The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Blistering performances.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Conrad, a legendary star of classic horror films, is a narcissistic killer as monstrous in life as he is on the screen. Shortly following his death, a group of young cinemaphiles steal his corpse, prompting his devoted widow to enlist the aid of a soothsayer in retrieving the evil actor's damned soul from the fire-pits of Hell. Once reunited with his body, Conrad proceeds to wreak bloody vengeance against the young graverobbers.FRIGHTMARE is a largely miscarried and routine supernatural slasher with atrocious editing and exanimate characters. To the film's credit, however, it does manage to serve up sporadic atmospheric moments which are effectively punctuated by the contra-distinct, multilayered sound editing of creepy, susurrus echos.A prescriptive and nonessential 80s chiller overall, but might suffice as a tolerable time-filler when nothing better is at hand.4/10

There are a few positive things I can say about "Frightmare". Ferdy Mayne is well cast as the villainous horror actor - he's a cross of Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, and Bela Lugosi, and the movie gets a burst of energy whenever he's in action. Second, while this was a low budget movie, it doesn't look as cheap as other low budget horror movies of the era. Also, there is a lot of atmosphere here. There's a moody feel to most of the movie, and it could have been part of a great movie, which this isn't. This movie is extremely slow, for one thing. How slow? Well, for one thing, it takes over half of the movie before the first of the youths is killed. And none of the kills is that spectacular or memorable. Also, we learn nothing about these youths. They have no personalities, just brainless pieces of flesh that are waiting to be slaughtered. The movie also has poorly recorded audio that makes it hard to make out dialogue at times. If you still decide to buy this on DVD despite my warnings, beware. The Troma DVD release of the movie is not only full-frame, but has some video glitches, suggesting they simply copied from an ex-rental video tape.

Legendary hammy and arrogant horror movie star Conrad Radzoff (splendidly played with wicked sardonic aplomb by Ferdy Mayne) dies of a heart attack. A bunch of drama school students steal Radzoff's corpse from its crypt and take it to a rundown mansion so they can party with it. Radzoff comes back to life and picks off the rude youths for desecrating his grave. Writer/director Norman Thaddeus Vane concocts a fresh, original, and even pretty stylish spin on the usual body count premise, offers a neat evocation of the glitzy Hollywood milieu, and does a sturdy job of maintaining a pleasingly misty and spooky ooga-booga atmosphere. The kill set pieces deliver the grisly goods, with a gal being set on fire, a juicy decapitation (the severed head rolls right down the stairs and onto the lawn so a raven can peck away at it!), and another poor lass being crushed with a levitating coffin rating as the definite gruesome highlights. Kudos are also in order for the stellar cast of familiar B-flick faces: Mayne has a deliciously eye-rolling ball with his flashy role, Leon Askin contributes an amusing cameo as bitter washed-up director Wolfgang, Nita Talbot adds some class as flaky psychic medium Mrs. Rohmer, plus there are nice turns by Luca Bercovici as jerky drama student ringleader Saint, Jennifer Starrett as the sweet Meg, Jeffrey Combs as the geeky Stu, and Scott Thomson as the nerdy Bobo. Popping up in cool bits are Chuck "Porky" Mitchell as a detective, Patrick Wright in one of his customary policeman parts, and Tallie Cochrane as a corpse. Joel King's polished cinematography gives the film an attractive glossy look. The moody score by Jerry Mosely likewise hits the shuddery spot. A fun little fright flick.

Conrad Radzoff(Ferdy Mayne), a hammy cult icon, dies from a heart ailment(not before disposing of an ungrateful assistant and TV commercial director, both of whom disrespected him with showers of insults). His body is removed from his mausoleum by some film students(they wish to "invite him to dinner"..they are quite big fans). What these kids(..including a young Jeffrey Combs)don't expect is that Radzoff will be resurrected by a medium to wreak havoc on those who removed him from his place of rest.The list of violent acts include Radzoff pulling one guy's tongue out, setting a woman on fire, elevating a casket which crushes a woman's face, decapitates one fellow, and cremates another guy alive in a coffin. A really weird soundtrack and pesky fog wraps around Radzoff's ghoulish activities.Silly hokum from Troma is limited by a very, very low budget and slowwwwww pace. The film feels a lot longer than it is. The film isn't really that gory and we can hardly see much violence because the film is often too damn dark. At times, Radzoff is an ominous presence, yet at other times he just looks real silly.