Bad Dreams

Plot synopsis:
In 1975, a cult called Unity Fields commits mass suicide in a horrific manner—by fire—at the behest of its psychopathic leader, Franklin Harris (Richard Lynch). Only one young woman named Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin), a child at the time of the fire, survives, though she lies in a coma for thirteen years.
After she wakes, Cynthia is plagued by horrific flashbacks of her childhood at Unity Fields, and is forced to attend experimental group therapy sessions for borderline personality disorder at the hospital led by Dr. Alex Karmen (Bruce Abbott). Cynthia's visions become more vivid, and include Harris, who often appears to her with his flesh burnt. When her roommate, Miriam, is discharged from the hospital, Cynthia has a vision of Harris in the elevator with her; however, the doors close before she is able to warn her. Miriam is found dead on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, having leapt from a window in what appears to be a suicide.
A male and female patient are later killed by the blades on an industrial fan in a utility room of the hospital, which Cynthia also attributes to Harris, who she believes has come back from his death to kill those around her. Ralph, a troubled masochist patient, becomes enamored with Cynthia; one day, they take an elevator to the basement of the hospital. During an episode, he commits suicide by stabbing himself multiple times in the abdomen.
Awakening from sedation after the incident, Cynthia finds Harris sitting in her room, calling her his "love child," and urging her to commit suicide. Shortly after, Harris visits Hettie, a clairvoyant patient, in her room. Instead of allowing him to kill her, she drinks formaldehyde she stole from a supply room, effectively killing herself. When Dr. Karmel discovers his corrupt peer, Dr. Berrisford, has intentionally laced the therapy group's drugs with psychogenic substances (in the hope that it will effectively make the patients suicidal, and thus corroborate Berrisford's research), he confronts Cynthia, insisting her visions of Harris are not real.
Dr. Karmel then pulls an emergency alarm in the hospital, which elicits chaos. Cynthia escapes to the rooftop, where Dr. Karmel finds her standing on the ledge. Harris, invisible to Dr. Karmel, urges Cynthia to jump. She leaps from the building, but before hitting the ground below, awakens back at the house in which the Unity Fields members committed suicide. There, she is confronted by Harris, who welcomes her; however, it is only a vision, and she awakens to Dr. Karmel holding her by the arm as she dangles over the ledge. Berrisford, aware that Dr. Karmel has discovered his plot, goes to the rooftop as well, and attempts to push Dr. Karmel to his death as well. His attempt is thwarted by the arrival of hospital security, and Berrisford insists that Dr. Karmel is responsible for altering the patients' medication. He then pulls a revolver from his coat, but before he is able to shoot, Cynthia pushes him to his death.

Tags: insanity, cult, violence, flashback

Review:
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 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.
Which Alex knows that Cynthia isn't crazy and tries to end her bad memories.Directed by Andrew Fleming (The Craft, Dick, The In-Laws "2003") made an intriguing hallucinogenic horror film that has some effective horror moments and good performances by the cast.
This is one of the few masterpieces, when it comes to horror movies, of course does the movie borrow elements from, Nightmare on Elm street 3, but this one is far better, music, photography, acting and effects are class A.
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.
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.
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.
Bad Dreams is a fun late 80's horror film that feels a lot like The third part of A Nightmare on Elm St. Like that movie, Bad Dreams takes place in a hospital setting.
Although it is similar, Bad Dreams is a decent horror flick with some gruesome moments.The hospital setting in a horror film is always fun to me.
this movie is really nightmare on elm street 3 part 2,but instead of freddy,this time it's a crazy cult leader invading teen's dreams.
Only one person survives, Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin, Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), who still a kid when Harris set everyone on fire.
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).
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.
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.
"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.
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.
The scariest thing is when you witness the strong beliefs of cult members and just how trusting they can be.If your looking for a creepy 80's horror film (along the same lines as nightmare on elm street) then this is a great choice.
Watchable, sometimes offbeat and humorous horror film that seems as if it intends to coast on the success of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series but ends up going on its own merry path.
Making it entertaining enough to watch are some great lines and a number of amusing, attention-getting performances.The movie stars "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" cast member Jennifer Rubin as Cynthia, who as a child had survived a suicide pact engineered by ultra creepy cult leader Harris (Richard Lynch at his best).
