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A movie review by Robert Long II ©2016
Starring Zoe Myers, Michael Ford, Sarah E. Spencer, Shannon Stough, Brian Schwartz, Starlin Britt, Chase Smith, Mindy Hylton, Jon Bailey
Written and Directed by Chase Smith
100 minutes
Released through Midnight Screenings/Brain Damage Films
Synopsis: A beautiful young Hollywood starlet named Candle Summers (Zoe Myers) leases a beautiful mansion from its mysterious owner. The actress signs her lease and celebrates her new digs with her two girlfriends. But is her dream house turning into a nightmare?
Our main heroine experiences strange noises, drafts, and water taps that constantly drip. This leaves our actress shaken and sleep-deprived. She also is starting to think she sees a dark cloaked figure lurking about the house, but chalks it off to drinking wine and being tired. Strange men show up at her doorstep and vanish. Candle really starts to lose it and has nightmares within nightmares within nightmares.
This film is of the slow burn variety, ramping up the spookiness and tension over its running time. Overall, Hollywood Nightmare is moody and well shot. This is presented widescreen, and a few times the framing is such that you think something is going to happen in the background, but doesn’t. This movie foreshadows that there will be some supernatural elements coming forth by the end.
The acting is fine from the actors involved. This is a very small budgeted movie so the filmmakers try to make the most of the main location and the atmosphere. At 100 minutes it does drag a bit here and there (Candle has a LOT of trying to get to sleep scenes) so a tighter cut of the film would benefit the viewing audience.
I thought I saw the ending coming a mile away, as the movie is not subtle in certain areas. However I was happy to see a rather clever twist come about in the last five minutes that saved the movie from ending as a trite cliche. Good job there!
If there is a problem, it would be that the three female leads look almost identical. They are all young, attractive long-haired brunettes with similar bone structure, so there were times I got confused as to who was whom.
FINAL RATING: 6 out of 10 booga boogas. Brain Damage Films has really been a mixed bag of product in the past – in as far as the quality of films they distributed. I am glad that as of late they are providing much better movies for the buying public. I would recommend this as a watch, so head on over to their website and find out when it will be released!