AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

Written and Directed by Jon Keeyes.
Produced by Richard T. Carey and Jon Keeyes
Edited by Robert J. Castaldo
Director of Photography - Brad Walker

Jane Toppin - Debbie Rochon
Jessie McClain - Brandy Little
Wayne Holcolm - Johnny Sneed
Caligari - Chris Ryan

My list of favorite things from Texas is a pretty short one: Joe Lansdale short stories, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and maybe the sunsets over the desert out near El Paso. You can add Jon Keyees' AMERICAN NIGHTMARE to that list. It's 90 minutes of horrific delight finely smartly wrapped in a tight, energetic package.

Anyone who has had read my reviews knows of my unbridled lust for Debbie "uber-cutie" Rochon. She's all dark hair, long legs, and ear-to-ear-grinning sweetness with a heaping spoonful of naughtiness thrown in for good measure. However, my views on her acting have not always been so complimentary. Abducted 2 comes instantly to mind. I think I said she was miscast and lacked range. What was I thinking, as if her co-stars, Grizzly Adams and Airwolf, were any better.

Rage. Psychosis. Fear. Hatred. Debbie embodies everything dark within the human soul and uses it to scare the hell out of you. Her introduction is as intense and chilling as anything I've ever seen. Like my hero Roger Ebert says, "a thriller is only as good as the bad guy." As Jane Toppin, Debbie Rochon is sexy, unrepentant evil.

Director Jon Keeyes doesn't take the conventional approach to the serial killer film. He owes more to Hitchcock than John Carpenter or Sean Cunningham. Suspense takes precedence to fright. It's not so much "when" or "where" will Toppin strike, but "how" and "to whom."

The set up is pure self-reflexive Scream-territory. While listening to a deejay on a pirate radio station go on about fears, a group of friends spend Halloween eve quoting their favorite horror films. Toppin too is listening, and has a vendetta against the group. In true horror film style, everyone starts dropping like flies as they prepare for a night partying down.

While not explicitly graphic in the gore department, some of the violence is still brutal and horrific. There's a chilling scene where Toppin buries one of the group alive. As Toppin dances in rage on the grave, all we hear on the soundtrack are the buried woman's screams of terror and fading heartbeat. The scene goes on much longer than it should and grows more and more nerve-racking by the moment. That image has haunted me more than anything else I've seen in recent memory.

Moments like that are what gives the film its power. It transcends the other films hogging rental space at Blockbuster to achieve something more, a sense of purpose. With up and comers like Jon Keyees making horror films this well, it's just a matter of time before a changing of the guard takes place and masters like Romero, Hooper, and Carpenter are relieved from their spots at the head of the table.

American Nightmare
GC Magazine

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