Dream Screechers

The nightmare is real.

***Dream Screechers*** is a 2019 short horror film written by Dana Brawer and David Madison Calbert, directed by Jake Hammond, and released by Crypt TV. It stars Sean A. Martinez, Kristina Andrez, Chloe Castiglioni, Michael Maclane, and Katherine Pegova.

The film was officially announced on September 11th, 2019. It was officially released on September 20th, 2019.

## Summary

When a group of graduating teens celebrate with a next-level trip in the woods, the darkest corners of reality and their minds tear at the seams, letting in an unimaginable terror.

## Plot

Two siblings, Frank and Jules, are at a cabin in the woods waiting for the arrival of their friends. Jules is asleep on the couch as Frank tries to tidy up the house for the arrival. He hears his name called outside, and goes out to see his friend Mel heading up the path. Mel asks if Frank and Jules are still fighting, and Frank affirms her worries, saying that junior college wasn't in Jules' plans. He won't talk to her as he's the last person she would want to hear from, but Mel tells him that perhaps he’s the *only* person Jules would want to hear from. Frank reaches into his pocket to give Mel something, but is cut off by something rustling in the woods out front. He and Mel get up and prepare to make a hasty retreat into the cabin, but they are startled by J.P., one of Jules’s friends, who was invited on the campout without Frank knowing. Frank at first refuses to entertain J.P. coming on the trip, but is persuaded by Mel to allow him on, as it would make Jules happy.

Later that night, the group is getting drunk and having fun, but there is still some tension among Frank and his sister. Mel tries to relieve some of the tension by encouraging everyone to make a toast. She begins by toasting to Frank and his going off to college, asking him to not forget his friends before passing it on to Jules. Jules falters for a moment before saying that she always thought she and Frank would be leaving town together. However, her toast is interrupted by J.P., who tells the others that they’re being “too serious” and he has some “party favors” to help with that. He then takes out a bottle of Somnidyne, to Jules' excitement. Frank tries to act against the situation, saying that they discontinued the drug because someone had a heart attack and died from the hallucinatory side-effects. J.P. dismisses Frank's concerns and the story as a conspiracy and presses for the others to try the drug, that he’s taken it “loads of times” and nothing bad has ever happened. Mel takes a pill, but Frank is hesitant. After some pressure from J.P., he agrees -- but under the condition that Jules doesn’t take any pills. The three take the pills, and J.P. suggests that they take the party outside, as the trip is “wasted” indoors. Jules waits until the three are gone before taking and popping two pills from the bottle, telling Frank to suck it behind his back.

Outside, the group is having a gay old time, with Jules and J.P. play-fighting with one another. As the other two forge on ahead, Frank and Mel lag behind and talk. They look up to see a storm brewing above them, and raindrops start to fall on their faces. However, as they soon begin to realize, the raindrops are not water, but blood. As Frank and Mel start to freak out, Jules starts holding her leg in pain as her scar opens and bugs begin to come out of her leg. The group then sees something rustling in the bushes and start to run further into the woods. When they get far enough away to start to feel safe, tensions start to rise again when they all see a strange purple creature in front of them. J.P. laughs at the figure as he can’t believe his friends would think something so outlandish-looking was real. He then reaches out to touch the creature, expecting his hand to go right through it. However, he ends up touching something, and it is with this revelation that the creature roars and slashes J.P.’s chest, proving itself to be something truly grounded in reality.

The group starts to run away as the creature pursues them. It teleports in front of them and attacks Frank, grabbing his arm and bending it backwards. As it prepares to go in for the kill, Jules and J.P. shine their flashlights at it to distract it from their friends. The creature runs after them, and Mel takes Frank somewhere else to hide. She sets him down on the grass and gives him her bandana to bite on while she tries to set the bone that was broken, imploring Frank to keep himself from screaming. Frank and Mel have a soft moment after she helps him, but are interrupted by J.P. and Jules running past them and the shrieking roar of the creature.

