"American Nightmare" review

American Nightmare (2002)

Director: Jon Keeyes
Writer: Jon Keeyes

Debbie Rochon ... Jane Toppan
Brandy Little ... Jessie McClain
Johnny Sneed ... Wayne Holcomb
Heather Haase ... Melanie Ryan
Rebecca Stacey ... Misty McClain
Brinke Stevens ... Lisa

A bunch of friends are hanging out on Halloween. Some weirdo on the radio wants to know all about their darkest fears. They decide to call him up and tell him what scares them. The usual movie-related fears roll out: Being buried alive, attacked in the shower, voodoo curses, etc. These people are students of horror movies even though they’ve been scarred for life from them. Someone else has been paying close attention to their list of horrors. She has been waiting for this day so she can shove the things that terrorize them down their throats. A dark haired killer named Jane is stalking them one by one and won’t stop until they’ve all suffered.

“American Nightmare” showcases Debbie Rochon at her best. She’s Crazy Jane stalking her prey so she can scare them to death with their deepest fears. Her dark haired, seductive look is perfect in this one. One guy is afraid of dying during sex. Thank God Crazy Jane is here to help him meet his maker. She doesn’t have time for sex when there are so many more deserving cretins that need to die. But Debbie does give us a topless scene so all is not lost.

What’s interesting about “American Nightmare” is how it shows us what Debbie Rochon is capable of. This is probably the best Debbie Rochon flick I’ve seen yet and I’ve seen a lot of Debbie in my day. “American Nightmare” gives her an interesting character to work with and lets her use her sex appeal to great effect as the seductive Jane.

But what it really shows us is that Rochon needs to stop wasting time taking a cameo in every low budget movie that comes along and try to find more flicks like this one. I can think of two LANDFILLS off the top of my head that she didn’t need to be in. Two disasters named “Bog Creatures” and “Corpses are Forever” that stunk so badly that even Debbie couldn’t save it. Its movies like those that start to wear down the goodwill that is generated by seeing her name on a video box. But it’s a cool horror flick like “American Nightmare” that makes seeing her name a thrill.

Of course, “American Nightmare” is not a perfect movie but for a low budget B-flick it’s pretty good. It moved right along and didn’t get tied down on any unnecessary filler scenes. One thing that is lacking is the amount of blood and gore. There is barely any blood in this one and certainly no gore to speak of. A lot of the killings happen off screen which was disappointing. But Crazy Debbie was a sight to see and kept the movie humming along with her psychotic need for Halloween homicides. “American Nightmare” is worth a look.

SCORE: 3 out of 4 crazy Debbies