Deadly Dreams

My review was written in November 1988 after watching the movie on Virgin Vision video cassette.

An interesting low-budget horror pic , "Deadly Dreams" provides an okay switch on the genre's morbid family in-fighting theme. Itg was released direct-to-video around Halloween time.

Mitchell Andeson's parents were killed on Christmas Eve 10 years ago by a hunter wearing an animal mask, who turned out to be an embittered ex-business partner who then committed suicice. Grown up, Anderson is plagued with recurring nightmares involving the hunter.

With adequate hints planted by screenwiter Thom Babbes (who co-stars as Anderson's best friend), the story paints a deadly conspiracy working against our hero, involving his older brother and girlfriend. Final plot twists are morbid enough to qualify the pic as film noir, resulting in a cold, vengeful finale.

Helmer Kristine Peterson, previously handling second unit work on Roger Corman pics, does a good job of maintaining the downbeat mood of the piece and even includes a somewhat daring sex scene that is relevant to the storyline. No-name cast is effective, including a cameo by one of Corman's '50s regulars, Beach Dickerson.

Deadly Dreams has mastered the art of...boring someone to death! The title says it all: dreams. The entire first hour of the film is nothing but a series of bad dreams. Over and over again. It really gets monotonous; Nothing real ever happens. The characters are dumb, most of the action that did take place just seemed to be filler stuff, and apparently everyone carries a rifle with them at all times. Not to mention that it's all totally PREDICTABLE. The entire time I was watching it, I just wanted it to end. Don't expect too much going into this one. As a matter of fact, don't even bother.

I remember the first time ever noticing Deadly Dreams. I was working in a Video Warehouse years ago and noticed the cover. Something about it caught my eye. It wasn't until years later that I would come to sit down and actually watch this movie.

Deadly Dreams plays off like an episode of Tales From the Crypt. It just runs 35 minutes too long. The storyline starts out with a family on Christmas Eve. Two parents and their son Alex wait for the oldest son to come to the house. When they receive a knock on the door, it isn't the oldest son but a man with a rifle who guns down the two parents. 10 years later Alex is 20 years old and often has horrible nightmares of the man who killed his parents murdering him. Alex and his brother both gained a hefty inheritance from the death of their Father and it looks like someone might be trying to get their hands on it.

For a movie that runs 79 minutes it certainly is very slow. We don't get anything new out of the storyline as Tales From the Crypt did have a story very similar to this one in one of the old comic books. At least the acting was decent in this film and the last ten minutes are interesting. Other then that, I was falling asleep at times.

This movie might be good for one viewing on a boring Sunday afternoon. Other than that, I would rather watch something else. 5/10

Every remotely experienced horror fanatic becomes skeptical when the words "dreams" or "nightmare" feature in the title of a cheap & obscure late-80s slasher. Back then, every aspiring director wanted to cash in on the success of Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and do 'something' with dreams/nightmares.

Kristine Peterson's "Deadly Dream" seemingly fits this description, but it honestly deserves a bit more praise and credit. This certainly isn't a hidden treasure or an undiscovered gem, but it does have a couple of worthwhile moments. The opening sequence, for instance, is quite heave and depicts the brutal murder or a mother and father - on Christmas day - by a hunter with a vicious animal skin mask, who goes by the name of Norman Perkins.

Norman Perkins! Get it? I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of another character named Anthony Bates, but he never showed up. Anyway, the murders are bloody and brutal, and little Alex who witnessed the massacre of mom and dad still struggles with mental issues more than a decade later. Alex has dreams and visions of Norman Perkins stalking him with his eerie mask. Then, inevitable, follows the clichéd and derivative middle section. Is Perkins really chasing Alex, or is he only dreaming it? Or maybe he's being pranked by his idiot best friend or driven loco by someone else entirely?

The middle section is quite dull, but the overall running time is luckily quite short, and there are still noteworthy moments, like the gratuitous nudity provided by Juliette Cummings and the many appearances of that really cool skin-mask! The climax also still holds a few neat (albeit predictable) twists in store. Overall, worth your time if you're an 80s horror fanatic.

This movie is as its title says....Dreams....ugggghhhh....

The movie is so confusing at times you never know when the dreams are real or not. The movie generally revolves around a man who was in the house with his parents the night they were murdered by a hunter in (I'm guessing) a wolf's head mask.

The movie moves along at all the velocity of a golf cart, with no real twists or turns. There is the underlying story of the main characters both in love with the same woman, who's playing both sides in order to get ahead (can you say gold-digger?) I'll give it a 3 out of 10, because it does have some nice nude scenes, with a very cool ending despite its slow story. However if you are looking for a great horror film, look away at another one instead.