logic or consistency instead preferring to focus on the unpredictable and the absurd.
The movie begins out in the desert where two worm farmers, Ralph (Cartel) and Jason (Al Valletta), are complaining about their boring, pedestrian lives. Shortly after this conversation they spot two men burying an oblong box out in the desert sands. When the men split, our two heroes dig up the box and find a beautiful blonde woman (Seeska Vandenberg), still breathing, inside. They take her back to their ranch and are then confronted by a small army of gun toting beauties who have come to reclaim their lost friend. They bring Ralph and Jason back to their compound with them and lock them up until they can figure out just what to do with these two men.
It turns out that these women are all members of a strange cult lead by a woman named Hesperia (Cindy Donlan). The blonde the guys saved was named Fate and she had been working alongside a criminal cartel that screwed her and the rest of the women out of a fortune in contraband platinum. Hesperia decides that Ralph and Jason will be initiated into the group to help them get the platinum back and exact their revenge. Ralph just wants to split, the ladies aren't interested in him and he's tired of being treated like a prisoner, while Jason makes time with pretty much every member of the cult.
This is one of those movies that shouldn't work, but does. There's no suspense here, no real scares at all and not a whole lot of atmosphere. The film doesn't bother with much in the way of exploitative content even in the scenes where it looks like it should (don't get your hopes up for any nudity, kids) nor does it deal in excessive gore or violence. The plot jumps around from one absurd point to the next and the pacing, while not slow, is at the very least unorthodox. The low budget with which the movie was made is obvious in every frame and most of the acting is pretty awful.
So what makes it watchable? Well, first and foremost, Mike Cartel himself and the sheer random insanity of it all. Cartel, who looks like a weird cross between Peter Cushing and Nicholas Cage and who sounds a little bit like Jimmy Stewart, spends most of the time looking (intentionally) confused and delivering sarcastic retorts to the various demands of his captors. While Jason is enjoying his stay and making time with the women, Ralph is put down and denied any real physical contact. Both men are subjected to strange training rituals - the obvious one being where they have to load and unload cardboard boxes for some reason - and while they're doing that the women are having bizarre pistol duals, showering together and playing pinball. Add to this a strange element of pseudo-vampirism, a painting that may or may not actually be coming to life and some somewhat dangerous looking amateur hour stunt work and you're left with a movie that defies logic and expectation with equal disdain but which somehow succeeds in entertaining in spite of itself.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Runaway Nightmare is presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.85.1 widescreen scanned in 4k from the original 35mm negative and it looks great. The image is quite clean looking but the film's grainy, film-like qualities are left entirely intact. As such, the disc offers up a transfer that would seem very true to the movie's low budget roots but which definitely takes advantage of the higher resolution Blu-ray offers. Colors are reproduced very nicely, lots of bright reds in a few scenes and drab browns and dusty hues of the desert making for odd contrast. Detail is generally very good, with some scenes looking softer and/or grainier than others (mostly the scenes shot indoors in the dark) but most appearing quite clean and sharp without any evidence of artificial boosting or tweaking. There's still evidence of print damage throughout the movie but never in a way that distracts or takes away from the film. Texture looks really good and skin looks like skin, never waxy or overly pink. Given the film's history, it's hard to imagine it looking a whole lot better than it does here, and in fact, it really does look quite amazing.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD Mono track, there are no alternate language options or subtitles provided for the picture. The audio presumably sounds about as good as it's going to get and all in all it sounds fine. Dialogue is easily discernable and the film's quirky score sounds pretty decent. There are no issues with any hiss or distortion and the levels are properly balanced. This is understandably a bit limited in range but there's nothing to complain about here, the movie sounds quite good.
The main extra on the disc is a commentary track with writer/director/editor/actor Mike Cartel, actress Mari Cartel, film historian Howard Berger and Vinegar Syndrome's Joe Rubin. The levels are a little lower here than on the feature so you'll need to turn it up but this is a pretty interesting track that basically tells you everything that you'd want to know about this cinematic oddity. Mike Cartel does most of the talking here, discussing how and why it took him so long to finish this project and explain some of the issues that he and his team ran into during production. He also shares some stories about the locations, about the cast members and how some of them have gone on to be pretty prolific, and about the film's cinematography and production values. He rightly gives credit where it's due to those who helped create this odd movie's unique look and he also talks about where some of the ideas came from. Mari Cartel shares her thoughts on the film as well and chimes in throughout while Rubin and Berger keep the pair on topic and chatting pretty consistently throughout.
Additionally, the Blu-ray includes approximately three and a half minutes worth of alternate scenes that were shot and added to the VHS release of the movie, which is basically comprised of some bonus nudity edited into certain scenes to spice things up a bit. Cartel had nothing to do with this material and no one seems to know who the actresses used in these clips are, but it's great to see the material included here. Outside of that we get static menus and chapter selection and as this is a combo pack release a DVD version of the movie including the same extras is also included inside the case.
The Final Word:
Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray release of Runaway Nightmare is a very respectful presentation of an incredibly bizarre film. This one is all over the place, mixing elements of traditional horror movies with corny comedy, hokey suspense and crime thrillers all shot and put together with loads of inexplicable low budget charm. The commentary is a solid extra and the presentation top notch.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
