User reviews

"Nightmare at Noon" is a very uneasy mixture of high tech sci-fi and standard western shoot em up. Brion James is visually impressive as the albino mute villain, but that's about it. Bo Hopkins and Wings Hauser act like they are in a mismatched buddy cop movie, while George Kennedy plays the local sheriff. There is some dark humor that slightly elevates things, but overall this is simply a B movie. Lots of green goo, gratuitous big explosions, nice scenery, a great number of "F" bombs, and a goes on forever helicopter battle, which incidentally seems like it belongs in a completely different film. Not totally bad, but not even borderline good. - MERK

I live in Moab, Utah where this movie was filmed (along with many John Ford/Wayne westerns in the 40's-60's). This film is so stupid that it is funny and that is the way one needs to look at it. It is real fun for me because I grew up here and recognize, and have been at, every place a scene was filmed (except the jail LOL). It is also fun for me because I know many of the locals who had bit parts. This film is pure camp. If one views it as such you might just have a fun time.

This is one of the most unintentionally funny movies I've ever seen.

It's a real stereotype of a B movie, or even worse, a C movie.

I saw this at a military hospital and boy did I laugh my *** off, a real painkiller it was.

I recommend you watch this one with a large dose of humor.

I saw this movie when it first came out, . Enjoyed the characters, first thought this was spin off of Death . Wish movie, do to name & background of the Bo Hopkins character . (is explained in part during the café fighting scene) . With it's low budget, they did fairly good with the movie . Imagine what could have been if they had double the money . Only real scary part (do to today's terrorists activities, is the .idea of poisoning the water supply) . This age of remakes, maybe someone should dust-off the script . and with a bigger budget, might make a decent movie.

.It's B-Movie sci-fi & western, no more, nothing less.

B movie god Wings Hauser and the always amusing Bo Hopkins are the heroes in this follow-up, of sorts, to the 1984 infection-horror flick "Mutant" (a.k.a. "Night Shadows"). A creepy albino villain (the great screen heavy Brion James) is conducting an insidious experiment on a remote Southwestern town called Canyonlands, contaminating the water supply and turning the citizens into maniacs who attack others and spew green acid instead of blood. Wings is a big city entertainment lawyer who teams up with loner Bo, local sheriff George Kennedy, and Kennedy's hottie daughter / deputy Kimberly Ross to save the day.

Co-written and directed by celebrated cult filmmaker Nico Mastorakis, "Nightmare at Noon" is less of an outright horror film than its predecessor, concentrating mainly on action. And it delivers action in spades: gunfire, explosions, human torches, vehicle stunts, you name it. Overall, it's pretty derivative, but it's also pretty damn entertaining for this sort of low budget fare. It's filmed using gorgeous Utah scenery, has some enjoyably nasty violence, and its story moves along more than adequately. Future "name" composer Hans Zimmer contributes to the score, along with Stanley Myers, and it's good stuff. The final helicopter chase does go on for an absurdly long time, though.

Wings plays a guy who is rather insufferable at first, but he becomes more engaging as he moves into heroic mode. Bo is as watchable as he's ever been. Ever-likable Kennedy, the adorable Ross, "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" final girl Kimberly Beck gets to chew up some scenery as Wings' victimized wife, and Neal Wheeler is a hoot as local old codger Charley, one of the first on-screen victims of the infection who goes psycho in a diner. James, who never has to utter a word, is a true sight to behold, especially when the albino and his henchmen go on horseback towards the end of the story.

A fun movie with a strong Western influence, "Nightmare at Noon" shows B flick enthusiasts a fairly rousing time.

Seven out of 10.

