Runaway Nightmare

Runaway Nightmare (1982)

When your dream becomes a reality, it's a RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE!

Two dorky Nevada worm wranglers are kidnapped by a gang of beautiful women as part of a plot to steal platinum from the Mafia.

Date of release
1982-01-01
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 45m
Genres
Thriller, Horror, Comedy
Director
Mike Cartel

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Los Angeles

Runaway Nightmare is a 1982 American dark comedy thriller film written, edited, directed by, and starring Mike Cartel. It also stars Al Valetta, Seeska Vandenberg, Georgia Durante, and Jody Lee Olhava, and follows two desert worm ranchers who find themselves caught between a female death cult and the mafia over precious stolen plutonium. The film developed a cult following and had a national theatrical re-release in 2014.

Production

The unfinished second draft of Runaway Nightmare was rushed into production by Mike Cartel after having taken over direction of his ailing film project Bitter Heritage in late 1978.

With a 48-hour turnaround and pre-production, Runaway Nightmare began filming with the same Bitter Heritage crew and location set. For casting, Cartel asked actors Al Valetta and Georgia Durante from Bitter Heritage to join the production while Cartel's wife, Mari filled most of the actress roles with model/actress acquaintances from her days as a Jack LaLanne health spa manager and aerobics teacher.

After a horrific three-week schedule, Cartel was unsatisfied with the coverage (while editing himself) and started shooting on weekends with a skeleton crew, cheap Friday-Monday rentals, scratch track sound, staged from his own home studio with movable sets and unpaid or deferment-paid actors while going without insurance or permits.

Cartel also saved money by doing his own dangerous stunts that included taking a shotgun blast to his chest while wearing a cheap bullet-resistant vest; crashing through a glass window door; falling down a concrete cellar staircase; having a "stunt" bottle smashed across his face, then doing a barroom fight scene with a very large bar patron he met the morning of the improvised sequence.

Runaway Nightmare features three individual songs that play during the film, including two written for the movie, "Hard to Find" and "Sunnin'", and "If You Won't Say You Love Me", written by Cartel's mother and released by Imperial Records in 1955.

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