The Nesting (1981)

Finally out on BD from Blue Underground, this is actually the first time I’ve seen The Nesting. Maybe good, because then I had the pleasure to stay away from crappy tapes and strange bootlegs. This is the way to see this movie, in glorious quality which really makes the stunning cinematography shine to 100 %. It strikes me how none-famous this movie is. It should be more well-known, not because it is a unique and fantastic ghost movie, but because it’s so ambitious and extremely good-looking. Directed by adult-filmmaker Armand Weston and its damn pity he never did something similar either before or after this movie.

Robin Groves is Lauren Cochran, a horror movie writer who suffers from agoraphobia and is told by her doctor to try to get away from it all and concentrate on her writing out on the countryside. When she arrives to the house she finds out it’s the exact same house like on the cover of her latest book and soon strange things start to happen. The house is haunted by prostitutes and is connected to the dark past of the town….

Yes, it’s a haunted house with ghost whores. I wonder if Lucio Fulci was inspired by The Nesting when he made the terribly boring Ghosts of Sodom (a movie that never will be called “underrated” or find a new audience)? The Nesting will never be called original or amazing, but it’s a very decent ghost movie with a great location and with uneven, but fun actor. Robin Groves works perfectly in the lead, with the other actors range from charming over-acting to awkward. Gloria Grahame, legendary actress, has a small part and is good and John Carradine is…yeah, he’s John Carradine! My favourite is David Tabor as Abner, the totally crazy chicken farmer. I know that his performance might be a bit too much, but he’s so damn intensive with his rolling eyes and advanced acrobatics with mouth tongue. He borders to parody, but he really gives it all and it’s a bit sad to see him go when he finally bites the dust.

Weston really captures the loneliness of the location, and makes an excellent effort to show us Cochran’s descent into the ghostly past of the house. He wisely stays away from boring police procedures and unnecessary relationships. There’s hint’s of a romance between our heroine and another character, but it never takes over what’s more important: the haunted house. She glides between our reality and the “other side” with some very gorgeous set-pieces. The use of slow-motion, the visual tricks of angles and shadows shows us what a fantastic director Weston was. The script is a bit talky and maybe runs out of steam towards the beginning of the last half (but picks up again) and it could have used maybe a little bit more gore (don’t worry, it has a blood and stuff like that), but the confidence the production team had in this movie is visible.

The Nesting is a low-budget movie and it shows here and there, but the BD from Blue Underground looks great. It makes the budget more visible, but no one will be fooled that this movie was shot on the best stock, had the best effects or the longest shooting schedule. This is a bit rough, but very sharp and the cinematography looks so natural, so clean. I’m sure João Fernandes (Deep Throat, Friday the 13th part 4, Devil in Ms Jones, Red Scorpion etc) used a lot of natural lightning in some of the indoor scenes.

Another fine release from Blue Underground. A must for fans of eighties horror films!