then-wife and backup singer Rusty Hamilton. Reception and legacy Release The film was originally planned for a theatrical release by Filmworld Distributors but it was instead released direct-to-video by New World Pictures. It was released in the United States on VHS in October 1987. The film grossed C$1.5 million worldwide. The film was released on special edition DVD by Scorpion Releasing in 2010. Critical reception Steve Bissette for Deep Red Magazine criticized the story for being predictable and derivative. Bissette thought the makeup and production values to be competent and noted Rigaud's "absurd over-the-top performance". Fangoria had praise for the performances of the teen leads and recommended the movie for its heavy metal soundtrack. However, the reviewer considered the film boring, criticizing the lack of special effects and the predictable plot. Ian Jane of DVD Talk wrote that the film was horrible but so "deliciously goofy" one couldn't help but have fun with it. Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle called it "painful and toilsome". Bloody Disgusting listed the film among the "cheesiest" of heavy metal horror films. Kerrang! considered the soundtrack to be better than the film itself. Jim Craddock, author of VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever, summarized the film as "cheap and stupid". Mystery Science Theater 3000 Zombie Nightmare was featured in a season six episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), a cult science fiction comedy television series in which the character Mike Nelson and his two robot friends Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo are forced to watch bad films as part of an ongoing scientific experiment. The episode was first showcased during Comedy Central's "Fresh Cheese" fall 1994 tour around college campuses in the United States. It made its television debut on Comedy Central on 24 November 1994. The episode premiered during the channel's annual Turkey Day marathon of MST3K episodes, which West hosted. In The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, a series guide written by MST3K members, Mary Jo Pehl described the movie as "painful" and said that the members of the show "thoroughly, intensely, and unequivocally hated this movie". In 2009, Shout! Factory released the episode as part of the "Volume XV" box set, and in 2017, the episode was added to Netflix. References Citations Bibliography External links 1987 films 1987 direct-to-video films 1987 horror films Canadian supernatural horror films Canadian independent films Canadian films about revenge English-language Canadian films 1980s English-language