Bad Dreams (Andrew Fleming, 1988)
An outright Nightmare
on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors clone, Bad Dreams? Surely not? With
the residents of a psych ward who find mysterious and violent deaths
one by one, a haunting bad guy who was killed by – being burned-, a
staff that understands nothing of it, except for one sympathetic
doctor, and Jennifer Rubin as a girl who has sleeping problems, you
cóuld jump to that conclusion! But that would give too little credit
to an interesting psychological cerebral horror film.
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| Jennifer Rubin, Dream Warrior again in Bad Dreams? |
In the
mid-'70s members of a religious cult commit mass suicide by torching
themselves in a scorching fire. The only survivor was a young girl
who was blown away by an explosion. Thirteen years later Cynthia
(Jennifer Rubin) awakens from a coma. She is in a psychiatric
hospital, and can only remember fragments of that fateful day.
While her fellow patients are driven to horrific suicide one by one, Cynthia gets vivid flashbacks of the severely mutilated cult leader (Richard Lynch). Has he returned to his call his last runaway lamb to him, or is there more to it? Can Cynthia awake from her Bad Dreams before it's too late?
The story does sound very like the third -amazing- part of the Nightmare on Elm Street saga. Yet it has enough interesting angles and twists to captivate. Possibly the authors wanted to cash in on the success of big -lucrative-. Which would make the casting of Jennifer Rubin understandable, but not entirely harmless. Although little original in the story, it shows a grim picture of the dangers of a cult, and the thinking of a cult mind.
With a relatively low budget, Andrew Fleming put down a moody and cynical psychological horror film. Aided by a shit load of strong character actors, he manages to create a dark atmosphere, and mnages to keep it until the end. A strong visual style is applied, and the scares are working properly. The film is very well done, and it is tightly edited. The special effects, although not very spectacular, are definitely good. Especially the mass suicide by fire is beautifully done. And let's face it, children in a mental institution, stalked by a maniac who was burnt to death, is always awesome!
That shit load of cult actors is certainly a contributing factor. Jennifer Rubin was the dark badass broody babe in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and one of the bright spots. Here she convinces as militant cult survivor. Bruce Abbott picks up his medical background from Re-Animator as the sympathetic doctor. The cynical psychotic patient Ralph, played by Dean Cameron is extreme and intense.
That Richard Lynch, the ultimate badguy (Xaviar in the original Battlestar Galactica, Kadar in the amazing The Barbarians) wanted to become a burnt cult leader is extraordinary. Under the influence of LSD, somewhere in the '60s, he actually put himself on fire. It gives his intense role anyway dark cult leader extra sinister edge.
While her fellow patients are driven to horrific suicide one by one, Cynthia gets vivid flashbacks of the severely mutilated cult leader (Richard Lynch). Has he returned to his call his last runaway lamb to him, or is there more to it? Can Cynthia awake from her Bad Dreams before it's too late?
The story does sound very like the third -amazing- part of the Nightmare on Elm Street saga. Yet it has enough interesting angles and twists to captivate. Possibly the authors wanted to cash in on the success of big -lucrative-. Which would make the casting of Jennifer Rubin understandable, but not entirely harmless. Although little original in the story, it shows a grim picture of the dangers of a cult, and the thinking of a cult mind.
With a relatively low budget, Andrew Fleming put down a moody and cynical psychological horror film. Aided by a shit load of strong character actors, he manages to create a dark atmosphere, and mnages to keep it until the end. A strong visual style is applied, and the scares are working properly. The film is very well done, and it is tightly edited. The special effects, although not very spectacular, are definitely good. Especially the mass suicide by fire is beautifully done. And let's face it, children in a mental institution, stalked by a maniac who was burnt to death, is always awesome!
That shit load of cult actors is certainly a contributing factor. Jennifer Rubin was the dark badass broody babe in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and one of the bright spots. Here she convinces as militant cult survivor. Bruce Abbott picks up his medical background from Re-Animator as the sympathetic doctor. The cynical psychotic patient Ralph, played by Dean Cameron is extreme and intense.
That Richard Lynch, the ultimate badguy (Xaviar in the original Battlestar Galactica, Kadar in the amazing The Barbarians) wanted to become a burnt cult leader is extraordinary. Under the influence of LSD, somewhere in the '60s, he actually put himself on fire. It gives his intense role anyway dark cult leader extra sinister edge.
For the badass scars of
Richard Lynch and the emotional scars of Jennifer Rubin, 4.0 crunchy
stars!
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| Richard Lynch being his old charming self as cult leader. |
