MOVIE REVIEW : Plot Instills Dread in ‘Nerve’

“Raw Nerve” (selected theaters) is the name of the movie, and that’s what it must have taken to put it into release.

“Unrelenting terror stalks an all-star cast!” is one of its tag lines. Could any terror be worse than the dread which must have overwhelmed them all--Glenn Ford, Jan-Michael Vincent, Sandahl Bergman, Traci Lords and Randall (Tex) Cobb--when they read this script?

“Nerve” begins with two shrieky blond twins in a carnival hall of mirrors and then plunges into a plot that seems to be one-third moldy cop thriller, one-third incest soap opera and one-third inept creepo-maniac slashfest.

A Mobile, Ala., serial killer dubbed “The Face” stalks women and blows their faces off. A disturbed race-car diver (Ted Prior) suffers excruciating visions of the slaughter--but no one will listen, especially cops Ford and Vincent, until enterprising reporter Bergman lures the driver into bed for a story.

“You used me!” hollers an anguished Prior to the miniskirted journalist, and while she stares at him compassionately, he keeps sinking into one head-clutching fit after another. Meanwhile, hell-raising Uncle Blake (Cobb) swills beer and mulls over dark secrets and nubile sister Traci Lords--cast as an 18-year-old high school honor student--wriggles, tells everyone they look “hot” and refuses to indulge in a pot orgy that seems inspired by “Reefer Madness.”

Somehow, Cobb gets a performance out of this--not a very good one, but at least a performance--but, otherwise, the only watchable thing about “Raw Nerve,” (rated R for violence, language and drug content) is Lords, who can pour amusing sluttishness into any scene, no matter how ridiculous. Unfortunately, here, she seems to have taken a step down from pornography.

‘Raw Nerve’

Glenn Ford: Captain Gavin

Sandahl Bergman: Gloria Freeman

Ted Prior: Jimmy Clayton

Randall (Tex) Cobb: Blake Garrett

A Pyramid Releasing Corp. release. Director David Prior. Producer Ruta K. Aras. Executive producers David Winters, Marc Winters. Screenplay Prior, Lawrence L. Simeone. Cinematographer Andy Park. With Jan-Michael Vincent, Traci Lords. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (violence, language and drug content).