...was used on the stunts. They're exceptionally elaborate and fun to watch despite the fact that this was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Watching "Nightmare at Noon" turned out to be yet another personal milestone in my career as a purchaser of cinematic nonsense… This unmistakably is, hands down, the movie that makes the absolute LEAST efforts to explain all the random weirdness and palaver it brings forward throughout nearly its entire running time. Everything, even the utmost absurd story aspect, is so incredibly goalless and literally nothing appears to upset the tough and hardened lead characters. Even when the little town of Canyonland is overcome with terror, and all the usually peaceful locals turn into bloodthirsty zombies, Sheriff Hanks (George Kennedy) and accidental tourists Ken Griffiths (Wings Hauser) & Reilly (Bo Hopkins) remain stoically calm and extendedly take the time to think up theories that are – in spite of the odds – accurate to the smallest details! "Nightmare at Noon" is an unimaginably dumb film with a totally incoherent script but, as a matter of compensation for that, it features a large amount of gratuitous explosions and turbulent Western-styled shootouts in the desert! Creepy albino scientist Brion James, mute and all dressed in white to fit the color of his skin, arrives with a small army of soldiers at the borders of the desolate small town of Canyonland and initiates his diabolical experiment. The water becomes intoxicated, all entries in and out of town are shut off and the infected villagers gradually begin to exterminate each other. Why and/or how exactly is a complete mystery – at least to me it was – but the heroic crime fighters in charge spontaneously guess it must be the work of some evil psychopath experimenting up in the hills. Wow, with such guessing talents they should really enroll in the fortune telling business! The first hour of "Nightmare at Noon" guarantees good brainless and unscrupulous B-movie entertainment. The old-fashioned remote Western town setting is nostalgic and the testosterone-laden interactions between the male leads are splendid highlights, for sure. Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins and George Kennedy were all at the top of their cheesy B-movie careers here and that truly results in a couple of marvelous dialogs. After that, however, writer/director Niko Mastorakis seemingly lost complete interest to finish what he started. The last half hour is a long and dull series of desert chases and there even is an utterly pointless showdown between two helicopters that goes on for more than five whole minutes. Admittedly the cinematography and shots of desolate landscapes are professionally handled, but the whole thing is just plain purposeless. With a slightly more elaborated script and intelligent dialogs, this surely could have been an undiscovered 80's sleeper hit, but now it's just another oddball cheese-flick with nicely polished action sequences that are in vain. The two beautiful and incredibly sexy Kimberly's in the cast (Beck and Ross) are underused and aren't even offered the chance to show off their impressive bosoms. Shame.

I loved this movie. Plan 9 could learn a few things about schlock from my man Wings. Extremely entertaining if you have a well-developed sense of the absurd. If you don't, you will likely hate it, but isn't there enough hate in the world today?

hugs, grimmoh

Well to begin the police chick was annoying but hey when aren't they? Its like OMG just shoot them, don't talk to them. I love Kennedy, always have. Sad things turned out the way they did for him but he did very well considering the trashy script. The wifey was annoying but i didn't expect to have any love for the chicks. I'm a woman and a woman hater so don't go by me on the women thing. Never liked Wings in anything. I was never attracted to arrogance. Dad had the VHS but i never remember watching it with him, that is until Bo delivered the "Long overdue" line that I've been after for 20 years. Always loved Bo. He always did make my blood heat.

Wings Hauser. Zombies. How could this not rule? This movie can be broken into two parts. One part not bad. The other.........stab my brain with a fork. The first 30 to 45 minutes was very promising. But after that holy moly. A chase through the desert by horse that feels like forever until the helicopter chase gets going. By the end the promising start ruined by at least an hour and fifteen minutes of filler. Oh yeah George Kennedy is in it. Bad bad.

Took a chance watching this one and it paid off at first. Went in blind and I see the names Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins and George Kennedy - legends! An incredibly bad rip-off of The Terminator's title card is swiftly followed by a hillbilly being killed by a scientist with a laser gun. Oh, it's gametime.

Too bad the opening scene might've been the best one.. So evil government dudes (who look like a bunch of plumbers) taint the water supply of a small town with a chemical that induces psychotic rage and turns you into a green zombie. All this is part of an experiment of some kind that is never explained. The baddies shut down all communication in-or-out, trapping the citizens in for the battle royale.

The main scientist bad guy looks like a Col. Sanders / Doc Brown hybrid who's suffering from radiation sickness. He has no characterization besides being a (literal) mustache twirling villian... only a cool laser gun and sunglasses. The good guys are an unlikeable lawyer, his snotty wife, a renegade drifter, the town sheriff and the sheriff's deputy. They also serve almost no purpose, just props running around from shootout to shootout.

