10 Terrifying German Horror Movies You Probably Haven't Seen
8. The Nightmare (2015)
Written and directed by Achim Bornhak and starring Carolyn Genzkow and Sina Tkotsch, The Nightmare is a German psychological horror flick first released at the Locarno Film Festival in 2015.
Inspired by the famous 1781 oil painting of the same name by Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare is a wholly independent flick that follows the story of a young woman named Tina as she slips further and further towards an aggressive and chaotic mental break.
The film opens with Tina and some of her friends attending a late night party at a public pool, and Bornhak's script is ready from the off to hit audiences with the unsettling and disturbing parts of his imagination, with the teens gathered at the party talking about misshapen embryos and showing off videos of a person being hit by a car, before things nosedive even further into the wacky and bizarre.
The Nightmare's independent format gives it a really unique presentation, with Bornhak's use of wide angled lenses and a noticeable lack of additional lighting really selling the idea of things constantly not being as they seem.