Incubi e deliri

This fares better than much of Stephen King made-for-TV adaptations, though the episodes are hit or miss:

BATTLEGROUND 8/10 - easily the best episode AND an homage to the greatest made-for-TV horror ever, "Trilogy of Terror." There's even a cameo by our friend the Zuni Doll! It goes the "no dialogue" route, and William Hurt pulls it off well. The FX are ace. Loved this one. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill from here.

CROUCH'S END 5/10 - this is pretty awful and Claire Forlani has got to be the worst working "name" actress, but there's something eerie in it's Lovecraft-ness that I appreciated for a bit.

THE ROAD VIRUS HEADS NORTH 4/10 - Meh. It's good to see Tom Berenger and Marsha Mason working again. I guess.

UMNEY'S LAST CASE 7/10 - It has a neat noir-ish feel, mostly created by the inimitable character acting of William H. Macy.

THE END OF THE WHOLE MESS 6/10 - eh, this didn't translate too well, but it's watchable.

THE FIFTH QUARTER 7/10 - This one's sort of a heist story with great performances (Sisto, Samantha Mathis) and a surprising homoerotic subplot. Good stuff here.

AUTOPSY ROOM FOUR 4/10 - another King adaptation ruined by Richard Thomas! YOU KNOW THEY GOT A HELL OF A BAND 4/10 - I remember reading this as a youngster and finding it REALLY eerie. What's not to be scared of by evil dead rocknroll icons? Well, how about really lame evil dead rocknroll icon impersonators? This does not translate well to film.

There are honestly no words that can adequately describe how awful that episode was. First of all that episode was not set in London at all, in no way. I've been to London many times and it does not look like it did in that episode, it was so SO obviously some back lot somewhere in America. and maybe if you've never been to England you'd have thought it was fine but contrary to popular belief we are not all called " Archie " and say "bloody" every 5 words.

That was set in the modern day i'm assuming, to be honest there are no red phone boxes anymore. And just because they randomly placed some doesn't make it anymore like England.

And what was with that old mans accent??! seriously one minute it was cockney then the next it was some kind of Yorkshire! There was no purpose for basically anything that happened, the giant cat i think it was, offering the women a cigarette or a "fag" was so pointless and stupid and what the hell was with the ending really? A giant tentacle monster thing came out of the ground and took her husband away ( and turned him into a cat i think?). it made no sense what so ever! AND then the old man said something like " Oh no its happened again"? if something like that had happened before people would know.

I am a huge Stephen King fan but if I were him, I would not have put my name to that at all, i'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say maybe it makes a better book than it does programme and I can only hope that next weeks one is better.

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!!!!

Just to avoid any possible confusion, the above summary of Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a compliment. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen Hollywood completely decimate and almost sacrilegiously destroy King's brilliant writing. Needful Things and The Runningman are the worst of these atrocities, although they are far from the only ones. The remake of Carrie... the sequel that has nothing to do with King's novel... The Lawnmower Man (Which King sued to be disassociated from)... Christine... among others.

This mini-series, however, does justice to King's works, and treats them with the respect that they deserve. The acting is incredible. I can hardly believe that they were able to get William H. Macy, William Hurt and the majority of the other actors and actresses that they did manage to get for the project. Each is casted perfectly for their role, from the well-known stars to the little known gems. The direction is smart and clean; the set designs stunning; the animation (Battleground) superb, and the adaptations flawless. Each episode perfectly embodies the story from which it was based off of, and I cannot find any flaws in their translation into this mini-series.

I find it ironic that some of the upcoming episodes don't feature stories from the actual collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, although I suppose that they mean the title as a general one, as opposed to a specific one. At any rate, they were all well chosen, and I hope that more adaptations of King's work fall under this level of care and craftsmanship. I don't even mean novels specifically. I hope that ALL of his stories are likewise adapted as such, although I would indeed love seeing more adaptations of his short stories done this way (Especially "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" and "In the Death Room").

/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.