Panics

Everyone likes to proclaim that the world is so much worse today than it ever has been. If you feel that way and weren't alive for the 1970s, allow me to debase you of this notion. The "Me Decade" was full of random violence, the fuel crisis, Three Mile Island, Watergate, Son of Sam, the end of Manson, Zodiac and religious orders that some would proclaim as cults, from the Process Church and the Moonies to Jonestown. We don't really have a modern analogue for these fringe groups that would spring up from time to time because it seems like the Hale-Bopp comet wiped the last of these off the planet.

That's the world that Bad Dreams takes place in. In 1975, the Unity Fields cult decides to commit mass suicide by setting themselves on fire under the command of their leader, Franklin Harris (Richard Lynch of Invasion U.S.A., Sword and the Sorceror, Rob Zombie's Halloween and God Told Me To). Only one person survives, Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin, Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), who still a kid when Harris set everyone on fire. She's been in a coma for over 13 years before she awakens to flashbacks of Harris being interviewed on a TV program. The final thing she sees is his face telling her that she belongs to him and he'd be coming back to take her life. This entire sequence is really well edited, showing how the cult's teachings had been accepted by every member, intercut with Cynthia being wheeled through a hospital as doctors struggle to save her life, all to the ominous strains of The Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night."

After awakening, Cynthia attends experimental group therapy sessions for borderline personality disorder, led by Dr. Alex Karmen (Bruce Abbott, the Re-Animator films). As she becomes more aware, she begins to remember more and more — including the thirty other people who died from dousing themselves in gasoline. Worse, she sees a burned and scarred Harris when she's trapped in an elevator, who reminds her that she is his property.

What follows is an insane scene that shows the parallels between group therapy and cult behavior, as the discussion room becomes Unity Fields and Cynthia watches everyone ladle gasoline onto one another. Again, another hint is dropped that Cynthia is a "love child," as her mother is also part of the cult. One by one, the members walk to the front of the room and are baptized with gasoline, before Harris takes handfuls of the fuel and coats himself before lighting the room on fire. What starts as a peaceful embrace of death quickly turns into horror, as entire families go up in a blaze of pain, flames, and screams. Finally, Harris reappears to tell Cynthia that she and she alone screwed up and that her entire family is waiting for her, as they cannot move on without her death.

Every waking moment is caught between reality and flashback, as even a simple shower brings back the violent baptism that brought Cynthia into Unity Fields. Directly after, another patient, one who wanted to know more about Unity's message, drowns herself in the pool. Another patient (the only one who has been nice to Cynthia) named Miriam attempts to escape the hospital. Helping her to an elevator, Cynthia waves goodbye, only to see Harris smiling and waving back. She gives chase, only to find Miriam's purse left behind…as Miriam jumps from a window, sending blood and glass all over the pavement.

The First time I remember seeing this movie was back in the late 80s, when it was being played on HBO late one night. I remember at the time I thought the movie was pretty cool. I didnt see the movie again until about a year ago , when I picked up a used copy of it. Since then I have watched the movie a couple times, and I think its pretty awesome. its got some scary sences, and its definately got that old style 80s horror feel to it, which I miss. Its also crazy how similar this movie is to the 1987 masterpeice,A Nightmare on Elm Street 3- Dream Worriors. This movie's main star is Jennifer Ruben, who played Taryn in Nightmare 3...and just like in Nightmare 3, Bad Dreams is about a group of troubled kids who are in a mental institution, being haunted in there dreams by a burned boogeyman. It was cool to see Jennifer Ruben in another horror movie. This, and Nightmare 3, are the only two movies I can remember her in. Check out "Bad Dreams" if you want to see another cool late 80s horror movie.

In the mid-70s,the members of the love cult Unity Fields sought the ultimate joining by dousing themselves with gasoline and committing mass suicide.A young girl blown clear of the fiery explosion was the only survivor.Thirteen years later,Cynthia(Jennifer Rubin)awakens from a coma inside a psychiatric hospital with only buried memories of that horrific day.But when her fellow patients start committing suicide one by one,her past slowly begins to come back to terrifying life..."Bad Dreams" is a pretty average horror flick.It's well-paced and visually interesting.The acting by Richard Lynch,Jennifer Rubin and Bruce Abbott,three actors ignored by the mainstream,is solid and there is plenty of blood and gore including knife through hand and some nasty self-mutilation.7 out of 10.

This film definitely had the 1980's vibe going strong in it's look and feel. Usually, if you are one to like the 'Classic' Slasher films of that time period, you pretty much know what to expect. Unfortunately, although there ARE some scattered good moments in the film, overall I honestly got the impression that overall it just didn't hold together terribly well. The IDEA was pretty good, and for me anyway, ANY film that starts with almost a full rendition of The Electric Prunes 'I Had too Much to Dream Last Night' is pretty damn awesome.

Some of the soundtrack choices were effective too. And, at times the director did create a nice mood. But, I don't know exactly what it was, probably the direction since the director usually has final control of how the movie comes across, flows, and ties together. You kind of got the feeling that the actors were just not quite really into it and I feel that that comes across in the performances. Also, there are many awkward moments where the patients would be acting odd or doing their thing, but to me, it didn't come across as believable. To me, many times it seemed like a number of odd, sub-par performances roughly strung together.

Most decent Slashers usually keep a good pace and keep the action going so that the story moves quickly for the audience. I didn't get that here... I think that perhaps if it could have be tightened up a bit and if the performances elicited by the director and maybe the specific shots used had been done better, than the movie would have been much more involving and more entertaining. The only way I can think of to put it, to explain the overall feel that it gave me, is that it just didn't seem to 'Flow' quite right. But, like I said, it definitely had it's moments. But, I think just too many scenes were weak. For example, not giving anything away, but one scene with the hyper patient towards the end when he took Jennifer Rubin with him down into the basement or somewhere, the scene where he was throwing a fit dragged on and on and on and just really seemed like padding and was pretty stupid. Unfortunately, there were just too many weak moments, maybe not QUITE as bad as that scene, but weak all the same.

Also, without saying too much, the 'twist' towards the end was an excellent idea and gave a nice added punch to the story. But again, it was almost too little too late... I really like the guy playing the young doctor (wasn't he the romantic lead in 'REANIMATOR') but even he seemed like he was trying REALLY hard not to sleepwalk through the film. Jennifer Rubin didn't impress very much; she just looked kind of stoned the whole time. She was a HELL of a lot better in 'NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3' Also, it would have been nice to see E.G. Daily do a bit more too.

So... just rating this against other Slashers, I really can't get too worked up by it. I felt that even though the premise was very good and even though there WERE some good moments in it, overall compared to most other average to decent Slashers, I just found this one a bit limp, mainly because it just didn't seem that sharply put together. The current rating of '5.5' is about right; I gave it a '5' because I couldn't quite give it a '6' In my honest, lowly and wretched opinion, I truly think that there are a LOT better Slasher films out there...

For some odd reason I was the hugest fan of this film when it first came out. I made my father take me to see it over and over again. And to this say I still watch it every once in a while.I guess the main appeal of it when I was younger is that the villain somewhat resembled Freddy Krueger and the lead actress Jenifer Rubin was from A Nightmare on Elm st. 3. The film doesn't offer much in the way of truly effective horror. But it makes up for it in creativity. It veers from the typical horror route going into a slightly more intellectual one and trying to induce psychological scares. Sometime they work and sometimes they won't. But at any rate the film is quite enjoyable with one hell of a twist ending. Maybe it's the nostalgia I feel towards it or maybe it's still because it has such a kick ass poster.