Review: 'Runaway Nightmare'

Title: RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE
Year: 1982
Director: Mike Cartel
Writer: Mike Cartel
Starring: Mike Cartel, Al Valletta, Seeska Vandenberg, Cindy Donlan

RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE is one of the most oddly fascinating movies I have ever seen. The whole time I was watching I was never quite sure what was going on but something was keeping me hooked. The plot doesn’t really make sense, but it’s got something going for it. What that something is, I can’t tell you, but its fun!

So the plot, as far as I could tell, centers around two worm farmers in Nevada. Yes, two worm farmers. That should tell you everything you need to know, right? Because what the hell are worm farmers? Anyway, moving on, these warm farmers are kidnapped by a group of girls.

The girls lock the nerdy fellows in a basement for a while and then turn them into sex slaves. The plan of course is to use these worm farmers to help them steal plutonium from the mafia. Also vampires are somehow included. I think. This all makes sense, right?

The best part of all this is that everyone is so casual. No matter what is going on the response from all parties involved is basically "ok." People sort of question what is going on but no one ever really seems too concerned.

At this point you're probably very confused as to what is going on in RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE and that's ok. We're all confused. I'm pretty Mike Cartel is confused and he started, wrote and directed the film. It's just a weird movie full of weirdness.

Some friends of mine used to always come up with these "what if" scenarios. They'd walk by an abandoned house and one of them would say, "what if that house was haunted with ghosts that want to rip our heads off and drink our blood?" The appropriate response to that would be, "yeah but what if these ghosts are hot lesbians and they want us to watch them make out?"

The scenarios would always end the same with hot lesbians making out. I like to think RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE was conceived from one of these "what if" scenarios.

Despite making little too no sense, RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE is strangely charming. This is the type of movie that screams cult status. It's the perfect example of the type of films Vinegar Syndrome (they did a beautiful job with this release, the film looks great) tracks down and unleashes upon the world. It's a movie to watch with a group of friends so that when something bizarre happens you can confirm with your party that it did indeed happen.

RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE is far from perfect but it is certainly unique. I always find it incredibly interesting that movies like this were able to get made. If you're weird like me you may be intrigued as well.

Rating: 3/5

*Own RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE today: http://vinegarsyndrome.com/launch/?product=limited-edition-runaway-nightmare-bddvd-combo