Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Bad Dreams Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson September 17, 2021

Bad Dreams (1988) is being released as part of Scream Factory's one-disc Double Feature, which also includes Visiting Hours (1982) on the other layer of this BD-50.

First-time director Andrew Fleming was fortunate that his script Bad Dreams, which he co-wrote with friends at NYU Film School in the late '80s, got placed in the reading pile of producer Gale Ann Hurd, who was then Mrs. James Cameron. Hurd told interviewers Michael Janusonis and Eleanor Ringel during Bad Dreams's theatrical run that she received as many as twenty-five scripts a day. "It was a real page turner," she told The Providence Journal's Janusonis about Bad Dreams. "It had a thriller aspect. It has a whodunit aspect, as well as a lot of comedy.” While Cameron was making preparations on The Abyss, Hurd was shepherding indie projects like Bad Dreams. Jamie Portman wrote in the Calgary Herald that the movie had a budget of $4.5 million and Fleming took 40 days to shoot the picture.

It's 1974 and Harris (Richard Lynch), a Jim Jones cult leader, has gathered his devotees (i.e., hippies and flower children) within a secluded home out in Unity Fields. Harris has convinced them that an afterlife exists even after they physically perish. Harris pours gasoline on himself and ignites both his body and the house. Twenty-six die in the fire but Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin), Harris's "love child," somehow survives the blaze. Cynthia awakens after being in a coma for thirteen years. She and other patients are in a Borderline Personalities Group at a neuropsychiatric clinic. She meets fellow patient Miriam (Susan Ruttan), a reporter for Me Magazine, who warns her, “If you want to fit into the ’80s, you’re at least two divorces, a condo and a yeast infec­tion behind the times.” Cynthia may now be in the "me decade" but an evil spirit from the decade before it haunts her and lurks around the clinic's patients. She sees Harris reappear again and again (including in a mostly grisly visage), which convinces her that he's not really gone.

Time for group therapy.

Bad Dreams came out only a year after A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors and it's apparent that Fleming, along with fellow scribes Michael Dick and P.J. Pettiette, patterned their screenplay after it and others in the series. NOES III also featured group therapy sessions and a badly burned killer invading a clinic during patients' nightmares. Jennifer Rubin is an important patient and character in both films. She's essentially the reason Bad Dreams got made. Cinema patrons and critics observed similarities between the two movies. The San Francisco Examiner's Michael Sragow noted that a screening companion men­tioned how closely Bad Dreams resembled Dream Warriors: "In the interests of more informed journalism, I rented NOES III: Dream Warriors. It turned out to be an instant replay of Bad Dreams — or, rather, vice versa." I disagree on the whole. The Freddy sequel has more interesting characters and while it has a bigger budget, it makes better use of its production resources anyway.

Bad Dreams did receive good press in spite of being a pale imitation of NOES III. Drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs anointed it as "one of the greatest horror films of the year...an excellent Nightmare on Elm Street rip-off." Chris Chase of the Daily (NY) News wrote that "it’s so good it can be admired even by people who don’t like horror movies." The Boston Globe's Betsy Sherman praised it as "a compe­tent horror thriller that's clever, well-acted and slickly made." The Chicago Tribune's Dave Kehr awarded it three out of four stars, describing it as "a thrifty thriller....a smooth, good-looking film" (By comparison, Gene Siskel, Kehr's colleague at the paper, only gave it one star ["boring"].) It made a pretty big impression on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Michael H. Price: "a solidly entertaining upsetter that should snatch a batch of fans away from the A Nightmare on Elm Street splatter series...[it] possesses the clout to daz­zle viewers who don't ordinarily bite on this kind of harsh entertainment. This [is a] witty and visceral piece....an uncommonly expert job of sight-and-sound design that integrates stunning visual images with jarring noises and orchestral stings. This quali­ty places Bad Dreams on a level of technical accomplishment near that of David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986)." The Sioux City Journal's Bruce R. Miller commended Fleming's understanding of the genre and his potential: "[Bad Dreams] borrows some of the best thrills from the decade’s scariest movies and comes up a real winner....this debut shows more promise than most direc­tors’ 20th films."

Bad Dreams Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory's release of Bad Dreams comes on one layer of the disc's BD-50, which incorporates the MPEG-4 AVC encode. The movie appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 1.85:1. As you can see from the screenshots, the picture is quite dark. Cinematographer Alexander Gruszynski filmed a lot of scenes at sundown and in the evening hours. He and Fleming de-saturated the colors (see frame grab #s 15, 16, and 20). Grain is well-balanced throughout the image. There are some tears on the image, however, as you'll spot one in the extreme long shot of Harris on a hill (#18). Scream has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 20000 kbps.

