Absolutely Fantastic

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I watched this when it originally aired in the early eighties. It must have struck a nerve because it stuck with me for over 30 years. Mostly the attack scenes and the red POV of the killer are the things I remembered. In particular when the guy is attacked by the gas mask wearing"creature" in the tent and his camera and voice recorder capture the attack, only to be viewed later by the police. What was that thing in those photos???? Quite chilling at the time. Anyway, I finally tracked it down again recently after several failed attempts to find it. I could't even remember the name of it, and just chanced over during an internet search. God bless Google. Like a lot shows that had a nostalgic connection to you, it looks very dated now, and it's merit is really based on having experienced it at the time. But I still enjoyed a repeat viewing. It didn't quite bring back that feeling of dread it created for me as a 10 year old viewing it (how could it, eh?) but I can still see why it stuck with me after all these years. Anyone viewing this for the first time now, most likely will find it unintentionally funny and ultimately unsatisfying. However, it was new and fresh for it's time and much bolder then most of the garbage that now fills the UK TV schedules. So Glad I finally found it again!

I had great memories of watching this away back in the Spring of 1981 . With the legendary duo of Robert Holmes and Douglas Camfield , both best known for their work on DOCTOR WHO in the 60s and 70s this had all the hallmarks of being " The Quatermass of the 1980s " and watching it on its initial and sole broadcast in 1981 it didn't disappoint . Well until the last 15 minutes of the final episode when it's revealed that the antagonist isn't an alien fiend with a fetish for human flesh but a deranged communist serviceman from the Soviet Union . Perhaps knowing this plot revelation spoiled much of my enjoyment watching after a gap of over 30 years ? It's not dreadful by any means but doesn't lend itself to repeat viewings To be fair to the production team it doesn't have a Hollywood budget but the production team in general and Camfield in particular manage to bring a brooding , claustrophobic atmosphere to the proceedings . Okay it's achieved by very simple and clichéd means by smothering everything in fog and relying on monster POV shots . Indeed it's the horror aspects that work best and stick long in the memory such as the very memorable attack on the coastguard station that makes up the climax of episode three . Bare in mind also that this was broadcast pre-watershed on Friday nights so there's little gore but never the less it does show that you don't need gore to terrify an audience . The downside is that these aspects overwhelm the rest of the story , especially if you know how the story turns out and the characters come across as stock bland one dimensional cyphers No doubt if you're on the wrong side of 40 you might have vivid memories of this show . It works very well in segments but not enough to make THE NIGHTMARE MAN a satisfying whole . If you've not seen it before you might enjoy it but if you saw it in 1981 you might be left with a nagging sense of disappointment after seeing it again

I loved this series so much that I purchased the original book (by David Wiltshire) from a tiny library in Pennsylvania that was closing down, trust me, it took some finding.It's rare that the TV version and the book are so closely aligned, but that is the case with Child of the Vodyanoi and The Nightmare Man. The book obviously goes into more detail about the capabilities of the mini-sub and the training that the Vodyanoi pilots are put through, the passage where the "creature" tries to, and finally succeeds, in killing the one remaining Coastguard is truly chilling, and it's scary enough in the TV version.Programmes from the early 80s have an intellectual honesty about them that makes me watch more and more of these old series, if the BBC remade TNM today, the dentist would be a socially aware Muslim, the pharmacist he falls in love with would be an African asylum seeker, and the chief of the island's police force would be a one legged lesbian with a nut allergy. The maniacal killer would of course be the token heterosexual white guy.

It was a fitting title because I had nightmares for several months afterwards (I was only 10 at the time).You know there's something evil lurking on the deserted Scottish island,but of course you only see it's point of view before it attacks in the fog. It was a sort of Doctor Who for adults.Ultimately let down by far too much exposition and revelation of the Russian pilot in the last episode.When the fog finally clears, it is rather obvious that we're not in Scotland either.The late Douglas Camfield was a veteran Dr.Who director, so the similarities in style are many. Great to see early performances from Scotland's James Cosmo, Maurice Roeves and Celia Imrie.Despite it's failings,this was another of those one-off experimental series used to showcase new talent that is sorely lacking in todays ratings obsessed British Television.