Rainey Dawn It's one of those cult-suicide films were one of the members decided to back out of the mass cult suicide, which was death by fire in this case, she was the only survivor and ended up in a coma for 13 years in a hospital. They tried to find her family with no luck and when she awoke her mind was still in the 1970s not the late 1980s where it should have been. She was kept in the hospital but the cult leader came back to "haunt" her in a literal way - he wants her to commit suicide to join the cult on the other side. People end up dead when the cult leader tries to scare and drive her to suicide. Her psychiatrist falls in love with her and tries to help her.It's an OK movie... I've seen much worse than this!! It held my interest for about an hour and a half anyway.5/10

robocopssadside-1 Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) had 13 years of peace and security. Sadly, these years took place while she was in a coma. When she awakens from her long lapse, she is at loss with the world; and simply is not ready for the 80's. She finds herself in a mental hospital with an extremely vivid group of crazies. Quickly, Cynthia tries to convince Dr. Alex Karmen (Bruce Abbott, Re-Animator) that she does not belong there. However, he feels letting her problems out during group sessions will help her prepare from a fresh start. Sorry to say, it does not take long for Harris (Richard Lynch, Invasion U.S.A.), the sadistic organizer of "Unity" to come for Cynthia; and take her to a new light after death.Now first off, yes. Bad Dreams is a certainly not a unique story; but this is actually a movie that takes from others and succeeds, if not surpasses in creativity. The opening shot is purely an introduction of the cult itself and the suicide. Both aspects will haunt Cynthia for the duration of the film. Harris returns to her for one simple motive, because she survived. He wants her to join them in eternal bliss by killing herself. As long as she refuses to rejoin with "Unity", a mental patient from the hospital will take her place in perfect harmony.This was the first film director Andrew Fleming (The Craft) tagged under his belt; and the movie has many interesting shots to offer. Flashbacks and old video documentations of the "Unity" cult are shown brilliantly, leaping back and forth from close ups of Harris' face to his brainwashed followers. The flashbacks of him are mixed into video footage of interviews with the sect. Harris' supporters are realistically disturbing casting an emotionless glare in their eyes and so convinced that all they feel is love.The flashbacks that Cynthia has to undergo are the most unsettling. While in the middle of a group discussion at the hospital (Cynthia, Dr. Karmen and the crazies), she is whisked away back to the cult house, the day of the tragic event. She lives the nightmare twice. All of the group members surround the room doused in gasoline waiting for death. Anticipating what is past the dominion of life as the flames begin to spread over the carpet and hardwood floor. Then the fire attacks. Lovers clench one another as they burn. A father and his two sons hold each other tight as they melt away. Some are screaming in torture, others are crawling across the floor still believing they are headed some place special. In the center of all the carnage stands Harris in flames, taunting Cynthia to come with them. This is one of the most grisly scenes of Bad Dreams, and one of the best.Between the years 1987 and '88, Jennifer Rubin could not seem to stay away from mental hospitals, nor could she get rid of homicidal maniacs with a massive burn scab for a body. First, she did Elm Street 3 then this gem. She is no stranger to the horror genre, yet her performance ends up being only decent. Cynthia's character comes off a little hazy; a deeper perception of unstableness with herself, as well as things around her should have been made clearer. Overall, Rubin does enough to get the job done; she just does not stand out. Bruce Abbott plays Dr. Alex Karmen, and you can bet his degree did not come from Miskatonic Medical School. He grows a closer attachment to Cynthia than the rest of his patients; because he knows deep down she does not belong there. Abbott, like Rubin does a well enough job to keep the story sturdy, but nothing to write home about.Richard Lynch usually plays the villain in films, and he has the ability to do so effectively. Harris is still a different role for him, though. He manages to pull off being evil and menacing with a touch of passive serenity in unison. His appearance also comes in two flavors, regular or burnt to a crisp. That is right; Cynthia is haunted by visions of Harris in before and after the fire aspects. Lynch stands out here, and his significance in the role is one reason the movie succeeds. Dean Cameron (Summer School) plays Ralph, the most intriguing of all the patients. He is blatantly honest, and extremely on edge. When his tension builds, he cuts a whole in his body to release his anger in order to calm down. Anytime Cameron is on screen in Bad Dreams, he steals the show completely. This character alone gives the film a truly uneasy mood.The makeup FX are handled by Michele Burke (Terror Train, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview with the Vampire), and some gory suicide style deaths are presented. The greatest achievement is the makeup job on Richard Lynch, though. Harris makes Freddy Kruger look like a pretty face. He is totally barbecued from head to toe. The little additions throw this film to the top of the gross-out scale, though. His right ear hangs from his head by a tiny thread of skin, teeth burnt brown around the edges, and one of his eyes blinded white. Scorched skin all over his face and skull are slightly peeled and curled up, like burning newspaper around wood in a fireplace. This character is no joke, and Burke did a fantastic job at making him horrendous as possible.Somehow, Bad Dreams manages to be unique, despite its similarities to Elm Street 3. Ultimately, it ends up being all together different, and refreshing.

