Nightmare Maker
Teenager Billy lives under the suffocating control of his unstable aunt Cheryl, whose possessive obsession turns murderous as Billy tries to build an adult life of his own. Part psychosexual melodrama and part slasher-adjacent shocker, the film has earned a cult reputation for Susan Tyrrell’s ferocious central performance.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker; Night Warning; Nightmare Maker |
| Year | 1981 |
| Director | William Asher |
| Country | USA |
| Runtime | Approx. 96 min |
| Main cast | Susan Tyrrell, Jimmy McNichol, Bo Svenson, Julia Duffy |
UK status
Included on the DPP 72 and dropped. The film is also widely known as Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker and Night Warning.
Now strongly reappraised by horror fans and critics as a transgressive, unusually intense slasher-era thriller rather than a forgotten curiosity.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- The film’s best-known title today is Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker.
- Susan Tyrrell’s performance is widely seen as the film’s defining asset.
- It stands out for its psychosexual intensity more than for body-count mechanics.
- The UK nasty-era title Nightmare Maker is especially important to collectors.
- Bo Svenson appears as a police investigator.
- Its DPP status ended in the dropped section of the 72.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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