Customer Reviews

The Outer Limits: Nightmare [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The tenth in the series, which is based on a `War Of The Worlds' theme, this episode was one of the most interesting episodes of The Outer Limits that I have seen.

Earth is in war with Planet Ebon, and some soldiers are captured in the new planet, and made prisoners. The Ebonites have powers in which they can control all the five senses of man, and use this to control the men. The Ebonites interrogate the men, one by one, for more information, by playing with their senses. One of the soldiers suddenly dies and the men fear that the Ebonites killed him. To make things worse, one of the men have turned traitor by leaking important information to the Ebonites. The men, once united, now turn against one another and start pointing fingers. There's Pvt. Arthur Dix (played by Martin Sheen) who sees hallucinations of his mother, and fears that he might have blurted the information to her; James Willowmore (played by Bill Gunn), who loses his sight and would do anything to get it back; Col. Luke Stone (played by Ed Nelson), who says he slept but might have been in a trace and leaked out the information; and Maj. Jong (played by James Shigeta) who is tortured in the chambers and could have said anything to stop. Who is the real traitor, and will these men ever be able to escape?

What started off as a battle between the Worlds, this episode soon turns into a psychological drama of finding the culprit; it shows the human nature of people under pressure, and how they would react to one another. The ending has its own twist too, as whom we thought as the enemies turn out to be harmless, and there is a more sinister conspiracy behind the incident. The acting of the entire cast was great, especially by James Shigeta and Ed Nelson. Martin Sheen overacted a bit and at times turned out to bee a little irritating.

To quote Vic Perrin (The Control Voice): "The exploration of human behavior under simulated conditions of stress is a common placed component of the machinery called War. So long as man anticipates and prepares for combat, be it with the neighboring nations or with our neighbors in space, these unreal games must be played; and there are only real men to play them. According to established military procedures, the results of the Ebon maneuvers will be recorded in books and fed into computers for the edification and enlightenment of all the strategists of the future. Perhaps they will learn something."

I first saw this on TNT one night when I was a kid. It was obviously low budget (like all of the other episodes) but triumphed because of it. The Ebonite make-up is freakish to say the least, the set's are almost Salvador Dali-esque in appearence, and the music is incredible. The story line for this episode is great as well, and the acting is superb. This episode is and always will be my favorite, and is a must fo any fan.

If you were to only watch one episode from the original series, this one ought to be it. There is much drama here and, as others have noted, convincing acting.

Sure, the sets and makeup are pretty basic, but the plot and acting make up for the low budget constraints of this episode.

Also, the episode is full of some intriguing zingers such as "They do not permit madness on Ebon", and "Death will truly be a mysterious adventure here" among others.

The irony in the plot is apparent when the Ebonite Interrogator demands an end to the immoral and "inhuman" experiment on the unfortunate POWs.

Many of the aliens or monsters in the series were basically humanoid in general appearance but with bizarre cranial development. The Ebonites are interesting looking aliens. I would rate the Ebonites up there with the games master of Andarra in "Fun and Games" as being the best of the weird aliens. (The gelatinous monsters of some other episodes just weren't convincing or entertaining for me. I guess it is hard to believe that a being that looks like a pile of crap is really intelligent.)

James Shigeda and John Anderson (the Interrogator) in this episode contribute some of the best acting in the series.

The Outer Limits that dares ask the question, "Who do you fear more? E.T.? Or your own government?"

Suffers somewhat from an obviously limited budget - though the limbo settings are remarkably effective, given the nature of the story - and from dated aspects in the script, but an intelligent and thought-provoking story.

This one is more about POW's and military psychological torture tests (which were going on at the time, and became something of a scandal in coming years) than about evil E.T.'s, though evil E.T.'s are pondered, as well. The makeup for the gargoyle-ish alien Ebonites is quite memorable and striking, as is the grating monotone of their halting, mechanoid voices. The cast is stellar, especially James Shigeta as a stoic major, Bill Gunn as a cruelly tortured and tricked lieutenant, and Martin Sheen as a too-true-blue-to-be-true All-American private.

Gripping, powerful drama. Better than the remake in the new OL.

I agree with the other reviewers that this episode was one of the best from the original series. I saw this as a kid when it first aired and again in a re-run. "Nightmare" has stuck in my mind for 40 years now.

