The Nesting (1981)

(In French, On Cable TV, November 2021) The early 1980s were uneven years for horror, with the worst slashers sharing theatre marquees with the best. But there was also plenty of average material, and that’s where we find The Nesting: an occasionally promising gothic horror story that can’t quite figure out what it’s doing, goes on dumb tangents and ends up overstaying its welcome. I’m a sucker for gothic manors and that’s what we get at the beginning of the film as a novelist moves to the country to unblock herself and take in some fresh air. Alas, it won’t go according to plan: strange things start happening, strange dreams plague her night and strange people roam about. As the scares accumulate, then don’t necessarily explain themselves nor fit in some kind of explanation: The Nesting’s writer-director Armand Weston clearly belongs to the school of horror that says that it doesn’t matter if it makes sense as long as it’s spooky. Unfortunately, even being spooky is usually beyond the rest of the result: tepid concern is the best that the film can do. By the time the conclusion reveals that the entire thing was no coincidence, well, what else is there to say? The only thing worse than making too little sense is making too much of it. In the end, it still amounts to a mediocre result.