Dream Demon (1988) — Triskaidekafiles

DREAM DEMON

WRITERS: Christopher Wicking and Harley Cokliss

DIRECTOR: Harley Cockliss

STARRING: Kathleen Wilhoite as Jenny
Jemma Redgrave as Diana
Timothy Spall as Peck
Jimmy Nail as Paul
Susan Fleetwood as Deborah
Mark Greenstreet as Oliver
Annabelle Lanyon as Little Jenny
Nickolas Grace as Jenny's Father

QUICK CUT: A woman makes her way to England to learn more about her past, and ends up making new friends along the way.

THE MORGUE

Diana - Your average young woman in love, just trying to get through her day, but encountering unexpected fame when she becomes engaged to a famous young soldier. She’s also have terrible nightmares and just wants a good night’s sleep.

Jenny - A young woman from America in search of her past. Mouthy, stubborn, but friendly once you get to know her.

Paul and Mister Peck - A pair of sleazy journalists that will do whatever it takes to get a story.

Oliver - Diana’s fiance, and not much more than an average love interest. It’s almost refreshing to have a male filling the nothing role of “love interest”.

I believe you can get me through the night.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! We are back with a new review for the new month, and we are also back down to Earth, and no more aliens are in sight. To kick off things this month, it's time for another dream demon themed movie with uh, Dream Demon. A bit on the nose, that...

The movie opens up as we watch a bride getting ready for her big day, as sombre music plays in the background. So, setting the mood at a downer, huh?

We then make our way to the church, with the nuptials already under way, and it is clear that Diana is already having misgivings about this whole thing.

As the priest turns to Diana to say her I do's, she instead says her I don'ts, much to the surprise of the gathered crowd.

Her fiance, Oliver, is shocked, and filled with indignation over being humiliated in front of his friends and family.

Oliver gives her one good slap in the face in front of everyone, and she is having none of it. She slaps him right back, and she does it so hard, she pops his head off like a dandelion.

Blood sprays everywhere, turning Diana's dress into a replica of Lydia's dress in Beetlejuice, and she runs out of the church, into a throng of reporters and paparazzi.

She fortunately escapes that situation because IT WAS ALL A DREAM and she wakes up in bed with Oliver watching over her.

He seems MUCH nicer in the waking world, and Diana tells him about the nightmare, brushing it off as normal (And later these dreams will be excused as pre-wedding jitters). Diana also mentions she's not been sleeping well since moving into her new house. Girl decided to pile ALL the stress on all at once, huh?

After briefly meeting our other main character, Jenny from America, we follow Diana back home, where she finds it awfully cold. She heads down to the basement to fire up the boiler, and finds a creepy doll.

That night, Diana goes to sleep on the couch with the creepy doll in her arms, so it's no wonder she has another nightmare. This time around, with giant bugs scurrying across the floor. See, this is why you give any potential new home a thorough inspection.

Diana runs out of her house, and finds her way to Oliver and his family. The family is shocked and aghast at the sight of her, and we soon find out why.

Unlike the familiar dream where she turns up naked, she is instead dressed only in her wedding night underthings, and AGAIN gets slapped by Oliver, right into the waking world.

Yes dad, I know, the Doctor is important business. When the TARDIS shows up, you have to go, UNIT needs to be there. But sometimes I need you too, dad...

Diana visits her doctor, who tells her the dreams are a healthy and normal way of dealing with stress. But Diana doesn't see why she would be afraid of Oliver, he's only a very important figure.

And if you are seeing similarities to another commoner Diana who wed another important British official, you are not wrong.

Later, as she's walking to school, Diana gets accosted by Paul the so called journalist, and Mister Peck, the so called photographer.

Would you like a bite of my ice cream sandwich?

The interview ends abruptly when Peck asks her about all the men Oliver has killed in his military career. She gets the idea that these slime are just looking for a soundbite or a scandal, and hurries on her way.

Unfortunately, they follow her home, and continue to harass Diana. And once again, Peck blows it by asking about her sex life with Oliver. Which makes it pretty clear that Diana is a virgin. It is all about sex and violence with these slimeballs.

Fortunately, Jenny arrives and knees Peck in his namesake, and the ladies scurry inside while the menfolk hobble off.

Diana and Jenny get to know each other, as they chat and drink some wine, waiting to make sure the reporters are gone.

Winnie the Pooh just hasn't been the same since he entered the public domain

Also of note, Jenny seems to recognise the flat, and has a weird sense of deja vu as she looks around.

Jenny heads home and Peck pervs out as he peeps on Diana getting ready for bed. She hears some strange noises, and goes to investigate.