Soon the people in this group start to die horrible deaths and Cynthia is convinced that Harris's spirit (which sometimes appears to her as a nastily charred corpse) is the one killing them.Rubin is appealing if not that good as an actress; at least she conveys a sense of naivety and innocence.
And one thing you'll never forget about Unity Fields, the devoted cult leader, Harris, played by the evil faced, Richard Lynch, an ugly Rutger Hauer'ish looking guy, the one true acting standout in this.
This may be because Cynthia made a pact to die with the unity, yet she survived.This movie had a similar Nightmare on Elm Street feel, but Harris is no Freddy.
Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin), the only survivor of a mass suicide by hippie cult Unity Field, wakes from a 13-year coma to find the spirit of cult leader Harris (Richard Lynch) urging her to take her life to so that he can finally deliver the eternal bliss he promised to his followers.
When she refuses, he starts to attack those around her.If you've seen A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, then you're going to get a strong sense of deja-vu watching Bad Dreams: with a horribly disfigured bogeyman who kills from beyond the grave, a group of mentally unstable people in an institution suffering inexplicably nasty fates, and Elm Street 3 actress Jennifer Rubin in the lead, the similarities are too obvious to ignore.After plenty of unexceptional Elm-street style death scenes, the film eventually attempts to distance itself from Wes Craven's iconic series by revealing its seemingly supernatural occurrences to be the result of mind-altering drugs dished out by an evil doctor; it's an ending that makes very little sense (precisely what the doctor is trying to achieve is unclear) and one which does nothing to alter the fact that this is a derivative horror at its most mediocre.4.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 5 for the spectacular fire scene at the beginning, which features some cool special effects and a few impressive burn stunts..
The blood-dripping scene in Bad Dreams strikes me, for the main reason, because the rest of the movie is not much of a horror film except for the occasional appearance of the cult leader from the beginning of the film turning up as a horribly burned corpse, haunting poor Cynthia, the lone survivor (as usual) of the tragic event at the beginning of the film.
It is, however, more entertaining than other bad movies I've found in the horror section lately, such as Neon Maniacs, which has cemented itself as one of the worst horror films I've ever seen, and not even bad in that good way, like They Live or Texas Chainsaw or some of the Friday the 13th or Nightmare of Elm Street sequels.
Ghastly horror item, which may have represented a dead-end for the slasher genre before Wes Craven revived it in the '90s, has cult-suicide survivor Jennifer Rubin spending thirteen years in a coma, only to awaken to a bizarre rash of deaths in her hospital ward.
It's pretty obvious that "Bad Dreams" was an attempt to emulate the popular "Nightmare on Elm Street" films, with the ever-creepy Richard Lynch being the dream boogeyman.
Bad Dreams is about a girl named Cynthia(Jeniffer Rubin) who survives a mass suicide,but is in a coma for 13 years.when she awakes from the coma,she begins seeing the leader of the cult.it seems he is still waiting for her to join him on the other side,and he will do whatever it takes to get her to join him.Richard Lynch plays the cult leader.i won't tell you exactly what happens but what results is a lot of blood and guts.if you're squeamish,you might want to avoid this one.if you've seen a lot of horror movies,then there will probably be nothing new to you in the gore dept.by the way,Susan Ruttan(L.A.)plays one of the patients in the hospital.anyway,i thought the movie was decent enough.it wasn't fast paced or anything,but it wasn't really slow either.it was somewhere in between.if you're into horror and you want pass a couple hours,you could do worse, especially if you catch it on premium cable,like i did.
Although this movie starts off incredibly slowly and at first seems like your typical annoying cult film, it picks up about 1/3 of the way in to be a great psychological thriller / horror.
There's a little gore in some parts, but what's a good slice 'em and dice 'em up horror without a little gore?If you enjoy Jennifer Rubin in this movie, you may also want to check her out in "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" (as well as the rest of the Freddy series), as well as a more serious role in the 1988 teen drama "Permanent Record".
Mostly from 'Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' (the image of the horribly burned leader even resembles the Freddy Kruger pizza-face!) and the group session looks inspired by 'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'.
Andrew Fleming's Bad Dreams upholds a good tempo, it has a great soundtrack (including a demented version of 'My Way' and a Guns 'n Roses classic during the end credits) and there's enough blood and gore to satisfy the most demanding horror buff.
The only similarities it has to Elm Street three are these: A burned up psycho, a mental hospital (in which the patients are much more believable than the ones of NOES 3) and Jennifer Rubin.
