以捕鱼为生的坎贝尔一心希望靠捕猎稀有鱼类发财。一次外出捕猎，坎贝尔意外地发现了世间罕见的食人鲸。贪婪的坎贝尔当然不会放弃这个“天赐良机”，他用极其残忍的手段地杀死了一只怀着身孕的母鲸，企图以此大赚一笔。他没有想到，从此，他的生活卷入了一场没有尽头的噩梦——他凶狠的举动招致了无穷的祸患。无论他走到哪里，灾难就出现在哪里。他的船员纷纷死去，他身边的人也逐一遭遇厄运。　　坎贝尔又惊又恼，他知道自己惹恼了母鲸的配偶，那只衷于爱情的雄鲸肯定会和他决斗到底。他决定迎接自己的命运，带着几个人出海寻找一直跟踪他的雄鲸，这其中包括女生物学家雷切尔。对于坎贝尔的举动，雷切尔一直忧心忡忡，她不知道等待他们一行人的将是什么样的命运………

　　《美国梦魇》拍摄于1986年，当时美国上下正处于“越南战争”的梦魇之中，在电影界也涌现出一大批批判“越战”的经典电影，有如《生于七月四日》《现代启示录》等，而本片是部独立电影，一经推出却淹没在了当时大导演，大制作的阴影之中，但影片《美国梦魇》却又是一部不折不扣的经典电影，影片描述一个从越战归来的士兵，从开始的惶惶不可终日，到最后的精神错乱，无论是导演的拍摄技法，到演员绝对有说服力的卖力演绎，从头至尾都让观众揪心，是不可夺得的经典影片，强烈推荐收看！

　　Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter with an abrasive personality that has gotten him fired ten times from various big-city papers. Now he's reduced to reporting for a relatively small-time paper in Las Vegas. It's here he gets the story of his life. But will the local sheriff, or the D.A., or even his own boss, let him print it? He has an ally in the FBI agent brought in to investigate this strange case. It seems someone is biting the necks of young girls and draining their blood. Can this killer with supernormal powers really be a 70-year-old Rumanian millionaire? Can he really be a vampire? And can an aging reporter do anything to stop him?

　　A woman in a traffic jam desperately tries to help another woman she sees in the back of a van hold held by a hand that appears from the dark background of the vehicle.