The idea of a United Earth, with men of all races, fighting an enemy that resembles Satan himself was the hook of the story. Yet, as events unfold we find that the cruel Ebonites may not exactly be the Aliens of inhuman brutality we first think they are, as they go about torturing the Earth men for information.
There motivation actually coming from a very human source.

This well acted Sci-Fi is well worth watching again. It explores moral issues on the question, is torture and humilation of a POW justified, even for a so called greater purpose?

In light of the recent 21st Century Iraqi nightmare prison scandal "Nightmare" should be viewed by neo-conservatives and any other Americans who believe the "Geneva Convention" rules need not apply, as they use "immoral and inhuman" methods to extract information from captured human beings.

This episode of the Outer Limits directed by John Erman is regarded as a "tour de force of ensemble acting", which isn't surprising given Erman's later work in TV with titles like An Early Frost and the Ann Margret A Streetcar named Desire. The reason that the performances are so notable is that the setup is very theatrical, with 6 soldiers reacting to what they believe is alien interrogation by the Ebonites, and the acting pitched to a level of hysteria where everyone has a turn at yelling. Although the teleplay by Joseph Stefano incorporates the bomber squadron mentality of racial representation, it also includes funny lines like "An uneducated man rarely refuses the opportunity to speak", and "A man who chooses men in arms over the arms of a beautiful woman is not a particularly natural man", even if the speaker is the "poetry reciting" wise oriental. Stefano uses bureaucratic doublespeak with interrogation being "explorative interview" and coercion as "the first to accept our invitation". Tagging Martin Sheen as having a "self destruction complex" with "too much Mom in his eyes" reeks of 1950's Freudian psychology, and the observation of someone suffering a "complete nervous breakdown" from the stress of the situation is contextually ludicrous. A parallel is made with the prisoners of war in the Korean conflict, where it is said that the prisoners offered no resistance and were easily persuaded to inform. The treatment uses the human qualities of suspicion and mistrust to show how the environment creates conflict within the group, a problem to be overcome before the men can join offences against the common foe. However considering that what is at stake seems so artificial, this undermines the level of threat posed by the interrogators, even if the men's uniforms bear the UE letters of Unified Earth. The Chinese Communist Manchurian Candidate brain-washing connection is best presented by the Ebonites ability of creating memory hallucinations, with the figures presented as Mom, Grandfather and Governness in campy fashion. Erman uses an interesting monotone soundscape which suggests both sci fi and the deadening of brain cells in lieu of a music, and replaces Conrad Hall's romantic lighting with the more realistic John Nickolaus, where the entrance of an Ebonite is accompanied by darkness. I also like how the satanic bat-winged gargoyle-like bodystocking-wearing Ebonites remain enigmatic, the intolerance for their human subjects amusing. Sheen come off best acting-wise, displaying his range and particularly entertaining when he is struck mute, but David Frankham's Engish accent is inconsistent, noticably when it is his turn to yell.

Filmed on a stark, almost bare stage, Nightmare belies it's low budget with bizarre, dreamlike atmosphere, powerfully paranoid suspence, and almost unbelievably good ensemble acting. Outer Limits fans sometimes overlook this one. Don't miss it.

One of the better episodes of the series and maybe, just maybe, the most memorable. The whole episode deals with the interrogation of human soldiers by am alien army called Ebonites. The sheer starkness of the set and coldness of everything is very effective, giving it a dreamlike quality. The prisoners are interrogated one-by-one because they have information that the Ebonites (and others) need. When the plans are exposed to the Ebonites about the next wave of soldiers arriving, the 5 remaining members of the party believe they have been betrayed by one of their own. I don't want to give anyway if you have not watched the episode, so I will seal my lips now.

thank you for your time, David

The title says it all in this one

I was a little disappointed when watching the much-touted NIGHTMARE episode online. The acting and the lighting are good. The Ebonites would definately give children a scare. That said, I think, whatever merits of this story by Joseph Stefano, are sabotaged by a weak third act which lets all the air out of the balloon. It's almost like those stories where we find out it was all just a dream. Almost. But other than that, it was interesting to watch. (And a young Martin Sheen was already a better actor than his sons would ever be!) It probably could have played better as an hour and a half or two episode show.