Great horror movies stick with us because they have a great story and a chilling underlying fear sitting under the surface to stick with us. Subpar horror films have the story, but lack the underlying fear. Bad horror films lack both. NIGHTMARE CODE is a subpar horror film. The same problem afflicted this this year’s highly acclaimed IT FOLLOWS, but in reverse order. It had the deep seeded fear, but lacked the storytelling chops to actually do anything with those. NIGHTMARE CODE lacks the deep seeded fear. NIGHTMARE CODE is the story of Brett Desmond (a surprisingly excellent Andrew J. West) , a convicted ex-hacker who is brought into finish a code with a team of experts. The code in question is thought to have cause the last lead coder to
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The entire film is found footage mostly shot from an angle of a character facing a computer screen. Much of the runtime represented on a frame with four cameras running at the same time. A four square isn’t exactly ideal for a close to the belt horror thriller. Throughout the entire film there’s a sense that if the filmmakers had used a more dynamic camera the film may have been much more exciting. It also all but cripples the relationship between the people working on the project not really allowing them to feel bonded as a team. The performances offered here are actually pretty good though. Andrew J. West brings a nice everyman performance, and he keeps the film believable as the story becomes more and more preposterous. The other notable here is Googy Gress playing the villain of the piece Foster Cotton. Gress doesn’t actually fight the preposterous nature of the story, he dives in head first, and benefits from it. That’s the problem with the other actors who NIGHTMARE CODE has an original and somewhat refreshing story, but lacks a sense of fear or tension because of the filmmaking choices made. It’s a subpar debut for director Mark Netter, but there’s still promise in the enticing stories he could bring to the
The entire film is found footage mostly shot from an angle of a character facing a computer screen. Much of the runtime represented on a frame with four cameras running at the same time. A four square isn’t exactly ideal for a close to the belt horror thriller. Throughout the entire film there’s a sense that if the filmmakers had used a more dynamic camera the film may have been much more exciting. It also all but cripples the relationship between the people working on the project not really allowing them to feel bonded as a team. The performances offered here are actually pretty good though. Andrew J. West brings a nice everyman performance, and he keeps the film believable as the story becomes more and more preposterous. The other notable here is Googy Gress playing the villain of the piece Foster Cotton. Gress doesn’t actually fight the preposterous nature of the story, he dives in head first, and benefits from it. That’s the problem with the other actors who NIGHTMARE CODE has an original and somewhat refreshing story, but lacks a sense of fear or tension because of the filmmaking choices made. It’s a subpar debut for director Mark Netter, but there’s still promise in the enticing stories he could bring to the