trashgang Well well, this surely surprised me. I didn't know what to think about this flick. The cover showed me some deformed hand holding a face. I catched this at a garage sale, 3 movies for 1 dollar. So I bought it. Glad that I could put it into my collection. First of all, it's a typical era movie, the end of the eighties. The slashers were over and movie makers were searching for new things, so they decide to make supernatural flicks, with the most famous Elm Street. Bad Dreams isn't bad after all, it's watchable for everybody in the genre. The storyline is simple, a girl is in a cult, the cult made a suicide, she's the only survivor. And waking out of a coma she suddenly has bad dreams about the leader of the cult. It's bloody, not gory. The filming is perfect and the score is nice too, only at the end they stated My Way as from a band but it's Sid Vicious, sure of it. Perfect performance by the girl and the leader of the cult. If you can catch it cheap, you won't be disappointed.

Dellamorte_Dellamore07 Bad Dreams (1988) Director: Andrew Fleming (The Craft) ***out of**** Review After barely escaping crazy cult guru's (able Richard Lynch) fiery suicide pact, Cynthia (the very gorgeous and likable Jennifer Rubin) finds herself awaking 13 years later, in year 1988. Trying to get on with her life, she starts to realize that her fellow patients in the mental hospital start dying in brutal ways, and start seeing hallucinations/dreams/visions of Harris, the burnt up cult leader. Is he back from the grave, vowing revenge for Cynthia's survival, or is something more sinister going on? Rather then going the cliché way in my review and bashing this movie for its direct influences from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, I'll just say that they never got in the way of my enjoyment of this film. A lot of movies rip off others all the time, so I don't seem to ever get annoyed by these.The film has top notch production values, a very entertaining cast, and some warped out death scenes. You can see how the movie just wants to be a good thriller and does so almost effortlessly. I remember my dad buying a old VHS copy when I was 9 or so and not really liking it's cover, but since I didn't want to hurt my dad's feelings I stuck it up and pretended to be excited, and watched it, and ever since then I have a place in my (movie watching) heart for this, perhaps just based on that back story alone.One thing that I really enjoy is the actors. Lot's of familiar and likable faces in the house. I invested more into the movie by that way. I do admit the characters of the mental patients aren't fully developed enough though, I wanted to know more and see more about them, like the very sympathetic Lana (played quite well by Elizabeth Daily). She has a scene where she opens up her heart and I started liking her, but the movie is quick to get to the gore and kills and her plight is cut way to short. Same could be said for Dean Cameron and Susan Barnes.The directing by Andrew Fleming is basically there to serve the story, nothing to stand out. I would have preferred to see a director with a more unique visual voice (all of the Flemings movies never have stand out visuals) it would have made the movie more stand out, and his angles are pretty bland. Good scene transitions though.The soundtrack by Jay Ferguson was much appreciated and quite dreamy. Far better then his over the top attempt with Nightmare 5: Dream Child.The kills and gore are very queasy, and people who have dealt with a suicide or (god forbid) seen a suicide will surly be offended by this movie, but since I'm a avid horror fan I was never offended, but they certainly had cruel streak.Some flaws that hurt the movie are the lack of character development (as stated) and the movie's ending felt rushed, forced, and cut short. What happened to our survivors? I hate endings that never show the characters reactions after the events are over. One thing I will compare to Nightmare 3 is the ending, which was done there was well. Please take at least 4 or so minutes to better resolve our characters. The "surprise" in the end wasn't fully explored either, it somewhat didn't make much sense to me. What is this persons final goal when he succeeds? So maybe because I didn't want to hurt my dad's feelings at an early age, makes me warm up to this easier, or maybe it is just decent effort that can be watched from time to time. But be warned, this movie deals with suicide in a crude manner and surely will offend some.