The group runs back into the cabin and try to barricade the door as the creature attempts to force its way inside. The lights start to flicker an unearthly purple, and Frank is in disbelief, and begins screaming that none of this is real. After the third scream, the banging on the door stops, and the red rain on Frank and Mel's faces is gone. The teens start to wind down as Mel and Frank interrogate J.P. as to what attacked them. J.P. insists that this had never happened to him before, and that they should chalk up what happened to them to a bad trip. As he does so, he lifts up his shirt to illustrate his point -- however, when he lifts up his shirt, there is a large bleeding gash on his abdomen. Frank tries to put force on his arm, and starts to double over in pain.

As the group tries to get a grip on their situation. they realize that Jules is nowhere to be seen. Acting on a hunch, J.P. opens the bottle and finds that there's only one pill left, realizing that Jules is still outside and under the influence. He tries to tell Frank that his sister is a goner, but Frank yells at him to shut up and takes the pill from him. Mel, realizing that Frank intends to go back outside and look for Jules, tries to stop him from taking the pill. Frank refuses, saying that he can't abandon Jules after her accident. He gives Mel the letter that he was trying to give her at the beginning of the film, saying that it was a note telling her that he’d been in love with her since middle school. He kisses her and leaves to go find his sister, while J.P. holds back a sobbing Mel.

Outside, Frank finds Jules hiding in a tree. She pulls him down to her hiding spot, insisting that the creature is still out there and they need to be quiet. She tells Frank that he shouldn’t have come for her and needs to leave before he gets killed. Frank insists that he’s going to help her, and Jules remembers that she still owes him a toast. Frank tries to shush her, but Jules insists that Frank is going to do something amazing in college, and that she was so proud of him and refuses to let anything, even herself, hold him back anymore. The siblings hug, finally able to reconcile, but their moment is interrupted by Jules benign dragged away by an unknown force. Frank follows her and urges Jules to grab his hand, but something else grabs his arm and tries to force it backwards. Jules screams as an unseen force begins to cut her scar open, and Frank realizes that as long as he is not under the influence of Somnidyne, he isn’t able to see the creature. He pops the pill and the creature becomes visible to him, standing over his sister and slicing open her flesh.

Frank body-slams the creature and falls to the ground, and the creature attacks him as Jules screams his name. It then advances on Jules, picks her up, and starts viciously tearing apart the skin of her neck. Frank runs at the creature, trying to save his sister as Jules screams in agony. He gets her away and the creature pursues them, but roars in agony itself as it disappears into purple sparkles. Frank and Jules are no longer under the influence of the drug, and as such the creature is no longer visible to them.

The next morning, Frank arrives back at the cabin, calling for help as he drags Jules up to the porch. Mel and J.P. rush to their aid as he lays Jules on the ground and try to soothe her injuries, but Jules is unresponsive. Frank tries in vain to wake his sister, and Mel tells him that she’s already dead. Frank becomes inconsolable and runs back into the cabin, saying they have to help Jules, with Mel following him. J.P. says nothing, only reaching down and shutting Jules’s eyes before getting back up and following Frank into the house. After he leaves, black veins begin to spread from Jules’ eyes, and her eyes snap back open, her pupils now giving off an eerie lilac glow.

## Cast

 Jules
 Mel
 J.P.
 The Dream Screecher

## Trivia

* This is Katherine Pegova's first appearance in a Crypt TV film. She would later star as the titular monster of the 2020 short film *Harclaw.*

## Gallery

### Promotional Images

#### Teaser

DREAM SCREECHERS TEASER - NEW Episode Sept 2019 - Short Film Trailer - Crypt TV

## References

1. ↑ Tweet by Crypt TV. https://twitter.com/CryptTV/status/1171875541277822976?s=20 (September 11th, 2019)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1  Crypt TV. "DREAM SCREECHERS | "Purple Paradise" | Crypt TV Monster Universe | Short Film." YouTube, Crypt TV; September 20th, 2019.
3. ↑ *Harclaw* (dir. Rosita Lama Muvdi; February 28th, 2020)