Scream provides twelve chapters for the 84-minute film.

Bad Dreams Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround remix (3899 kbps, 24-bit) and the original stereo mix, rendered here as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo track (2082 kbps, 24-bit). I listened to both tracks and each sounds fine with solid pitch and range (more so on the 5.1). Dialogue is generally clean and discernible. The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today" is played fairly often and probably has the most range of any sound. Jay Ferguson's electronic score has a theme with a synth choir that likely represents the spiritual voices of Harris's cult followers. Ferguson's "Goodnight Ralph," as it's titled on the Varèse Sarabande album, is a definite precursor to Harry Manfredini's music for Jason Goes to Hell (1993).

Optional English SDH accompany the feature.

Bad Dreams Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Extras duplicate Scream's 2011 DVD:

• Commentary with Writer/Director Andrew Fleming - this commentary track was recorded for Anchor Bay's 2006 DVD. Fleming states that he started writing the script for Bad Dreams when he was twelve. He recalls his mom driving him to the Fox lot fresh out out of NYU Film School. Although Fleming says hasn't seen the movie in fifteen years, he delivers a lot of good anecdotes and nuggets about the production throughout the track. When producer Gale Anne Hurd was married to James Cameron at the time, Fleming says the Aliens director served as his mentor, assisting him with story-boarding the picture and offering suggestions based on rough cuts he watched of Bad Dreams. In English, not subtitled.

• Dream Cast (21:34, 1080p) - a featurette Red Shirt Pictures produced in 2011 that includes interviews with actors Jennifer Rubin, Bruce Abbott, Dean Cameron, and Richard Lynch. Cameron recalls the audition he had for Bad Dreams during the WGA strike and research he conducted on Borderline Personality Disorder. Abbott remembers how he got the role, his visit to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his character's discoveries, and playing opposite Rubin. The latter recollects working with the grips, her conversations with director Andrew Fleming, and staying in-character. Cameron shares how he was unpleasant during a scene with Rubin, which he now regrets. The actors remember Lynch playing the saxophone in his trailer. Lynch talks about the long hours he spent in the make-up chair and collaborating with Fleming. The other actors also speak about working with the first-time director. In English, not subtitled.

• The Special Effects of BAD DREAMS (2:12, 1080p) - this interview with make-up creator/designer Michèle Burke is taken from Fox's EPK. As she applies make-up on Harris Yulin, Burke explains how she created the burn effects on Richard Lynch, who's also shown in the make-up chair. She offers some more information on how she came up with the make-up effects. In English, not subtitled.

• Behind the Scenes of BAD DREAMS (9:15, 1080i) - B-roll footage showing a car explosion and crew working in the parking lot on this scene. We also get to see how the crew did the scene of an automobile colliding with a person and some scenes inside the hospital. Presented in 1.33:1.

• The Original Ending (9:53, 1080i) - this alternate ending not only features an different one not in the theatrical cut, but also an extended epilogue at Unity Fields. Presented in 1.33:1 with VHS quality and TCR burnt-in timecode. In English, not subtitled.

• Promotional Featurette (3:44, upconverted to 1080i) - essentially an extended trailer with B-roll footage and brief interviews with producer Gale Anne Hurd and co-writer/director Andrew Fleming. Presented in 1.33:1. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:50, 1080p) - Fox's official trailer (unrestored) for Bad Dreams presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Film artifacts and dirt are clearly visible on the print.

• Still Gallery (4:26, 1080p) - a slide show consisting of fifty distinct images. These comprise production photographs, publicity snapshots, and posters.

Bad Dreams Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bad Dreams is a decent debut by Andrew Fleming but it's no Dream Warriors. It does boast solid performances by Jennifer Rubin, Richard Lynch, Bruce Abbott, Harris Yulin, and Sy Richardson as a detective. Scream Factory's transfer is likely the same one it used for its 2011 DVD but still looks in pretty good shape with some print anomalies that could be fixed. There are two very good lossless mixes. Bonus features duplicate two prior DVDs. Please note that this disc lacks a PDF of the script, which was on the Anchor Bay. UK-based 88 Films has an exclusive commentary and three different interviews on its Slasher Classics Collection BD-50. A MILD RECOMMENDATION for Scream's edition of Bad Dreams.