The experience is saved by B-Movie goodness all around: Horribly outdated 80s future tech and SFX, bad dialogue being delivered poorly, tons of gratuitous violence and inexplicable explosions. The plot doesn't matter and all the characters are uninteresting, but luckily it moves quick enough to offset boredom. After a few minutes of watching paint dry you'll be treated to either some delightful overacting, horrific violence, or one of the seemingly hundreds of van explosions in this movie.

It's funny that Hollywood go-to Hans Zimmer did the score here. It helps the movie, but is dated, and doesn't stand above it much in quality. It also is very Terminator inspired, essentially mirroring it at times.

By the end it falls off the rails and devolves completely into a bad western (The weird government CIA scientist dudes all decide to ride horseback for no reason!). There's also a very boring and pointless helicopter chase tacked on after the plot concludes. So all in all it's nothing special, but worth checking out for the right crowd, especially all the George Kennedy fans out there

B-movies typically come in two categories: Unwatchable Garbage and Entertaining Garbage. This one falls in the latter category. It's got the goods: Over-the-top action and violence, snappy corny dialogue, fun performances, and a darkly humorous tone. Aside from a couple of scenes that drag on a little too long, It's quickly paced. Once things get going, they keep going, so it never really feels boring.

On the surface, a very bad action adventure film. But, if not taken too seriously, it's a lot of fun. When a mad scientist poisons the water supply of a small Utah town, it's up to a drifter, a celebrity lawyer and two local cops to bring order to a town where the the citizens are now possessed by rage and violence. The last half hour reveals the film for what it truly is: a modern day western, as the good guys mount up to trail the bad guys for a showdown. Filmed with style on a small budget, featuring a score by Hans Zimmer of all people, the story only fails in the last ten minutes where the director just seemed to run out of story. Too bad, the open ended finale didn't lead to a sequel. Well worth your time.

This is possibly one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life. I could talk about everything from the bad acting to the non-sensical plot, but it'd be a waste of time. You only need to watch the first half-hour of the film to know it really sucks. It doesn't even have any camp value to it! This film was so bad, it hurt my feelings!

A mysterious albino scientist (Brion James wearing futuristic shades) contaminates the drinking water of small desert town Canyonland, driving the locals homicidal. Drifter Reilly (Bo Hopkins) teams up with celebrity lawyer Ken (Wings Hauser), lawman Sheriff Hanks (George Kennedy) and sexy deputy Julia (Kimberly Ross) to tackle the crazies and hunt down those responsible for the epidemic.

Sci-fi/horror/action flick Nightmare at Noon, from director Nico Mastorakis (the man responsible for notorious video nasty Island of Death), is pure '80s bliss, with a suitably bonkers plot, a terrific cast of B-movie favourites, loads of impressive stunts, plenty of violence, and even a score by future Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Mastorakis keeps the western-influenced action moving at a decent lick, with highlights including old coot Charley (Neal Wheeler) going green around the gills and getting trigger-happy with a shotgun, a shootout at a drive-in between our heroes and the baddies (armed with laser-sighted machine guns and flamethrowers), and an overlong but well-handled helicopter chase around the spectacular rock formations of the stunning Utah landscape. Also worthy of note: buxom beauty Kimberly Beck (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) as Ken's wife Cheri.

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb. Would make a fun double bill with Mutant (1984), which also co-starred Hauser and Hopkins.

No pun intended - this feels like ... I have not seen many Mastorakis movies ... but he is quite infamous. So I expected this to be really over the top. I mean the stabbing incident (I'll call it that) and some other things go an extra mile .. so for people who are sensitive or are way more sensible ... they may feel differently. But everyone else may not be too impressed in the end.

All that said, the story is quite out there (no pun intended). The effects are quite well done too - again not for the faint of heart of course. I almost included this to my Shocktober challenge, but had too many to watch anyway. Some good actors and the one thing that surprised me the most: Hans Zimmer made music for this ... well why not?