Customer Reviews

Nightman, The [VHS]

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The usually June Cleaveresque Joanna Kerns takes a turn at steamy soft erotic drama in THE NIGHTMAN, directed by Charles Haid ("Renko" of "Hill Street Blues" fame).

The story concerns the sexual competitiveness of Kerns, as the mother/older woman proprietress of a run-down lakeside summer hotel, and Jenny Robertson as her daughter/Lolita. Both women vy for the attention of Ted Marcoux, who plays the young, irresistibly virile handyman/night manager of the hotel.

Kerns is unbelievably sensual and indubitably bitchy in her role, while the gamine Robertson fairly oozes hormones. Marcoux, as the Nightman of the title, is trapped between them, and is forced to make a choice. It is a decision which comes back to haunt him eighteen years later, when Robertson, now a psychologist, confronts him about occurrences at the hotel that long-ago humid summer.

Underrated, low-budget, and peopled with unknowns, without being explicit THE NIGHTMAN nonetheless manages to maintain a level of moody, stimulating tension throughout, which is hardly matched by most "adult" films.