Premiering on the Independent Film Channel, The American Nightmare is a delightful documentary about the genesis of modern horror movies.  The film consists of interviews with the creators of these groundbreaking films, as well as clips that will make you laugh out loud at how far special effects have come since the Johnson administration.

Beginning with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in 1968, Nightmare traces a decade-long path taken by numerous film rebels, like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and David Cronenberg.  Most interesting is the interview with special effects guru Tom Savini, who learned everything he needed to know about graphic wounds in Viet Nam. The only thing the film really could have used was an adrenaline shot in the form of American Movie’s Mark Borchardt.

Nightmare, which showed as part of this year’s “Midnight Madness” program at the Toronto International Film Festival, was directed by Adam Simon (he also helmed 1990’s Brain Dead with Bills Pullman and Paxton).  Never mind the fact it’s the fifth movie in the last couple of years to begin with the word  “American” (Beauty, Movie, Pie, Psycho, History X, and Woman) - Nightmare shows the parallels between horror flicks and the social topics of the time, like Kent State, Viet Nam and the civil rights movement.

And you thought they were all just about deranged slashers and brain-eating zombies.

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