1983 Directed by Don McBrearty
A man investigates the disappearance of his sister with the help of her roommate. He uncovers a trail of prostitution, incest, blackmail...and murder.
Amerikan painajainen, Pesadilla americana, Un cauchemar américain, Amerikan Kabusu, 美国噩梦
Canada
USAR
Canada
USA
Sleazy slasher about a killer stalking strippers and hookers as a man searches for his missing sister. Plays out more like an American giallo (or North American, at least) with its amateur sleuthing, gloved killer, straight razor slashings and excessive sleaze. Comes close to being one of the rare occasions where I feel like there's too much nudity in a slasher (such as Possession or Shadows Run Black) except it feels fitting for how grimy the movie is. Still, replace a strip scene or two with a couple additional kills and I would have liked it more.
Letterboxd has this listed as available on Tubi but links you to a different American Nightmare. The DVD is out of print and overpriced so your best bet for seeing this one is YouTube.
letterboxd.com/zombifan/list/hooptober-666hooptober-on-steroids/
letterboxd.com/zombifan/list/horrorthon2019/
Hooptober 6.. Decades 1980s
Mondo Cinema is the number one source for sleaze cinema...the movies we talk about aren't showing on the fucking Halmark channel.
American Nightmare...1981
From the happy land of Canada, comes a slasher flick so down beat it's almost black, and so sleazy that you may have to shower immediately after watching it.
American Nightmare (Although it takes place in Toronto, go figure.)
Eric (Lawrence Day) roams the city looking for his missing sister. (She dies 2 minutes in, we know that but he dont.)
Along the way he meets tough guy cop Michael Ironside.
Together they uncover a web of sex, murder, incest, and greed.
Also as an added bonus there are approximately 800…
Daily Horror Scavenger Hunt 8 – February 2019 Day 4: Watch a Canadian Slasher.
You can clearly see the CN Tower in the background. Maybe they mean the American the way that some non-North American countries refer to all of us as Americans? Like North Americans? Because this sure doesn't take place in the good ole U.S. of A. They don't even try to hide it as there is a mention of a Greyhound bus coming in from Oshawa over a loundspeaker. I only mention this because A.) I knew this was filmed in T.O. and I knew it was called American Nightmare, so I felt the need to pick it apart and look for landmarks. "See? It's not an…
Scuzzy giallo-like that is in fact not American but Canadian, hoser accents and sexploitation in spades. Very much not my jam.
American Nightmare or more appropriately Canadian Nightmare since this was definitely filmed in Toronto.
Dark, gritty and sleazy 80s slasher that was refreshing after all the random b movies I've been watching. I have a lot of nostalgia associated with Canadian horror films from this time period. Growing up near Toronto contributes a lot to that. And my love for Degrassi Jr high of course.
The bad quality copy I watched also added a nice gritty feel that actually worked in this film's favor. Seeing Michael Ironside also made me feel like I was watching an early Cronenberg film (obviously nowhere near as good though).
Add this to the more obscure Canadian horror gems floating around out there like Black Roses and Deadly Eyes.
Just another super sleazy Giallo to throw in the pile. Has probably the dankest strip club ever, lady riding on a pitchfork while the citizens of not Toronto yell out “show us your beaver, eh” The world famous CN Tower in New York. Canada, No Tower.
Toronto After Dark. Canadian HARDCORE with a giallo twist that’s certainly only for the most curious sleaze aficionados. The old Scorpion Releasing DVD makes the movie feel even scummier, as it looks like it was sourced from a 16mm print that was found in a dumpster full of poutine and never cleaned. On the plus side: young Michael Ironside shows up as a cop! Granted, he’s not given anything to do, but bored Ironside is still better than no Ironside.
One of the scuzziest and cheapest giallo movies I have seen, but it just adds to the charm of it along with those thick Canadian accents.
Canuck Giallo, didn't know it was a thing but glad I discovered it. Could have used more Michael Ironside.
A (North) American Nightmare obviously filmed in Toronto and distributed by “Pan Canadian”, whose logo appears before the opening credits. This one has a real dirty, seedy, unpolished look. At times it reminded me of the sleazier streets of Manhattan circa 1983, and the interior shots are reminiscent of another seedy unpolished horror film, Basket Case.
A man is looking for his missing sister with the half-hearted help of some of her stripper associates. What we know from the start that they don’t is that she was murdered in the first scene. So I guess the premise is how many more victims will there be before the brother catches on and maybe catches the killer.
The runtime is padded significantly…
