Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Predrag The film tell the story of the sole survivor of an interesting hippie-like commune/cult led by a David Koreshish type leader. Yet "Bad Dreams" is a cut above for many reasons. The first being that the film is filled with surrealistic arresting images-in particular, the house where the mass suicide took place is an intriguing looking building, tragically beautiful. Secondly, "Bad Dreams" encompasses a fascinating character in the African American female mental patient who frequently says mysterious and pseudo religious things and seems to be the only one who knows whats going on. Thirdly, the acting by all involved is really superior to what you find in most horror films. Rubin is especially good at emoting and I am mystified why I never heard of her before I watched this film.This movie actually, was more a psychological thriller than it was a horror, yet it had elements of both which is what I like in a movie. I want to be challenged more in my mind than I want to be scared out of my wits. This is why Bad Dreams scores on all fronts. Bruce Abbott does well as the young psychiatrist who counsels his seven patients. It was written, produced and directed well. I can think of no flaws in the movie. The attention to detail was flawless like when after the blood sprays all over the hospital in later scenes you see workers scrubbing the blood from the floors and walls and ventilation shafts. That was realistic! They did not just assume that the blood was gone. Jennifer Rubin's portrayal of Cynthia, a naive yet scared girl hit on all cylinders. I so wish that she had not given up acting. She was by far one of the best actresses of her generation. From A Woman Her Men and a Futon to "Miami Vice," she could do it all and she shines bright in this psychological-horror movie. See the movie for her portrayal alone.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

lathe-of-heaven 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...

Mr_Ectoplasma "Bad Dreams" has Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin) awaking from a thirteen year-long coma that she was put into when the leader of a cult which her mother was a part of led a mass suicide by fire in a remote farmhouse. As Cynthia tries to assimilate into life again, those around her in the hospital begin dying in mysterious suicides— and the fact that Cynthia is beginning to see the ghost of the cult leader lurking around doesn't make things look all that great.This was one film that has been on my "to watch" list for a long time, but I have to say it was a pleasant surprise and far exceeded my expectations. Surprisingly high-gloss, the film, directed by Andrew Fleming (who later found success as a mainstream Hollywood director) was released in 1988 by 20th Century Fox with the expectation that it would become a blockbuster and ignite a franchise of sorts— neither of these things happened, and for understandable reasons, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this is a really well-made horror film, especially by '80s standards.The comparisons to "A Nightmare on Elm Street" are fair enough, although the truth is that this film really doesn't have all that much to do with dreams at all— it's really about the traumatic effects dealt onto a young woman who spent her childhood in a sinister cult, which makes for grim subject matter as is. It is a slasher film in an unconventional sense— that being that the deaths are suicides— but the setups for each of them are based on the maneuvering hand of Harris, the malevolent cult leader's ghost. Lots of great special effects here that should be taken note of, and really nice photography. The film has a polished studio look that isn't particularly common for slasher films of this era. Jennifer Rubin plays the doe- eyed, flighty Cynthia convincingly, and "Re-Animantor's" Bruce Abbott plays her psychiatrist/eventual love interest; Richard Lynch is in stark opposition as the wild-eyed cult leader, who spends half of the film covered in gruesome fourth degree burns.Overall, "Bad Dreams" is an effective thriller and is a surprisingly classy oddball of the late 1980s slasher crop. While the film's victim count feels by-the-numbers, it is still an entertaining watch bolstering some solid performances and a visibly adept craftsmanship behind it. It's no surprise that Fleming found success with his later more mainstream pictures given what he was able to pull off here. Worth some attention from any fans of eighties horror. 7/10.

Noel Barton Bad Dreams is a much better movie than it's given credit for. The problem is that it was a blatant attempt to cash in on the Nightmare On Elm St franchise and it's glaringly obvious, particularly with it's similarities to the third movie. I'll make my point with this list: 1. Bad guy gets burnt alive and comes back to haunt people in dreams (although in 'Bad Dreams' it's more hallucinations really so I don't know why they called it such other than to attract Elm St fans.) 2. Both 'Bad Dreams' and Elm St 3 are set in very similar looking hospitals where they have "group sessions" and one of the patients is played by Jennifer Rubin. The patients begin to see visions/dreams of a burnt man before dying.3. At one point needing a hall pass is mentioned which sounded like a reference to Elm St 1.4. A doctor in this is the same actor who plays a doctor in Elm St 1.5. In Elm St 3 Phillip falls from a high window to his death which appears like a suicide. The same happens with a character in this movie and the music in each of these two scenes are strikingly similar.I'm sure there were others but you get the picture. Otherwise they're really very different movies. Bad Dreams lacks the imaginative dream sequences and really over the top fantastic deaths of Elm St 3 but it plays things very seriously and a result is at least a much scarier horror movie. The villain is played by Richard Lynch which is the most perfect piece of casting as he looks scary to start with; you see visions of him both burnt and not burnt and the not burnt ones are actually scarier! What I don't understand is why they created so many similarities to Elm St 1 and 3 as the movie is very strong in it's own right and by the end you realise it has little in common otherwise. Maybe it was the production company asking for a new Elm St style movie so they tried a little too hard to please them. Maybe if it wasn't for the similarities this movie would be considered a classic. In any case, this is an underrated 80's horror gem with a great plot and scarier than average.