Another movie with a hyperbolic tagline–“If you’ve never been frightened by anything, you’ll be frightened by this!”–that wasn’t justified by the film it adorns. NOMADS was the first feature directed by John McTiernan, who went to on to much bigger and better things, starting with PREDATOR. It was this independently made horror-fest that led to McTiernan’s being hired for that more prominent spectacle, which says a lot for PREDATOR’S makers, who were somehow able to find a glimmer of promise in the disjointed mess that is NOMADS—something I was admittedly unable to do.
It begins with Eileen, a sexy Los Angeles doctor, woken up one night to attend (in a miniskirt and high heels) to a severely maimed freak named Charles—who attacks her and then promptly expires. The guy, it transpires, was a good looking French anthropologist, and has somehow transferred his soul into Eileen. This means she’s afflicted with numerous flashbacks of Charles’s life, which cause fainting spells and bleeding from the eyes.
In this way Eileen learns about Charles’s obsessions, which centered on Inuit mythology and a band of nomadic punks who insisted on spray painting nasty slogans all over his garage. As seen through Eileen’s eyes, Charles follows the nomads through LA, and determines that they’re Inuit descended supernatural creatures who only pretend to be human–as he discovers upon seemingly killing one of them, only to have the freak get up and walk away.
In the midst of all this Eileen decides to pay a visit to the home of Charles’s widow. There Eileen finally learns why Charles wound up in the hospital, and has a final(?) showdown with the nomads.
Perhaps the foremost problem with NOMADS is that McTiernan did something he would refrain from in all his subsequent films: he wrote the script himself, and based on the severely confused narrative screenwriting was not among Mr. McTiernan’s talents. Many of the ideas aired here are quite interesting, but the execution is choppy and shockingly bland, with the allegedly inhuman nomads of the title appearing as little more than refugees from 1980s central casting (although the actors who play them, which include Adam Ant and the trash movie goddess Mary Woronov, are well chosen).
Directorially McTiernan pulls off some slickly staged sequences, although the conceit of having the lead actress inhabit the thoughts and memories of the lead actor is clumsily and confusingly pulled off. Both characters have an unfortunate tendency to disappear from the screen for lengthy stretches, with Eileen frequently taking the place of Charles in different time periods, which only further confuses things (as we’re never shown how she got to the places in question—which include the interior of Charles’s wife’s house). Even the copious chase and fight scenes are, surprisingly given McTiernan’s career trajectory, uninspiring.
Of the lead actors Lesley-Anne Down looks great throughout (even at her most harried or disheveled her hair and make-up are always impeccable), which is a good thing, as she isn’t called upon to do much else, while the performance of Pierce Brosnan (then best known for headlining REMINGTON STEELE) is difficult to gauge, given that he speaks in a ridiculous faux-French accent that calls attention to itself throughout—although given the quality of the film in which he finds himself caught up, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Vital Statistics
NOMADS
Atlantic Releasing Corporation
Director: John McTiernan
Producer: Cassian Elwes, Elliott Kastner, George Pappas
Screenplay: John McTiernan
Cinematography: Stephen Ramsey
Editing: Michael John Bateman
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Leslie Anne-Down, Anna-Maria Monticelli, Adam Ant, Mary Woronov, Hector Mercado, Josie Cotton, Frank Doubleday, Jeannie Elias, Nina Foch, J. Jay Saunders, Alan Autry, Dana Chelette, Frances Bay, Junero Jennings