A review of Terror Vision’s “American Nightmare” Booklet

Written by Matt Long

Edited by Anthony Nijssen of APT Editing

A review of the booklet included as part of Terror Vision’s Blu-ray of American Nightmare (2002), which was originally released in 2023. Terror Vision includes the printed materials, such as this booklet, with every pressing of their releases (to the best of my knowledge).

The front cover of the booklet for American Nightmare (2002), which was released by Terror Vision in 2023 on Blu-ray.

Professionalism and production quality

This is a high-quality saddle-stitch bound 16-page booklet. The images have perfect resolution given the source material (most screenshots are images from the movie). The size of the text appears to be at least a 12-point font, so there shouldn’t be any accessibility issues, and the layout is clean and easy to read. There are no major spelling or grammar issues, but the text includes a few errors and irregularities, like not using italics or quotation marks to indicate the names of movies or other works of art and incorrect title caps for essays. Ultimately, the issues were minor and didn’t detract from the reading experience.

Score (out of 10): 8

Text-to-image ratio

This is a short booklet, but it’s filled with three interesting choices of content. I debated the score only because there are one or two spots where a picture could have been added if space wasn’t an issue, but given the constraints of the booklet size, the image choices enhance the material and help with sequencing as much as you’d hope they would, and there was plenty of space for the text.

Score (out of 10): 10

Content

The first essay, “American Nightmare, An Ode To The Video Store And A Plea” by Brad Henderson, head of acquisitions and a producer at Terror Vision, offers a look into how a low budget movie like American Nightmare could find its way to movie shelves back in the early 2000s. He paints a picture of a thriving movie and retail industry ecosystem, one where producers, independent movie store owners, and filmmakers could survive and thrive via movies that would end up being chosen only when the more popular movies were already fully rented out for the weekend. Henderson saw how audiences would find their way to gems like American Nightmare, and he laments how this has disappeared in the streaming era where content is more forgettable and it’s more difficult to find weird gems that build their reputations by word of mouth. Boutique labels like Terror Vision offer an excellent means of replicating the curation of the best movie rental stores of past days.

The second essay, “American Nightmare,” is written by the movie’s lead actress, Debbie Rochon. Rochon recounts how she was able to break herself out of early “silly bimbo” roles by becoming a scream queen. She details how she immediately connected to her character Jane, and recounts how she took on a method-style approach by not talking to her co-stars to maintain her intensity. She also thanks the screenwriter Jon Keeyes, who had been writing for GC Magazine when he met Rochon and brought her on as a freelance writer, for changing her life with this movie. It’s a sweet letter that adds a very personal look into the film, and I’m confident it will enhance my next viewing.

The contents of the Blu-ray release for American Nightmare include a slipcover, the booklet, and the case.

The final piece included is a reprinting of Michael Gingold’s article “Debbie Rochon’s American Nightmares,” which was originally published at Fangoria.com in January 2002. The article offers a then-contemporary reflection on the movie. It works well paired with Rochon’s love letter to the film, as it seemed like Gingold appreciated the movie for reasons that aligned well with Rochon’s feelings. This is the longest piece, with five pages of full text and one image of the movie poster, and it offers plenty of interesting information about the movie.

Overall, I was very impressed with the material collected for such a little-known movie. I would have appreciated some more material from the screenwriter about the movie beyond the focus on the Jane character, but I appreciate what was there.

Score (out of 20): 18

Creativity

I liked the variety of material included in the booklet. Each of the three pieces were very distinctive from one another, and all three enhanced the movie and my understanding of it in different ways. Henderson’s piece was particularly interesting because I believe it also serves as a mission statement for his approach to acquisitions.

The main thing holding it back are the images included; it’s a good selection, but they weren’t the most memorable or distinctive part of this booklet.

Score (out of 10): 8

Final score (out of 50): 44

This is an excellent booklet that fits the movie superbly. It provides interesting context into the movie, the lead actress’ experience on the film, and the reason why it was chosen by Terror Vision. This booklet is definitely worth the read.

American Nightmare is available for purchase directly from Terror Vision’s website, along with your favourite retailers, like Rough Cut Video if you’re in Canada.