When I thought about it, “Nailbiter” was not a movie I expected from the looks of the set photos and general premise a few years ago. Director Patrick Rea has kept his film generally hush hush even from his closest confidants and as such “Nailbiter” has been something of a welcomed treat from the director. One of my favorite indie directors working today, Patrick Rea finally enters the feature length film arena with “Nailbiter,” a tense and spooky film that will grace many screens come Halloween. A perfect holiday film, “Nailbiter” tries to keep its promise of staying a white knuckle horror film all throughout with a premise reliant on survival and characters. Thankfully, “Nailbiter” has a strong character base to it, relying on the charms and personality of its core cast to sell what is a rather tense concept from minute one.
Robert Nolan is perhaps one of my favorite indie film actors already and he’s only been in two films I’ve seen in over the course of three years. Richard Powell and Zach Green formerly cast Mr. Nolan is the dark disturbing short “Worm” about a teacher on the brink of a breakdown and they catch lightning in a bottle yet again with Mr. Nolan as a man on the verge of madness as he soaks in every aspect of his life that is both mundane and maddening. Clearly unfulfilled and trapped, Nolan plays Chris who is a husband and dad seething with anger and hatred so bile that he can barely contain himself from committing horrible crimes against his own family. He can predict every aspect of his life and despises that fact until one night his wife reveals that she is pregnant.
