Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Rainey Dawn It's one of those cult-suicide films were one of the members decided to back out of the mass cult suicide, which was death by fire in this case, she was the only survivor and ended up in a coma for 13 years in a hospital. They tried to find her family with no luck and when she awoke her mind was still in the 1970s not the late 1980s where it should have been. She was kept in the hospital but the cult leader came back to "haunt" her in a literal way - he wants her to commit suicide to join the cult on the other side. People end up dead when the cult leader tries to scare and drive her to suicide. Her psychiatrist falls in love with her and tries to help her.It's an OK movie... I've seen much worse than this!! It held my interest for about an hour and a half anyway.5/10

lathe-of-heaven This film definitely had the 1980's vibe going strong in it's look and feel. Usually, if you are one to like the 'Classic' Slasher films of that time period, you pretty much know what to expect. Unfortunately, although there ARE some scattered good moments in the film, overall I honestly got the impression that overall it just didn't hold together terribly well. The IDEA was pretty good, and for me anyway, ANY film that starts with almost a full rendition of The Electric Prunes 'I Had too Much to Dream Last Night' is pretty damn awesome. Some of the soundtrack choices were effective too. And, at times the director did create a nice mood. But, I don't know exactly what it was, probably the direction since the director usually has final control of how the movie comes across, flows, and ties together. You kind of got the feeling that the actors were just not quite really into it and I feel that that comes across in the performances. Also, there are many awkward moments where the patients would be acting odd or doing their thing, but to me, it didn't come across as believable. To me, many times it seemed like a number of odd, sub-par performances roughly strung together.Most decent Slashers usually keep a good pace and keep the action going so that the story moves quickly for the audience. I didn't get that here... I think that perhaps if it could have be tightened up a bit and if the performances elicited by the director and maybe the specific shots used had been done better, than the movie would have been much more involving and more entertaining. The only way I can think of to put it, to explain the overall feel that it gave me, is that it just didn't seem to 'Flow' quite right. But, like I said, it definitely had it's moments. But, I think just too many scenes were weak. For example, not giving anything away, but one scene with the hyper patient towards the end when he took Jennifer Rubin with him down into the basement or somewhere, the scene where he was throwing a fit dragged on and on and on and just really seemed like padding and was pretty stupid. Unfortunately, there were just too many weak moments, maybe not QUITE as bad as that scene, but weak all the same. Also, without saying too much, the 'twist' towards the end was an excellent idea and gave a nice added punch to the story. But again, it was almost too little too late... I really like the guy playing the young doctor (wasn't he the romantic lead in 'REANIMATOR') but even he seemed like he was trying REALLY hard not to sleepwalk through the film. Jennifer Rubin didn't impress very much; she just looked kind of stoned the whole time. She was a HELL of a lot better in 'NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3' Also, it would have been nice to see E.G. Daily do a bit more too.So... just rating this against other Slashers, I really can't get too worked up by it. I felt that even though the premise was very good and even though there WERE some good moments in it, overall compared to most other average to decent Slashers, I just found this one a bit limp, mainly because it just didn't seem that sharply put together. The current rating of '5.5' is about right; I gave it a '5' because I couldn't quite give it a '6' In my honest, lowly and wretched opinion, I truly think that there are a LOT better Slasher films out there...

