The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Nightmare
Thriller · Horror · Mystery · 1964
A young woman is plagued by nightmares of her asylum-patient mother. Upon returning to her family home, the nightmares become real when she sees a strange woman pacing the halls.
Movie details
Nightmare
“THREE SHOCKING MURDERS...did she DREAM them? ...or DO them?”
1964 Thriller · Horror · Mystery 1h 23m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
A young woman is plagued by nightmares of her asylum-patient mother. Upon returning to her family home, the nightmares become real when she sees a strange woman pacing the halls.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Nightmare?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The Night Walker
Thriller · 1964
A woman is haunted by recurring nightmares, which seem to be instigated by her late husband who supposedly was killed in a fire.
The Night Visitor
Thriller · 1971
An insane Swedish farmer escapes from an asylum to get revenge on his sister, her husband and others.
Burnt Offerings
Horror · 1976
A family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.
Night Watch
Mystery · 1973
A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.
Mermaid Down
Horror · 2019
A mermaid is ripped from the ocean by a fishing crew only to be tortured and to have her tail cut off. A seemingly helpful stranger intervenes, but then locks her away in an institution for mentally disturbed young women, where no one believes she is a mermaid. With no way out, she is forced to count on her survival instincts, and fight for her life at all costs.
The Invisible
Fantasy · 2007
After an attack leaves him in limbo -- invisible to the living and also near death -- a teenager discovers the only person who might be able help him is his attacker.
The Mean Season
Mystery · 1985
A routine investigation of a shocking murder takes a bizarre twist when the killer contacts the reporter and appoints him his personal spokesman. As the killer's calls and clues increase, the reporter is lured into a deadly trap.
The Cellar
Horror · 2022
When Keira Woods' daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house in the country, she soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family's souls forever.
Peeping Tom
Horror · 1960
Loner Mark Lewis works at a film studio during the day and, at night, takes racy photographs of women. Also he's making a documentary on fear, which involves recording the reactions of victims as he murders them. He befriends Helen, the daughter of the family living in the apartment below his, and he tells her vaguely about the movie he is making.
Fear in the Night
Mystery · 1972
It took Peggy Heller a long time to recover from the trauma of a brutal physical assault, suffered in her youth. When she married Robert, he provided her with the love and reassurance she craved for and the two settled down in a pretty house in the grounds of the public school where Robert was a master. But the headmaster of the school is not what he seems and Peggy is convinced he means to harm her - is her fear a figment of her tortured imagination or are there forces at work that intend to manipulate her anxieties with fatal consequences?
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Freddie Francis
Written by
Jimmy Sangster
David Knight
Henry Baxter
Moira Redmond
Grace Maddox
Jennie Linden
Janet Freeman
Brenda Bruce
Mary Lewis
George A. Cooper
John
I
Irene Richmond
Mrs. Gibbs
Timothy Bateson
Hotel Bartender
Court is in session
Put Nightmare on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.