Nightmare on the 13th Floor (1990)

A TV-movie that I remember scared me as a kid. I found it a couple of years ago, but on VHS on amazon for more than 50$. That seemed a little too much and I would have no way to actually play it, having gotten rid of my VCR. A couple of years later I found it on YouTube and was finally able to re-watch it. The concept of this 13th floor that is not supposed to be there and this crazy ax wielder is still scary and the suspense works pretty good. But unfortunately as the movie starts to explain its mystery and the characters' motivation it falls apart.A lot of good childhood memories with movies can be spoiled by rewatching them and this more or less falls into that category. It was however fun to re-watch those scary scenes that had caused me nightmares as a kid.Fun fact: Louise Fletcher's parents are deaf.

Which had a photo of the killer wielding the axe, despite the viewer not actually finding this out until the end of the film. While I admit it didn't take Einstien to figure it out, try an avoid the cover if you want a little suspense.For the first 60 of the 80 minutes I thought I was watching a different film to most others on here. I thought it was pretty good, moved at a great pace & kept the viewers (who avoided looking at the case) in suspense for several reasons. The film was let down by some farsical end scenes but I still think an average rating of 4 is terribly harsh.Granted the whole scene with the Policeman on floor 13 was terrible & most of the chase afterwards, with the entire hotel staff seemingly unable to have mastered the art of putting one foot in front of the other quickly, ie running. Only Elaine ever thought to run.Yes where were the other hotel guests? Why didn't the Police bring any back up? What were the benefits for the other hotel staff to be involved in it? Why was the tramp killed? And other loose ends weren't tied up.As I said, somewhere in amongst the mess is a making for a cracking little chilling film. With a good director, slightly better acting, a touching up of the first 60 minutes of the plot & an overhaul of the last 20, a removal of the many now cliches, one or two hotel staff not being in on the act & possibly a different reason for the killings this really could work well. Given the amount of crap that is remade / rewritten nowadays, someone could do a lot worse than take this potential big hit & re do it properly.A low 7/10.

Yes, this TV movie is a nightmare. Twists and turns actually destroys the movie instead of making it more suspenseful. What has the makings of being a frightful tale of the occult simply seems to go nowhere. Michele Greene is a journalist writing an article on a legendary hotel. A rapid stop on an elevator knocks her out...as she gains composure, she sees a bloody floor and an injured man crying for help on the 13th floor. She has trouble proving what she saw because there supposedly is not a 13th floor. Sounds pretty interesting, but it isn't. Louise Fletcher seems to have stepped out of any of the other movies she's been in. James Brolin's talent is simply wasted. Also in the cast are John Karlen and Michael Melvin. Sorry, it is mundane and forgettable.

My friends decided to pick up a cheesy horror movie to watch, they really picked a lame one this time.Most horror bad movies are a lot of fun because even though they are bad they have a lot of cheesy blood and monsters to keep you interested and keep you and your friends laughing, this is only rated PG13 so no interesting blood or gore, you never really see people get killed on camera till the very end.Two of my friends passed out 20 minutes into this crap and the only thing keeping me going was my desire to see as many bad horror films as possible.If you can get this for free I guess you could fast forward to the ending but other then that stay away, anyone that rates this higher then a 4 needs to watch some real horror movies.If you want to see horror that is bad in a good way I would recommend you get Sleep Away Camp, or Demons, enjoy :)