Blu-Ray Review: Runaway Nightmare

By Brad Henderson

Vinegar Syndrome has been going off the rails with the films that they have recently released. I freaking love what they are picking up. Now, they’ve unleashed a somewhat lost film called Runaway Nightmare. This is by far one of the most bizarre films that Vinegar Syndrome has released so far and one of the better ones as well. I can’t even begin to tell you what you are in for with this movie.

Two worm farmers—yes, WORM farmers—come across two men in the middle of the desert burying a box in the ground. After the two men leave, the worm farmers (Ralph and Jason) dig up the box to see what is inside. They find an unconscious woman named Fate. They proceed to take her to their home where they can tend to her, question her, and figure out why she was buried in the middle of nowhere.

Once they are back home, they’re taken hostage by a group of women who want Fate back. Once Fate is in the arms of her female cult, Ralph and Jason go through an initiation process to be a part of this female cult . . . as the only male members. Yeah, some weird shit happens and they discover the cult is after platinum from the Mafia . . . I don’t have a clue what direction this film was supposed to go in but it seems like some soap opera epic cut down to an hour and a half. One of the worm farmers wants to bang the cult members and basically all the other members find the other worm farmer sexually disgusting. What? I know, right? Is worm farming a real thing? I could look it up but it is more fun to believe this profession is a made-up one. Well, I mean it makes sense there are worm farmers becau—screw it. Worm farmers do not exist.

I should have been drinking while watching this movie because it would have made more sense to me, but I actually did enjoy this film on a completely batshit crazy level.

This is exactly why Vinegar Syndrome is amazing and doing some of the best work out there. These guys actually do care about film preservation and they show it by the types of titles they release. Runaway Nightmare isn’t something that is going to sell 10,000 copies. Hell, it’s a limited edition, anyway; they only made a thousand. They know it won’t sell that well but they released it because it has been underseen. Now that it’s resurfaced, it has a new fanbase! Like me!

I may be the only one but I truly loved Runaway Nightmare and will be showing it to many of my friends in the years to come. Thanks again, Vinegar Syndrome for being so badass.

Runaway Nightmare was released on Blu-Ray on July 8 from Vinegar Syndrome. The DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack is already sold out but the DVD is still available.