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Bad Dreams [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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A WANNABE NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET ENTRY
Review date: 2007-10-31 Rating: 8 out of 10

Years after being the soul survivor of cult leader Harris, (Richard Lynch) mass suicide, Cynthia, (Jennifer Rubin) wakes up from a coma and is placed into a group therapy session by her psychiatrist, Dr. Berrisford, (Harris Yulin) under the care of Dr. Alex Karmen, (Bruce Abbott) to adjust her to the new era. After being in a few sessions, she is able to recover her memories of what happened at the commune, which brings about a series of weird visions about Harris and her past. These convince her that he's back, which the staff doesn't believe her stories until a series of deaths strike the residents. Finally believing her story, they race to save her before Harris finds her.

The Good News: This is one of those late-80s slashers that holds up quite well. It's overly simplistic plot is one of it's best strengths, making it fly by pretty quickly without too much of a downtime. That is one of the best features, as it never overstays it's welcome. This does have a couple of genuinely intense moments, such as the flashback to the mass suicide, the hallucination sequence in the parking lot and the final kill has some great attempts at suspense as well. Also of note is the sheer ferocity of the killings. Each kill is even more mean-spirited than the last, and this is incredibly refreshing. There is nothing to stop this from spilling more blood along the way. The recurring images of the burning man always keeps a little gore in the film, and the kills do as well. There's a very brutal stabbing in the stomach with a pair of scalpels, a stabbing through the hand that is quite brutal and the best kill is the sucked into a turbine and splattered throughout the rest of the sanitarium. All in all, this was pretty decent.

The Bad News: One of the things with this film is that it bares so many similarities to the "Nightmare on Elm Street" films that it could very easily be in that series and not feel very out-of-place. The whole aspect of the sanitarium is right out of part 3, and much of the incidental aspects are there as well. It's all pretty obvious when it's viewed, so there's no real need to spill it out. There's also a few little scenes that really irked me. The sequence of Karmen's hallucination is one of the few scenes that really bugged me, as the classical scoring is a nice touch, although the irony is a bit heavy-handed and tips the scene into full-blown camp. The ending as well could fall here, which is just a mess overall. It's completely mind-boggling and throws away most of the rest of the film, changing it around entirely but there's no real explanation required to explain it away. It's one of the worst problems in the film.

The Final Verdict: This is pretty good, and it was quite surprising how much. This isn't a spectacular film that unfortunately got washed aside due to too many "Nightmare on Elm Street" similarities. It's not that bad and worthy of a watch, but don't be surprised if you find yourself sporting the influence game quite frequently.


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Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Richard Lynch
Harris Yulin
Jennifer Rubin
Dean Cameron
Bruce Abbott

Creators:
Jennifer Rubin (Primary Contributor)
Bruce Abbott (Primary Contributor)
Andrew Fleming (Writer)
Gale Anne Hurd (Producer)
Ginny Nugent (Producer)
Michael Dick (Writer)
P.J. Pettiette (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
EAN: 0013131309294
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2006-04-18
Universal product code (UPC): 013131309294
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 80 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1988-04-08
Language: English (Original Language)

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