The Nesting (1981)

You won't be disappointed!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Not to be confused with the Corman cockroach classic THE NEST, this is semi-effective ghost story. Writer Lauren Cochran (Robin Groves) suffers from agoraphobia and, in a bid to overcome her ailment, she rents a stately mansion in the country from Colonel Lebrun (John Carradine). Turns out the old place used to be a brothel where some prostitutes were murdered after WWII and Cochran has a mysterious connection to the place.Director Armand Weston spent most of his time doing X-rated stuff and this is his only attempt into legit films with mixed results. One on hand, the film benefits from some great atmosphere, thanks mostly to the run down house. There are also several effective ghost attack sequences. On the downside, the film runs way too long (nearly 2 hours) with some overly talky bits that dragggggg. Lead Groves, who reminded me of Patty Duke circa MATCH GAME, is an interesting choice for the lead but she makes the mania look realistic. Former MGM leading lady Gloria Grahame plays the part of the ghost madame and this was her last film.

Who could ever have predicted that an early 80's haunted house thriller directed by one of America's most infamous porn-horror directors (Armand Weston; sick genius behind "The Defiance of Good" and "The Taking of Christina"), and actually revolving on the grim past of a secluded whorehouse, could be this … boring, low on sleaze and totally lacking excitement and bloody make-up effects? I'm generously rating "The Nesting" four stars out of ten, due to some isolated moments of sheer brilliance and the terrific choice in atmospheric exterior filming locations, but the honest truth is that this film doesn't deserve half of that, because the narrative structure is infuriatingly dull and ineffectively complex. Lauren Cochran, a female horror novelist living in the center of New York suffers from Agoraphobia (fear of crowded places) as well as from sexual repression and writer's block. She moves into a beautiful octagonal old mansion in the countryside, but promptly starts having nightmares and meaningful hallucinations regarding the place's dubious past. She discovers the house used to a brothel but some tragic event occurred there near the end of World War II, and now it seems as if the restless spirits of the prostitutes are using Lauren as a medium to extract their vengeance. Admittedly, the subject matter is hugely derivative and something you've already seen dozens of times before (and better), but hey, that's horror cinema for you and at least the whorehouse setting could have resulted in something slightly more interesting. The script is full of potential, but director Armand Weston makes the terrible mistake of trying to imitate the ominous atmosphere and suggestive mystery of "The Shining", which was released one year earlier and scored big at the box office. Multiple scenes are shamelessly copied from "The Shining", but Weston clearly isn't as talented as Stanley Kubrick and a cheap and anonymous production like "The Nesting" needs more action instead of intellectual tension-building. There are a handful of notably terrific sequences, like Lauren's agoraphobic attack in the streets of London, the death of the sinister handyman in the lake and our heroine getting pursued by a deranged local, but sadly they're just isolated highlights in an overall boring wholesome. Genre veteran John Carradine plays his umpteenth role of creepy old guy hiding dark secrets and Gloria Grahame – in her last big screen role – appears in the flashback scenes as the whorehouse Madame. The gory highlights in "The Nesting" are passable, with the exception from one nifty eye-impalement (which I suspect is stolen from Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond") and one uncomfortably gross moment involving a scythe. That's hardly worth purchasing an obscure and probably overpriced VHS-copy, isn't it?

