The Nesting (1981)

Studio: Blue Underground
Theatrical Release: May 1981
Blu Ray Release: June 28, 2011
R

Review by James Klein

When The Shining opened up in the summer of 1980, there seemed to be a bunch of haunted house/ghost movies that followed in the years, trying to capture the same success. However, many of them have been forgotten as years have gone by but Blue Underground has brought us one of them: 1981's The Nesting. This blu ray looks absolutely amazing and yet again the gang at Blue Underground have done an amazing job with the picture and sound, even finding old deleted scenes in the special features. What baffles me though is why they took the time to go thru all the trouble with such a mediocre movie.

The Nesting's story is about novelist Lauren Cochran who happens to be agoraphobic. When she finally is able to leave her home and go for a ride in the country, she comes across an old Victorian mansion that looks just like the mansion that is on the cover of her newest novel. She decides to rent the house but soon weird things being to happen. She realizes the house has a very long historic history as a brothel for American G.I.'s during WWII until one night a bloody massacre occurs in this house, resulting in the mansion's now haunted history. As Lauren is being terrorized by these ghosts, she soon finds out that there is a reason why she was drawn to this house.

The Nesting is a fairly decent ghost movie but the film is bogged down by sub-par acting and long drawn out scenes that don't really go nowhere. Robin Groves is fine as Lauren and of course genre vet John Carradine is always great to watch, no matter how big or small his role is. But the other actors that fill the movie just about stink. Some of them under act while others are laughably over the top. The Nesting also has these long drawn out "action" scenes that come out of nowhere and go on far too long. There is one boring car chase that feels like it never ends and when Lauren is able to get free when the man perusing her crashes his car, she goes back to see if he's ok! He then chases her some more on foot which goes on again for what feels like an eternity. The film does have some good atmosphere and I do love the location and sets. There are two grisly murders that are neat to see as well. But overall, the film is mediocre and overlong.

Kudos again to Blue Underground for an amazing looking blu ray but I am confused as to why they decided to choose this film over a vast amount of horror films that still haven't seen the light of day on blu ray.

Special thanks to Greg Chick at Blue Underground - www.blue-underground.com