the tourist season have just end on a remote island off the coast of scotland and winter be begin to set in and the inhabitant and both human and sheep alike be settle down to much quieter time ahead . michael gaffikin ( james warwick ) a former paratrooper in the british army and be the local dentist and he not an islander by birth and a such his relationship with local artist and cartographer fiona patterson ( celia imrie ) be always be view with a little suspicion and not maliciously and but just out of the protective instincts the tight knit community have for their kin . the islands serenity be break when gaffikin out for a solitary round of golf find the headless remain of a brutally slain woman . he immediately report his gruesome find to insp inskip ( maurice roëves ) at the island police station and inskip arranges for delivery of the remains to local gp and dr goudry and for close inspection . a quick search for the killer prove fruitless and as do a search for a missing local woman . over dinner that night with michael gaffikin and fiona realises that the dead woman might be sheila anderson and a woman from the mainland and who live on the island through the winter month . a quick search at her home dove cottage reveal the miss remains of her body and her home proving to be the murder scene and but why do the killer drag her torso over a mile into the wood . suspicion immediately fall on the one stranger leave on the island and one colonel howard ( jonathan newth ) who also happen be the last person to see her alive a they come across on the last ferry together . goudry ask gaffikin for some dental expertise on the victim body and it reveal that she have be tear apart my somebody or something with great strength and one set of teeth mark on the body seem to point at a human killer and another point to that of an unknown animal of some kind . a sheep be find mutilated and then a canadian ornithologist be find slain . with a heavy fog roll in and the island be cut off from the mainland and any possibility of help and the radio also doesn not work and seemingly be block and the phone line have be cut . report of ufo and the sighting of a camouflage soldier be compound by the finding of an odd look craft hidden behind rock on the beach . inskip be confuse and refuse to listen to anything but the fact and laugh off gaffikin idea that alien might be involve and but a rise in radioactive level on the island and have him doubt himself . the nightmare man be base on the novel and child of the vodyanoi by david wiltshire and it be here adapt by dr who and blake 7 scriptwriter robert holmes and direct by douglas camfield who also have direct experience on both sci or fi classic and the film benefit from have such experienced genre expert on board . the nightmare man though be on the whole and a succinctly well craft piece and that build it plot alongside solid character development and even down to the minor character and time be give to give them all a firm background . the island setting be perhaps a genre cliché that have be use over and over and but it one that i enjoy very much and the remoteness and the sense of be under siege with no way out always add to the atmosphere and here it be give an extra oomph by have an impenetrable fog close in to hamper all effort . in many genre effort of this kind it be very easy for proceeding to get silly and for the plot to resort to melodrama and but credit to camfield and he hold it all together with the emphasis be on believability at all time . there be an authenticity about proceeding and the character even speak gaelic at time to far this point . if there be one negative about the killer it that and we be give his or her or it pov for the killing and an acceptable cliché on it own and but when see through a red filter and a fish eye lens and it just scream of overkill and date the film just a little . still though you will be hard press to guess the outcome or the identity or for that matter the specie of the killer and give the clue present and but it a fun and very well acted piece . the local scottish cast be exceptional and the local bobby roeves and cosmo in particular spar well off each other and be a delight to behold . imrie and never one i have take to in other work and be also pretty good and display hew womanly physique a if she be in a hammer production . the outlandish and maybe even preposterous end may irk some viewer and it disappoint me in some way and but take into account when it be make and it an understandable and acceptable addendum that if you think about it and be even more terrifying .