Rêves et cauchemars

I did not get a chance to watch it on TV so i bought the DVD. I liked the series a lot and it was scary, but... DO NOT!!! Buy this on DVD. Even though it was good i think it is a waste just because i only really liked a couple of the episodes. I suggest you rent it or catch it again if they show it again. I would like them to make another season but whatever. In order from best to worst these are my favorites (there are also ratings on each episode): 1.BattleGround (10 out of 10)Awesome!!!! 2.Autotopsy Room 4 (9 out of 10)Very suspenseful andthought out 3.Ulmneys Last Case (7 out of 10)Interesting 4.The End ofthe Whole Mess (7 out of 10)Very Interesting 5.The Fifth Quarter (Six out of 10)Okay not great but the most realistic out of all of them 6.You Know They Got A Hell Of a Band (4 out of 10)I only liked itbecause of all the icons they showed 7.The Road Virus Heads North (4 out of 10)The most scary but just not that good 8.Crouch End (1 out of10 it was just horrible!)CRAP!!!! TOATAL CRAP!!!!

/1/ Battleground had great production values and excellent cast in William Hurt. The first half was slow but it made up for when the doo-doo hit the fan later in the movie.

/2/ Crouch End is one of the few attempts at interpreting King's Lovecraftian inspired tales into a movie, and it mostly excelled at that. Great cinematography, good cast, imaginative directing and creepy special effects make this episode a perfect compliment to Battleground during the first week.

/3/ Umney's Last Case is unfortunately a victim of an over zealous writer intent on changing a lot of Stephen King's work in the original short story. Macy does a good job of trying to salvage this movie, but I would skip this story when renting the DVD.

/4/ End Of the Whole Mess will come across as slow, talky and a bit conventional to many, the writing is probably the deepest of the four aired so far, but that can't help the slow pace and melodramatic performances.

1.] "The End of the Whole Mess" - Very well done. Spot on adaptation of a neat little story. Livingston's performance is perfect - heartfelt and desperate. Henry Thomas was good too.

2.] "Battleground" - When I first read this story (about 15 years ago) I thought it would make a great TV movie - not a feature film - but at the time, I didn't think the SFX of the day could pull it off. This was a pretty good effort though, and I loved the lack of dialog. Hurt is not too bad either.

3.] "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" - Not bad adaptation. This was a good short story, one I always try to read when I pick up Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

4.] "Umney's Last Case" - Not bad story, Macy's performance pulled it off. I always wondered why the chose to adapt this one though, especially over some of Kings other classics.

5.] "Autopsy Room Four" - Again, great story, but the adaptation leaves a lot to be desired, and only because of the hokey performances, especially from Richard Thomas and Greta Scacchi.

6.] "The Fifth Quarter" - Good performance from Sisto, but again, why do this story over something like "Grandma" or "The Jaunte".

7.] "The Road Virus Heads North" - The only thing they got right was the painting. Everything else, including Berringer's performance, was cheesy.

8.] "Crouch End" - This was a good story, but the adaptation did not capture the creepy feel King brought out in the narrative. The performances were OK, and it started off on the right foot, but things quickly went south after they started wandering around the empty streets. I think director Mark Haber, just couldn't put his finger on what the point of that story was.

The first episode of Dreamscapes & Nightmares was an acceptable adaption of Stephen King's short-story, but not more. The second episode contains everything what makes a short-story by Stephen King fun to read. It is not what you see so often in nowadays' horror-movies. In those, let me call them modern, horror movies there's a lot of shockers and blood, but the episode "Crouch End" doesn't need that. Like the short-story it creates an atmosphere of horror, which neither the protagonists, nor the viewers can escape from. And this "all-around-horror-atmosphere" is what's missing in so many horror movies, but in not one of Stephen King's stories/novels and particularly not in the episode "Crouch End". Because of that, this is a show worth watching for everyone who loves the atmosphere and feeling Stephen King creates in his pieces of art! I'm very curious, if the following episodes are an exceptional adaption of Stephen King's style of writing, because this one definitely is!

The beginning of this film held my interest because William Hurt,(John Renshaw),"Body Heat", makes a bad mistake with a CEO of a large Toy Manufacturing Company. Apparently, John Renshaw is a sort of high class hit man and paid very well for his services, because his apartment suite is out of this world with a large indoor pool and more than the comforts of the average person. As John sits back and has a nice cocktail and enjoys having accomplished one of his tasks, he is taken by surprise and his entire life is completely changed. John becomes trapped in his own world and almost feels like he has been in an actual battlefield. Great story by Stephen King and I look forward to more of this Mini-Series.