videorama-759-859391 I had just recently viewed this again, and I must say, it was another fun view. Bad Dreams is like another side of Elm Street. What I dig about, is it's intriguing storyline. Surviving a mass cult suicide, beautiful, innocent, virtuous Cynthia, Jennifer Rubin, wakes up after a thirteen year coma, (apparently we learn the longest is 37 years). She starts off her recovery in a mental ward, still clinging to her dead friends, one big happy family at the beautiful Unity Fields, out yonder, where they swallow all of that, you know. And one thing you'll never forget about Unity Fields, the devoted cult leader, Harris, played by the evil faced, Richard Lynch, an ugly Rutger Hauer'ish looking guy, the one true acting standout in this. Cynthia strikes up a kind of relationship, with her principal psychiatrist, Alan (Bruce Re-animator Abbott) the only one who really agrees this is the wrong environment for her. Cynthia's sanity isn't really helped, or convincing to others of the medical field, when starts seeing things, mainly a resurrected Harris, who keeps reappearing, sometimes in not the most the healthy states. Or poor young Cynthia could be delusional. And why are the patients, suiciding, one by one, some of them in pretty gruesome ways, a couple making a death pact, choosing to go through a mini turbine creating a blood shower, as you will. Is it Harris, taking them, for Cynthia not holding up her end of the bargain. I don't want to give anymore more away, just to say, Bad Dreams works just as well as a horror as it does a thriller. The familiar actors, though you would have to be more of a eighties type to know 'em, give their mentally unbalanced characters, spark and oomph, especially Dean Cameron, a comedic asset to this slick horror, that will surprise and appease gore hounds who hasn't vide'd this one. Harris Yulin, an acting treasure again gives a fine, performance, as a shady veteran shrink. You wouldn't think this film of b grade appeal, barely making a showing at the cinema back in 88, would surprise you with such an effortful storyline, but Bad Dreams does, it's title indeed one of sarcasm. It's a short nifty horror, that's bloody entertaining, especially thanks to that handful of patients, and Harris.

Dellamorte_Dellamore07 Bad Dreams (1988) Director: Andrew Fleming (The Craft) ***out of**** Review After barely escaping crazy cult guru's (able Richard Lynch) fiery suicide pact, Cynthia (the very gorgeous and likable Jennifer Rubin) finds herself awaking 13 years later, in year 1988. Trying to get on with her life, she starts to realize that her fellow patients in the mental hospital start dying in brutal ways, and start seeing hallucinations/dreams/visions of Harris, the burnt up cult leader. Is he back from the grave, vowing revenge for Cynthia's survival, or is something more sinister going on? Rather then going the cliché way in my review and bashing this movie for its direct influences from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, I'll just say that they never got in the way of my enjoyment of this film. A lot of movies rip off others all the time, so I don't seem to ever get annoyed by these.The film has top notch production values, a very entertaining cast, and some warped out death scenes. You can see how the movie just wants to be a good thriller and does so almost effortlessly. I remember my dad buying a old VHS copy when I was 9 or so and not really liking it's cover, but since I didn't want to hurt my dad's feelings I stuck it up and pretended to be excited, and watched it, and ever since then I have a place in my (movie watching) heart for this, perhaps just based on that back story alone.One thing that I really enjoy is the actors. Lot's of familiar and likable faces in the house. I invested more into the movie by that way. I do admit the characters of the mental patients aren't fully developed enough though, I wanted to know more and see more about them, like the very sympathetic Lana (played quite well by Elizabeth Daily). She has a scene where she opens up her heart and I started liking her, but the movie is quick to get to the gore and kills and her plight is cut way to short. Same could be said for Dean Cameron and Susan Barnes.The directing by Andrew Fleming is basically there to serve the story, nothing to stand out. I would have preferred to see a director with a more unique visual voice (all of the Flemings movies never have stand out visuals) it would have made the movie more stand out, and his angles are pretty bland. Good scene transitions though.The soundtrack by Jay Ferguson was much appreciated and quite dreamy. Far better then his over the top attempt with Nightmare 5: Dream Child.The kills and gore are very queasy, and people who have dealt with a suicide or (god forbid) seen a suicide will surly be offended by this movie, but since I'm a avid horror fan I was never offended, but they certainly had cruel streak.Some flaws that hurt the movie are the lack of character development (as stated) and the movie's ending felt rushed, forced, and cut short. What happened to our survivors? I hate endings that never show the characters reactions after the events are over. One thing I will compare to Nightmare 3 is the ending, which was done there was well. Please take at least 4 or so minutes to better resolve our characters. The "surprise" in the end wasn't fully explored either, it somewhat didn't make much sense to me. What is this persons final goal when he succeeds? So maybe because I didn't want to hurt my dad's feelings at an early age, makes me warm up to this easier, or maybe it is just decent effort that can be watched from time to time. But be warned, this movie deals with suicide in a crude manner and surely will offend some.