Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

morrison-dylan-fan After finding The Age of Shadows to be an excellent choice,I took a look at the list of other titles set for the main part of the ICM Film Fest. Expecting all the Horror flicks to be limited to the "Horror section" of the fest,I was intrigued to spot a German Horror in the main line-up,which led to me getting set for a restless nights sleep.The plot:Returning from a rave with mates,Tina begins hearing strange sounds. Along with the noises, Tina starts to see a strange creature appear in all her dreams/nightmares. Telling mum and dad,Tina's family begin treating her for mental illness. As she loses all support and begins to experience a mental breakdown, the creature breaks out of Tina's dreams,and turns her reality into a nightmare.View on the film:Sculpting the movie over 13 years,writer/director/co-editor Akiz awakens Tina's nightmare with the abrasive use of strobe lighting and Rave music that stylishly crosses the line between Tina's dreams and reality. Filmed completely with natural light,Akiz gives the monster (who comes to life with terrific SFX) an impressive level of flexibility, with close-ups of the creatures face bringing out a warmth kept under wraps in the eerie wide-shots. Shaving into Tina's fragile mental state, Akiz explores her breakdown with darting tracking shots that enter the black hole of depression Tina is trapped in,with no sign of any family or friends putting their hands out to help. Joined by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon giving a good performance as Lehrerin, Carolyn Genzkow gives a terrific performance as Tina,with Genzkow appearing really at ease and natural when working with the creature SFX,and also getting under the fractured skin of Tina,whose partying outlook Genzkow peels away,as the nightmare destroys Tina's life. Blending dark horror fantasy with raw psychological drama,the screenplay by Akiz makes the genres feel ill at ease sitting next to each other. Leaving no room for ambiguity over the existence of the creature, Akiz gets Tina to take sudden leaps in logic,from her never attempting to capture the creature on camera, (despite playing with her mobile whilst around it a number of times) to leaving her room to call her parents to see the creature,instead of just calling them whilst in the room itself,where Tina's nightmare begins.

Invalid_ID_DI Against the indispensable backdrop of techno-psychedelic throbbing drug-infused party experiences, a teenage girl starts seeing a hyperstitional monster resembling a living-corpse embryo in her house, which wants to idle around, consume food and come closer to the girl. Alongside classical dynamism of sanity vs. craziness, there's an unique kind of isomorphism going on between the girl and monster — Tina is the monster and grows an attachment to it (when it's hurt, she feels the repercussions on her flesh and mind) — uncovering themes of self-image, uncertainty of pregnancy and relation to friends (especially the guy she has a crush on), making this a more intelligible coming-of-age film (she becomes 18). However the film is edited in a way to seem free and incomprehensible, in the sense that planes of reality, dream and perception are merged, such that for example scenes later in the film seem to occur as if those before didn't happen, vice versa, and so on. The hand-held camera always sweeps to make the viewer feel as a fellow party-goer or a ghost gliding next to the characters. The beginning already introduces a lot of ambiguity with its portrayal of a non-linear time disturbance that's very much related to plausible anxious visions happening on a reckless passionate party night, with its libidinal and death instincts, distinctive visceral flowing trajectories and trips, that fervently coalesce in this psychological rave film.

tatamiman Awesome film. I saw an excellent combination on the same evening, first a documentary titled Zen For Nothing, about a Swiss girl spending some 6 months at a zen monastery in japan. A very quiet film about finding yourself, some of the characters eventually experiencing a cathartic moment, letting their emotional demons out along the way, meditating, working or just chatting the rest of the time. I knew that Nachtmahr was going to be quite the opposite as I had read about the subject and the rave music and aggressive lights etc, but it was a total surprise to discover that it touched on a similar theme as the zen documentary.Of course the social environments are completely different and it is significant that Nachtmahr is about a teenager's emotional state and the two couldn't be stylistically more different, but nevertheless both films are about finding and asserting one's true self. I actually recommend watching the two as a sort of diptych as they really complement each other: on the one hand the silence, bells and zen chanting immersed in subdued natural winter light, on the other the wild aggressive rave beats and flashing colored electrical strobe lights. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the rave scenes, the visuals the structure or storytelling and the underlying humor as well as the "unpretentiousness" and obvious "not big budget productionness" of Der Nachtmahr. If you liked films like Morvern Callar, Aurora and David Lynch films, you'll like this.. It's not hard to find flaws if you're after the perfect festival winning movie but this film is not perfect and I loved that about it.

wdgnwas Der Nachtmahr is a unique and highly innovative genre film made in Germany. What starts out as a potential horror movie quickly turns into a very original piece of art featuring elements of different genres. It's like Donnie Darko and Black Swan were fused together to create something completely new.Tina (superbly portrayed by young German actress Carolyn Genzkow) is 17. All she is interested in are rave parties, drugs and a guy named Adam. One night she spots this strange little creature in the bushes that looks like ET's ugly brother (and ET wasn't a beauty himself). Tina seems to be the only one who is able to see that being that becomes an important part of her life...At the beginning of the film there are two warnings (which tell the audience to beware of both light and sound of the following movie) and a request that this movie should be experienced with high volume nonetheless. At that point I personally thought that these warnings were kind of empty and inserted to generate a dramatic feeling before the actual movie started…And boy, was I wrong. These dance scenes are extremely intense and unique, that's all I will tell you about that, go and experience it yourself!What stands out to me about the cinematographic approach of Der Nachtmahr is this melange of the typical German movie style which features extreme pragmatic and realistic dialogues and characters (90 % of German movies are made that way and most of them suck in my opinion) and these fantasy scenes where the Nachtmahr appears and disappears miraculously. These kind of opposite movie styles fuse throughout the film and there are several scenes where you start wondering what is going on, is it reality or some kind of dream sequence? It's not just that this film doesn't give clear answers to the questions you might have, it constantly tries to lure you in wrong directions…Der Nachtmahr is a splendid film with unique style and an extraordinary approach. You cannot watch it, you have to experience it.