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Illustration : Chris Achilleos |
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The Nesting |
Armand Weston | US | 1980 |
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Connoisseurs of smut will recognise the
name Armand Weston as the director of a handful of remarkable
porno films from the 70’s; turning his hand to supernatural
horror, Weston came up with The Nesting, a superior if mangled effort that was
originally marketed as Phobia with the tagline: “There was
only one thing more terrifying than leaving the
house…staying in it!”. Opening with a 1940’s prologue,
and featuring autumnal tones from the great exploitation
cinematographer João Fernandes, Weston’s film soon cuts to present day,
where we are introduced to the agoraphobic and sexually repressed
novelist Lauren Cochran (Robin Graves later of Sliver) who, on the advice of her psychiatrist,
moves out of the big city, taking residence in a decrepit old house in
the country. Here, she concentrates on completing her novel
“The Nesting” – after suffering a bout of
writer’s block. Although initially attracted to the house
because of its unnerving similarity to the cover of her unfinished
book, Lauren is helplessly drawn into a spiralling nightmare of
hallucinatory flashbacks, mysterious noises, inexplicable events and
shocking violence. It transpires that the house was previously a
brothel, playing host to a local army base in the 1940’s and
Lauren is somehow connected to these ghostly events, and inextricably
linked to its earlier female occupants…
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The UK video tape premiere for Weston’s film was in October of 1983 on
Mike Lee’s VIPCO [Video Instant Picture Company] label. The artwork used on this release
was the original advertising poster as conceived and illustrated by
none other than Weston himself! Clearly a man of many talents, Weston also co-wrote and produced the film and prior to his film
career was an accomplished illustrator, working for Lancer Books and Untamed magazine, before branching into the seedy
world of hardcore porn. He also designed poster art for several
70’s hardcore films, as well as The Sting II. Interestingly, Warner Home Video scooped the rights to the film after VIPCO’s had expired, and re-issued the
film in December 1986. Disregarding Weston’s artwork outright, Warner decided to make use of new unrelated art
from Chris Achilleos —
which has similarities to designs
associated with Larry Stewart’s The Initiation and Charles Band’s The Alchemist! aka : Phobia; Massacre Mansion cast : Robin Groves, Christopher Loomis,
Michael David Lally, John Carradine, Bill Rowley, David Taybor, Patrick
Farrelly, Bobo Lewis, June Berry, Ann Varley, Cecile Liebman, Ron
Levine, Bruce Kronenberg, Jim Nixon, James Saxon, Jeffrey McLaughlin,
James Hayden, Jerry Hewitt, Cliff Cudney, Lee Steele, Gloria Grahame
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