Lisa's Nightmares (1994)

 

From the Cooks, the husband and wife team from Texas that gave us Horrorscope (1994). It was pretty terrible, but this couple has a good number of SOV horror titles to their credit; so, I just had to give another of their super-low-budget flicks a shot. This one involves a series of nightmares experienced by Lisa Cook - apparently all submitted by patrons of their Cemetery Cinema company. While Horrorscope was fairly tame with no nudity, this one basically features Lisa naked from start to finish.

Todd Jason Cook, who directs and distributes these films, does a lot to promote his wife Lisa Cook as a legit scream queen.  There is an extended interview with her later in the film which seems to put her up there with Linnea Quigley and the like.

We approach what is surely the Cook residence in a slasher POV shaky cam.

Lisa is asleep in bed.  Between each "vignette" we return to Lisa having nightmares in her bed.

In this "nightmare" Lisa checks out their VHS collection.

You get the feeling the Cooks are proud of their video collection.

Lisa does exercises to “Black Hole Sun”

Then she gets undressed for bed.

Completely naked - which was rather surprising considering Horrorscope didn't feature any nudity.

From the perspective of the killer, we see a hand grab a kitchen knife.

The killer approaches Lisa in bed.

We're back to Lisa tossing and turning in bed and move on to another nightmare.

She's strolling around the house butt naked.

Someone approaches....

Lisa reacts as if it's her hubby and tries to explain why she's naked.

The man shoots her.

Another nightmare...

Lisa washes the car

Afterwards, she gets undressed for a bath.

I love that their home is decorated with horror memorabilia. Note the Happy Birthday to Me poster. 

Todd Jason Cook implements some fancy filter as Lisa is stabbed by an intruder.

On to the next patron submitted vignette...

Lisa does this-and-that around her room topless.

Someone shows up at her door, stabs her and walks away.

The next "nightmare" begins with Lisa getting her stomach licked by Todd Jason Cook.

She sheepishly tells him she's got to use the bathroom.

A killer enters the bathroom and stabs her.

The next vignette has Lisa making and then eating spaghetti. 

Yet again, a knife wielding murderer approaches.

As an intermission we get an interview with the "famous" scream queen Lisa Cook

In the next vignette, Lisa is being watched

A machete wielding murderer in a Husky tee enters

Looks like Todd Jason Cook tried his hand at gore F/X.  Simple but not too shabby.

In the next nightmare, Lisa is tied up and eaten by rats.

The final nightmare: Lisa is attacked by a man in a  Nixon mask.

In a "comedic" turn, the man just wants her to pose for him, and he pays her afterward. 

It ends with Lisa waking up and finding the man in the Nixon mask sleeping next to her.

---

While this is clearly another stinker, I am glad movies like this exist. You can tell Todd Jason Cook really has his heart in it, and probably had high hopes their Cemetery Cinema would take off (and who knows, maybe it did).   This was probably enough for me, and won't be checking out any more of the couple's work, but have to give them props actually doing it - actually making and distributing their own horror movies.  I hope somewhere out there the Cooks are still together and look back on this with fondness.

★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆4/10