Nightmare Sisters

Ok first off I am going to admit I have never seen Nightmare Sisters before.  I have heard of it, and of course I am familiar with the girls, primarily Linnea Quigley, the best straight to video scream queen of all time in my opinion. So when I heard the fine folks over at Vinegar Syndrome were going to be releasing this I knew it was something I had to see.

Nightmare Sisters is the story of 3 nerd girls.  Played by Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer.  There homely, can’t get dates, have no real life, nothing really going for them.  Desperate they decide to throw a party and invite some nerd guys.  Seems like a good plan.  

The party is basically like the Lambda’s party in Revenge of the Nerds until Booger pulled out the wonder joints.  These girls don’t have those so they pull out a magic crystal ball and decide to liven things up by having a séance. Problem being the crystal ball is cursed and the 3 become possessed by a succubus.

Now this, at least for the audience is not a bad thing.  Se the girls suddenly become hot, they even take a nice long bath together to get ready to go out and kill there nerd dates as well as some of the nerds horney frat brothers. Lots of nice little gore shots and an ample amount of nudity and hilarity ensues as all the guys have to fight not only there primal urges but the fact they will be murdered by 3 hot chicks.

This film is the epitome of low budget.  It was shot over 4 days’ time with the cast and crew of Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl A Rama.  It was all filmed in the producers house and the cast basically wore their own cloths and did their own make up.  It had a budget of 40,000.00 which is low even by 80’s straight to video horror.  However this was the market the film was intended for. 

Unfortunately things did not go as planned and the distributor went bankrupt.  I believe less than 2,000 tapes were ever sent out.  Apparently though USA Up All Night showed the film once minus the bathtub scene but I have never come across that airing.  Fortunately the 3 girls, especially Linnea Quigley became quite popular in the horror market.  Some of the scenes from this were actually inserted into her workout tape she put out years back.

The notoriety caused the film to slowly grow a large cult following.  A DVD was issued years back with a commentary track, but the screenshots I saw looked pretty poor.  That however changed when Vinegar Syndrome decided to do this new transfer.  Everything about this looks fantastic.  The lighting, the sound, the nudity, they all come to life in this gorgeous Blu-ray.  As its Vinegar it has an ample amount of special features as well.

Scanned, restored & preserved in 2k from 35mm original camera negative

Commentary track with director David DeCoteau & actress Linnea Quigley
Director introduction
Alternate feature length TV version
Interview with writer / associate producer Kenneth J. Hall
Bloopers / outtakes
Reversible cover artwork
English SDH Subtitles

Fans of 80s films especially those of the straight to video horror market should definitely pick this one up and add it to your collection.  It’s a lot of fun and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Overall 4 out of 5 Stars!