A influential cult leader, reminiscent of Jim Jones, Harris(Richard Lynch)seduces his communal group of worshipers to take part in a suicidal fire pact which explodes the house they live in..but, one survives, Cynthia(Jennifer Rubin)who awakens twenty years later to the care of Dr. Berrisford(Harris Yulin).
While the similarities to "Nightmare on Elm Street" are striking(..Part 3 in particular which also starred Rubin in her first film and was set in a mental hospital), "Bad Dreams" ultimate twist at the end pries it apart from the Freddy Krueger franchise.
Female lead Rubin, last seen in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 (!), may have hurt the film's chances of originality even more but she is good in her role.
"U-N-I-T-Y...Unity...Join us!" Too bad it never got an intended sequel...for 20th Century Fox was hoping to score a hit with the film as a continuing franchise, like that of the Elm Street movies.
Flash forward 13 years, Cynthia,now played by Jennifer Rubin (Nightmare on Elm Street 3), wakes up from her coma.
to claim her.....Ironically called Bad Dreams, the film is essentially a remake of A Nightmare On Elm Part Three: The Dream Warriors, everyone in the institution is haunted by the title of the film, and Lynch is essentially Freddy, burnt features included.And while its a watchable movie, and Dean Cameron is in it (and the best thing), it gets a little bland, and Rubin really starts to grate on you after a while.Lynch pops up every now and again in his Bonanza outfit, to say something sinister, and one by one people die, much to the perplextion of a running doctor, but the narrative doesn't compliment the story.There are a few standout scenes, the opening sequence is amazing, but it really falls apart when we hit present day....
Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) had 13 years of peace and security.
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.
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.
***SPOILERS*** Top rate production values make "Bad Dreams" a notch or two above the average blood-splatter horror movie with a fine and very convincing performance by Jennifer Rubin as Cynthia a Wacco-like, this in a film that was made some five years before the tragedy at Wacco ever even happened, cult survivor who ended up in a coma that lasted for 13 years.Being put in a mental clinic for borderline personalities Cynthia is suddenly visited by her former and dead cult Guru Harris,Richard Lynch, who died together with his cult followers in a flaming holocaust, that he started, back at their cult headquarters or home in 1975.
You like Cynthia don't exactly know if your in the real world or some kind of dream world with a number of scenes in the film making no sense at all looking like their spaced-out or drug-induced hallucinations.Every time that Harris shows up one of the patient's at the hospital ends up killing themselves which causes Cynthia to feel guilty that she's alive and, like Harris keeps telling her, wan't to join him in the world beyond.
Bad Dreams (1988) Directed by: Andrew Fleming Story by: Andrew Fleming & Michael Dick & P.J Pettiete & Yuri Zeltster Screenplay by: Andrew Fleming and Steven E De Souza Review: Bad Dreams is a late 80's horror movie that's often overlooked, it's got some good performances from Bruce Abbot, Jennifer Rubin and Richard Lynch.
The rest of the cast do a pretty good job too.The movie does have a few similarities to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors such has the burnt villain, the mental hospital and patients.
The film has some pretty good FX such has the burnt body of Harris (Richard Lynch) and the gore effects.
Bad Dreams starts in the 70's where the Unity Fields cult, who believe in a perfect society created by love & trust, lead by a nutter called Harris (Richard Lynch) decide to make the ultimate sacrifice & commit suicide together.
The similarity with A Nightmmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) in particular is striking, the group of psychiatric patients fighting against a villain from beyond the grave, the doctors who won't believe them & the two films in general feel & look very alike.
The acting is good from a competent cast.Bad Dreams sounds like some cheap dull horror flick & at first it seems like an Elm Street film rip-off but it's more than that & once it's got you thinking you know exactly what's going to happen it springs a twist ending out of nowhere, I just wish it made a bit more sense.
"Bad Dreams" is a pretty decent film.**SPOILERS**Years after being the soul survivor of cult leader Harris, (Richard Lynch) mass suicide, Cynthia, (Jennifer Rubin) wakes up from a coma and is placed into a group therapy session by her psychiatrist, Dr. Berrisford, (Harris Yulin) under the care of Dr. Alex Karmen, (Bruce Abbott) to adjust her to the new era.
All in all, this was pretty decent.The Bad News: One of the things with this film is that it bares so many similarities to the "Nightmare on Elm Street" films that it could very easily be in that series and not feel very out-of-place.