Weird things start happening, and Diana runs into Peck, lurking around in the shadows. He chases her down into the basement, which seems deeper than it was earlier, and the walls are oozing KY jelly.

As she runs around, Diana has a vision of a little girl tied against a pair of wings, crying for help. Before she can do anything, Peck chases Diana right into a pit of fire, which she just manages to grab the edge of.

Before he can send her down into the pit, a man on fire comes running out of nowhere, and bumps the photographer into the pit instead.

Diana wakes up because IT WAS ALL A DREAM but that line is starting to blur pretty heavily. Every time Diana falls asleep, it's like a little piece of the dream world escapes, until she wakes up. Like she's some kinda Rikki Sheridan in this.

Jenny shows up in the morning to console her new friend, and they head down into the basement to chases the shadows away, and look for Diana's missing engagement ring. Peck stole it in the "nightmare", making that line even blurrier.

The basement seems normal, or as normal as a basement gets, except they run into Paul. These guys need to learn the meaning of boundaries. And doors. Eventually, he wanders back from whence he came.

Oliver shows up and tries to console her from all this weirdness, but he instead comes off as a condescending man.

Oh darling, let the menfolk worry about these things.

Jenny agrees to stay and keep an eye on Diana, since Oliver has important man business to take care of. And it's not too long before another nightmare hits, where the walls crack open, and blood seeps out.

But of course when she tries to show Jenny, the crack remains, but there is no sign of blood.

While Jenny makes some coffee, Diana falls asleep, and promptly disappears. Jenny creeps around the house looking for her new friend, and finds the same little girl from earlier. Minus being tied up and crying.

Ah beans, the pipes are leaking blood again.

As Jenny watches the girl, her father runs down the hallways, passes straight through Jenny, and becomes verbally abusive of his daughter.

Suddenly, Jenny is grabbed by a grotesque mockery of Mister Peck, and they struggle for a bit. Being pulled into the Mindscape has only made Peck more of a nightmare. If that is indeed what's happening, and he isn't alive and well somewhere, and this isn't some...well, nightmare.

Jenny gets away by tearing the man's ear off, and finds Diana upstairs dozing on the couch. She shakes her friend awake, and the nightmare ends. But Jenny was never dreaming, so there's a lot of crosstalk going on here.

Diana consults with her doctor again, and she suggests taking a camera with them the next time they think they're in a dream, and get photos, proving it's all just a normal house. Yeah, we'll see how that goes.

They go into the basement, and end up back in Jenny's flat somehow, but they notice everything is off. Eventually, it clicks that everything is reversed. Realtors should have to disclose if your basement opens a portal to the mirror dimension.

Our heroines notice how wrong everything is, not just the mirroring, but the light is wrong, it's too dark, like the house is the only thing that exists, and there's no reflections. Godsdamnit, Mirror Master, what have you done now...

The Human Torch returns outside, flailing around, and Diana grabs the camera, snapping a photograph of it. All of the picture they’ve done, take photos of exactly what they're seeing, so these events are happening, to one degree or another.

Typical 20-something, grabbing their camera instead of trying to help.

At this point, Jenny does the sensible thing and says, "fuck this, I'm out," and heads back to her hotel to make a flight reservation home. Diana follows, pleading all the while, but she looks absolutely knackered, so takes a nap while Jenny gets her stuff packed.

While she dozes, room service shows up and OOPS it's Paul weaseling his way into the room to harass the ladies some more.

He gets in Jenny's face, and Diana starts to have a nightmare, but the so called journalist stops Jenny from doing anything about it. Both of them begin to shiver and fade away.

Aww no, Dianna is dreaming that they were generated by AI.

Diana "wakes up" as they disappear, and she heads to the elevator to go...somewhere. Doesn't really matter where, because the door opens up on the ground floor, for housewares, pet supplies, and hell mirror dimensions.

Paul comes running for the door, and the girl tries to close the elevator. She doesn't manage it in time, and a Paul who has been transmogrified, similar to Peck, but in it's own way, clambers into the lift.

The elevator opens back up, and Jenny escapes through the maze of leftover Hellraiser sets, until she runs into Peck gorging on so much food he's begun to look like Mister Creosote.

Can you push the button for the Promenade, I need to make sure Quark isn't getting into trouble.

Paul and Mister Peck are reunited, and bother Diana a bit more, until she punches her first straight through Peck's ugly mug.

Which is when Jenny wakes her up, ending the latest nightmare. She assures her friend that she is indeed awake, and they both make way to leave the hotel. Opting to not mess with the elevator again, they take the stairs, and again run into the nightmare journalists from hell.

Jenny is a slowpoke and doesn't get through a doorway before it closes, unable to escape.

