Nothing if not bizarre, this barely-circulated low-budget horror item from Cinerama Releasing Corporation served as Oliver Stone's feature-film directing debut (which he also co-wrote and co-edited; his wife, Najwa Stone, served as art director). Jonathan Frid plays a writer with a wife and young son who is suffering from a frightening recurring nightmare. He has invited a motley assortment of friends to spend the weekend with his family in their lakeside house in the Québec mountains, but on their first night the group are attacked by three malevolent beings: a dwarf known as The Spider who claims to be older than God, a red-lipsticked evil queen who looks Vampira and a facially-mutilated strongman. The trio intends to kill all but one person in the house, but are these creatures real or manifestations of the writer's subconscious? Thoroughly repugnant tale with a masochistic undercurrent strikes some viewers as black comedy. Whether it is intentionally or unintentionally funny is up for debate, but it certainly doesn't showcase a promising talent from behind the camera. The actors (including a shaggy-haired Troy Donahue, looking burnt out, Hervé Villechaize and cult actress Mary Woronov) manage not to look silly, which in this instance is miraculous. *1/2 from ****