As far as early '80s haunted house movies go (there were quite a few, most likely thanks to the box office success of 1979's THE AMITYVILLE HORROR), you could do worse. Neurotic mystery novelist Lauren Cochran (Robin Groves) is suffering from the anxiety disorder agoraphobia; meaning she has panic attacks when put in a crowded or unfamiliar environment. Barely able to leave her New York City apartment, she and her doctor decide the best thing for her mental state is a little peace and quiet in a tranquil setting. Lauren, accompanied by her boyfriend Mark (Christopher Loomis), decides to rent a large house out in the country so she can recover from her condition and begin work on her next novel. Strangely, the large, lakeside home she is compelled to rent looks almost identical to the one pictured on the cover of her last novel "The Nesting;" which was illustrated from her own description. Soon after moving in (Mark has to return to NYC, leaving her all alone), she starts suffering from nightmares and starts seeing ghosts lurking around. What's Lauren's connection to the house and why are the murderous spirits that occupy the place only killing select victims? I noticed skimming through the reviews that some viewers think the first half was stronger than the second. I actually feel the opposite. The first 45 minutes or so were a little shaky and confusing, but I felt the film actually improved and became more interesting during the second and third acts. Thankfully the major plot points are adequately explained with some decent flashbacks. The leading lady is a pretty decent actress, but not quite the sympathetic heroine you'd expect to find in a film like this. The architecture on the house itself is very striking and it makes for a terrific, atmospheric country setting. The horror scenes are adequate, yet not too bloody, and there's some brief nudity and sex also. On the down side, some of the dialogue is awful (especially the supposedly witty lines given to the Mark character at the beginning), the film looks pretty dark, dreary and murky (many scenes are set inside barely lit interiors), there's a visible boom mike and some of the supporting performances are rough.One of the major drawing cards (at least to me) were appearances from prolific character actor/horror cameo king John Carradine and talented and underrated film noir goddess Gloria Grahame, both in small but important co-starring roles. Carradine plays Colonel LeBrun, the wheelchair-bound, sickly owner of the haunted home, while Grahame (who looks astonishingly good for her age and astonishingly good considering she died soon after appearing in this) plays Florinda Costello, the ghostly former brothel madam. Neither has a whole lot of screen time, but do well with what they're given to work with. Fans of either should enjoy their work here. I'd never heard of director Armand Weston before, but it seems like he worked exclusively on X-rated films. He did a fairly good job on this, his only "mainstream" effort.

"The Nesting" is a fine, if somewhat slow supernatural entry.**SPOILERS**Troubled by various dreams, Lauren Cochran, (Robin Groves) is told by her psychiatrist Mark Felton, (Christopher Loomis) that a trip to the country would be of great help to her. Traveling out to the country, they rent out a house owned by Col. Lebrun, (John Carradine) and decide to stay there for the time being. As her dreams become more vivid, her friend Daniel Griffith, (Michael David Lally) comes up to visit, and she tells him about the dreams, which triggers off a series of strange accidents in the house which no one else around her will believe. Investigating while the dreams are still occurring, they find that the house has a morbid history involving the previous owners of the house who are still around torturing visitors through their ghosts. Knowing the cause of the disturbances, they set out to stop them before the are further menaced by the malevolent spirits.The Good News: There isn't a whole lot to this one that really works, and it suffers from that. The main thing, and most of it's positive points, come from it's early death scenes. There's a real nice amount of excitement built up from them and it makes them somewhat engaging. The early scene out on the terrace, where a supernatural force drags a victim to the outside out onto a thin ledge, where a struggle to get them in results in a supernatural force knocking one onto a weather-vane nearby. It works due to an extended set-up that makes it over into the creepy tone. A later scene where a renovator is attacked by a supernatural presence in the house before going on an extended chase through the woods before finally ending in a terrific scene in the middle of the lake is rather impressive and remains part of the film's best moments. The ending is rather impressive, mainly due to their being a hint of action and creepiness on display that makes it watchable. The only other part that really works at all is a brief attack that takes place after a sex scene that goes in the right direction and helps to make it somewhat effective and creepy. Otherwise, there just wasn't much else to like about the film.The Bad News: There's only a couple problems with this one, mostly centering around one main one. There's almost no action at all in the film, leaving large sections of the film to feel dull, boring and slow. These are punctuated by the incessant and needless scenes where the only thing happening is two characters talking about the dreams or some encounter, and these are dragged out to the point that it becomes intolerable. They're not interesting, rarely do anything more than pad out time and provide scenes that break up the action for almost interminable lengths, as it seems like forever before anything happens and the next time it happens is just as long. There's very little moments that they bring up which amount to anything remotely resembling entertainment or excitement and just make the film feel way longer than it really is. The few attacks are also short and quite brief, making them even less impressive and doing very little to make them worthwhile, sticking them in with a very unimaginative pattern that makes it hard to stay interested late in the film. The flashback explanation scene, which should've been a highlight as it's a real bloodbath, turns out to very little of interest due to the extreme lack of blood and the fact that it's too dark to see what's going on turn it into a disappointment. These here keep the film from fulfilling it's potential.The Final Verdict: A rather dull and lifeless, though interesting, supernatural entry with little going for it, especially against what else was going on at the time. Check it out if interested or have an inclination towards these films, otherwise this wouldn't be one that would change anything if skipped.Rated R: Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a shadowy sex scene