A Nightmare Come True

January 25, 2024

Auds may tune in for established stars Gerald McRaney and Shelley Fabares, but Katy Boyer carries this mystery thriller, and with great aplomb. Above-average telepic spiced with a fair amount of plot twists, but not enough that the identity of the killer can't be figured out in the first hour, "A Nightmare Come True" boasts polished production values and a Stepford-husband perf from good guy McRaney as well as a nuanced turn from Boyer. A fire in her apartment building forces young OR nurse Sarah (Boyer) to move back in with her folks Don and Lily (McRaney, Fabares) and little brother Steven (Jeremy Renner) for a spell. But Mom and Dad fight like cats and dogs and peacemaker Sarah unsuccessfully tries to heal their marriage.

A fire in her apartment building forces young OR nurse Sarah (Boyer) to move back in with her folks Don and Lily (McRaney, Fabares) and little brother Steven (Jeremy Renner) for a spell. But Mom and Dad fight like cats and dogs and peacemaker Sarah unsuccessfully tries to heal their marriage.

One day, Lily, seemingly having taken Don’s verbal abuse up to here, takes off for New York City. Don doesn’t seem too upset, and Sarah begins to suspect foul play when she doesn’t hear from her mom, although Don receives postcards and phone calls at weird hours (i.e., when Sarah’s not around) from Lily.

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As Sarah digs deeper, the mystery of her Mom’s life opens up. Could Sarah’s rock musician b.f. Paul (Joel Bissonette) have something to do with her disappearance? After all, Lily lent him large sums of money and was having an affair with him as well. Eeeewww!

Poor Sarah really doesn’t take this info well, and worse, her dreams turn into nightmares: She begins to have visions of her mother, which escalate night after night until she sees Lily’s brutal death, which leads her to uncover the truth.

Director Christopher Leitch keeps “Nightmare” fast-paced, and although the climax is standard thriller stuff, the script, by Gerald DiPego and Nevin Schreiner, has thrown in enough red herrings to keep auds guessing.

Production design by C.J. Strawn evokes the nice solid middle-class New Jersey atmosphere well, and details tucked in the script about the Garden State do well to bolster its credibility.

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