A man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but finds a conspiracy is hiding the true reason behind the research. A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in the dreams somehow and that is causing them to die in real life. He must find a way to stop the abuse of the power to enter dreams. Mild spoilers in plot description; be warned. A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in the dreams somehow and that is causing them to die in real life. He must find a way to stop the abuse of the power to enter dreams. An excellent cast and an interesting premise to back it up. A little bit dated here and there (Horrendous 80's score, bad blue-screen work among other things.) but there is a little suspense and some nice special effects (The snake man was great, either in stop-motion or man-in-suit form) and a fun climactic battle make this film an enjoyable, exciting low-budget effort. 8/10<br/><br/>ABOUT THE DVD: great DVD treatment courtesy of Image entertainment. The film is presented in 1.78:1 animorphic widescreen which is generally a impressive transfer for the films age, despite a few grainy scenes but generally the blacks are solid and skin tones fine. Audio is fine too, with a reasonably stimulating sound that packs at least a little "Umph". We get a nice amount of extras, including a special effects test reel, a photo gallery, and a commentary by the writer, producer, and effects artist. Despite the age of the people on this commentary, it's a surprisingly energetic commentary and these people have a lot to say. My rating for the DVD: 8/10. The idea is fantastic. Can you imagine being able to get into other people's dreams, watch them, interact with them. The problem is, the plot is inconclusive and becomes kind of a TV movie along the way. It would make a fantastic remake with a stronger cast and director. However, movies about dreaming are always scary because they touch on something so close and yet inexplicable to all of us. I saw recently a short movie from Italy entitled "Xchange" which is the closest to this one in terms of innovation insofar as the subject is concerned. Not an easy area to tell a long story about. Dreams are often used as omens or hints of psychological discomfort in movies. Instead, it would be great if they could be regarded as something different: a world of their own, a parallel state of mind no less real than real life itself. Someone should redo Dreamscape!
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354 weeks ago