6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In the mid-'70s, a cult group called Unity Field commits mass suicide, but a young girl survives. After being in a coma for thirteen years she wakes up in a psyche ward, not remembering the incident. The psychiatrist tries to help her remember, but she begins seeing the leader of the cult talking to her from the grave, and the other members of her therapy group begin to commit suicide around her. Or is it suicide?
Starring: Jennifer Rubin, Bruce Abbott, Richard Lynch (I), Dean Cameron, Harris YulinHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 18% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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.
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.
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.
Extras duplicate Scream's 2011 DVD:
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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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