Diana then finds herself in the flashbacks to the young girl, being further tormented by her father. She finds the girl tied up once again, but now the room is ablaze. Diana grabs her and absconds up the stairs to her basement, as the girl begins to freeze in her arms.

The girl ends up transforming into Peck, and Diana once again wakes up screaming. Oliver takes her to a hospital, and he kinda hints how he doesn't really care about her, only his image, and what she can do for him. But she's not passed out, and hears it all, so that's an end to that engagement.

Eventually, Diana wakes up, for whatever that's worth in a movie like this, and shuffles around the hospital halls. She finds her doctor friend watching an old film reel of the same little girl Diana has been seeing. And it is revealed that this little girl was Jenny, and after whatever happened, she repressed all her memories before that time.

How did they figure out that Jenny was this Jenny? I dunno, but they did, so just roll with it.

Diana rushes home, searching for Jenny, who is still wandering around the Mindscape looking for her lost Imaginator. She does manage to find her way back to the Mirror Universe version of Diana's apartment, just as the other shows up in the real one,. Jenny is the only one who can see the other, through the mirror linking the twin living rooms.

Mirror mirror, on the wall, who needs the most sleep of all?

They both end up at the basement door, and open at the same time, freeing Jenny. Kinda. They're reuinited at least, but still both in the waking dream.

Peck and Paul show back up to be creepy and ugly, and the girls get separated again. Well, that didn't last long. I'm gonna put a leash on you girls.

Jenny finds herself in her memories, her father looking for her younger self. He finds the older version, and I guess that's good enough.

He drags his daughter to the angel figure to tie her back up and seal her up in cement like this is a Bucket of Blood, and Jenny flickers between her older and younger selves.

In his haste, he spills some art chemicals, and as he's sharpening his tools, a spark catches them aflame, explaining the fires we keep seeing.

And lemme tell ya, if I had a nickel for every February movie I've talked about that features a man being abusive towards children who dies in flames, only to continue tormenting them in their dreams...

Since Jenny was just yelling at her father as he tormented her, wishing he was dead, she blames herself for the incident, and hence the trauma and repression and everything.

Jenny is trapped in her own memories/nightmare by her guilt, and cries out for help. Which gives Diana something to follow and relive her moment of saving Jenny earlier. It's nice when the game preps you with an earlier warmup.

That pretty much wraps up the plot, but we get a few buttons of closure, with Diana disposing of her engagement ring, while Jenny visits her father's grave.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: This looks really good. The image is sharp, all the colours look good. I know a lot of British movies from around this time that don’t look as good. This doesn’t quite have that “PAL look” a lot of UK media has, to me.

Audio: Sounds really good too. it doesn’t have a lot going on in the audio, but it makes good use of the space, and can be very atmospheric.

Sound Bite: “Here's to the death of sleazebag muckrakers." Careful what you wish for.

Body Count: This is another movie where deaths become questionable, and at the end of the day, I still don’t know just how dead some of the characters are. And even with that caveat, there still isn’t a lot of death here.

1 - It may be a dream, but I am counting the groom's head beheading, because it's just that good.
2 - Mister Peck is pulled into the dreamworld and dies.
3 - Then Paul also is pulled into the dream world.
4 - Jenny's father goes up in flames

Blood Type - C+: Not a whole lot of blood, except that ONE scene, but the makeup effects are memorable. And the multiple full body burns, in an age before digital effects. Not a lot here, but what there is, is memorable.

Best Corpse: Slim pickin’s this week, and you can probably guess that beheading is a definite highlight.

Sex Appeal: Nothing much to speak of, except a few scenes of Diana in her underwear. Which is made very unsexy since it’s through the eyes of Peck half the time.

Drink Up! Every time Diana gets slapped.

Movie Review: I’m not gonna lie, like a lot of British movies, it’s a bit dry at times, but I do like that from time to time. You get to know the characters, it is VERY well shot and atmospheric, and it has some of the best dream logic weirdness outside the Elm Street franchise. It’s so well acted, and even if the plot needed a bit more smoothing out at times, and it could use some more layers to it, it is a very well executed movie, that grows on me every time I watch it. Four out of five wedding dresses.

Entertainment Value: This comes mostly from the two reporters. They are SUCH sleazeballs, especially Peck, and the actor is having a blast embracing that sleazy, icky man, who gets all the more disgusting as he becomes a nightmare reflection of himself. It’s not quite full on scenery chewing, but it’s unpleasant in all the best ways. And as I’ve pointed out, the effects are great, and that beheading really grabs your attention immediately. It’s still rather dry of a movie, but it’s got just enough there, and a solid story, to keep you invested if you’re into that sort of thing. Two out of five angel statues.