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Bad Dreams

1988, Movie, R, 84 mins

Bad Dreams: Review

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This well-crafted and promising directorial debut from recent NYU film school graduate Fleming concentrates more on mood than on gore. BAD DREAMS begins in the early 1970s, as the leader of a Jim Jones-ian religious cult (Lynch) ceremonially douses his followers with gasoline and then sets them and himself aflame. Twenty-seven men, women, and children die in the horrible fire, but there is one survivor, a 13-year-old girl who escapes the inferno but sinks into a coma. Fifteen years later, the girl (Rubin) awakens and is placed in a group-therapy session geared to the suicidal. Soon she begins having visions of the charred cult leader, who urges her to kill herself to make the sacrifice complete. When she refuses, Lynch kills off the members of her therapy group one at a time. Although much of this is very familiar territory, BAD DREAMS' cowriter-director Fleming does come up with some surprisingly effective moments. Producer Hurd (THE TERMINATOR; ALIENS) and Fleming use their low ($4.5 million) budget to their advantage, capitalizing on the claustrophobic nature of the production, which basically employs only two sets: the old house where the fire takes place and the hospital. The cult scenes are particularly memorable, benefiting from Fleming's clever use of the Chambers Brothers' classic-rock tune "Time Has Come Today" as the segue between the 1973 and 1988 sections of the film. Unfortunately, the narrative's gimmick--a therapy group bumped off by a nightmare bogeyman--bears a striking resemblance to last year's NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART III: DREAM WARRIORS, which also featured Rubin as one of the Dream Warriors. leave a comment
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