Nightwish — Nightwish(Blu Ray)
From 1989 Nightwish was written and directed by Bruce R Cook- whose only other directorial credit was little seen 1984 crime/ comedy The Census Taker, which featured a soundtrack from avant pop collective The Residents. I think to be fair/ frank Nightwish is somewhat of a mess- sure the acting and effects are captured well enough, but the pacing/ plotting is all over the place. The film often teases it’s going to kick-in with either a good batch of effects, explanation, or focus- but it’s not until the last quarter the film truly kicks into high gear with some effectively creative special effects and some feeling of jeopardy.
The plot finds a group of grad students taking part in dream testing, and investigating a house that is either haunted, the landing spot of aliens, or a satanic ritual hot spot. I guess you’d say it’s a below-par mix of From Beyond & The X Files, with touches of female flesh, uneven acting, and some impressive dripping, cracking and twisted special effects which do feel ahead of their time- and really that’s the one reason to watch the film through, which at times feels way longer than it’s one hour and a half runtime. I have to say as a whole I found Nightwish most frustrating- as it often feels like it’s ramping up to something, going to become somehow coherent & not keep throwing more & more stuff at you- but for most of it’s runtime it gives you either- I guess it’s down to ones patient for rather ham-fisted what's real/ not real cinematic brew.
Moving onto this new Blu ray reissue- and first off the release comes in a glossy slip sleeve, with this featuring slightly different artwork from the Blu ray case. Also with the release, we get a glossy & full color twenty-four inlay booklet- this opens with a two-page write-up about the film from Art Ettinger of Ultra Violent Magazine. After this, we get production notes about the cast and director- and a tone of great stills from the film, including of course effects shots. On the disc, we, of course, get the film, which gets a good and even 4k transfer- there’s a commentary track from the films executive producer Paul White and Unearthed films Stephen Biro, and this is a chatty- if at times little awkward track. White comes across a little dry, and forgetful- Biro tries to push the whole thing on, but it is a rather sporadic track- the pair discuss the locations, the scripts origins, funding, actors, etc- on the whole, is an ok commentary, but very much a one play track. We also get a photo gallery & original trailer.
I’d say if you enjoyed messed-up 1980’s film that sits somewhere between horror & sci-fi then maybe give this a go- as it may click better with you than it did with me. Equally, if you're interested in ahead of their time effects this is worth picking up. Unearthed have certainly done a good job of this reissue- I just wish personally the film had done a bit more for me.