Nightmares

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

*** Résumé en anglais seulement ***Here are four tales of horror, complete with shocking twists that will freeze the scream in your throat! First, a routine trip to the market becomes a night of terror when a young housewife is stalked by an escaped psychopath. Then, a teenage arcade whiz meets his match when the ultimate video game turns lethal. Next, a priest questions his faith in God only to encounter demonic evil on a lonely desert road. Finally, a suburban family finds that their household rat problem is much bigger than humanly possible. Fans of the Tales from the Crypt series and The Twilight Zone should appreciate this early-Eighties anthology of horror tales. Terror in Topanga is the tale of a woman terrorized by a maniac when she just has to make a trip to the store for some cigarettes. The Bishop of Battle is notable for a very young Emilio Estevez as a teen whose obsession with video games gets the better of him. There's a definite nostalgia factor as he hustles other kids for money on the Paleozoic-era arcade games (listening to punk rock like Black Flag and Fear on an early-model Walkman the whole time). Perhaps the strongest segment involves B-movie stalwart Lance Henriksen as a priest who gives up the clergy and leaves his parish. While traveling across the desert, the hapless padre is pursued by a mysterious black Chevrolet pickup that systematically demolishes his car (shades of Spielberg's Duel). Night of the Rat, rounding out the quartet, is just that; the story of a family who has a problem with a really big rat. While this little collection of tales tends to telegraph its punchlines well in advance, it still offers up a satisfying chill or two by way of its pacing and suspense, and with a bit more gore than the usual made-for-cable fare.