By Geno McGahee
The 1980s was such a great time for film and one of the films that had the biggest impact on me was the 1984 flick “DREAMSCAPE.” Remarkably, it came out the same year as A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and even though they are more different than alike, there are similarities that can’t be denied, including the bad guy having knives for fingers and killing people in their dreams. The idea of invading dreams is a can’t miss and it is executed very well in DREAMSCAPE. It’s a classic that seems to have been forgotten.
Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) has psychic ability and spends his time gambling on the horses and running from the mobsters that know that he’s got this gift. After a big win, he has to run from a bunch of goons and is soon nabbed by a couple guys that are working for a special program. Alex is kidnapped and brought to a large testing facility where he meets an old friend. Novotny (Max Von Sydow) has always kept Alex on the radar after he first discovered him and now that he’s doing this advanced dream research project, he wants him to work, but the answer is “no dice” or something like that. I’ve always liked the term “no dice.”
After a threat of contacting the IRS concerning his gambling winnings, Alex is onboard and starts to learn the program. Novotny has discovered a way to enter the dreams of others to help them overcome problems, but Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), the head of the CIA, has different plans. He sees the dream invasions as a weapon that can be utilized to snuff anyone that they choose. Tommy Ray (David Patrick Kelly) is one of the psychics that is hired to enter dreams, but he is a cold individual and immediately targets Alex. Tommy Ray is working for Blair and proved that you can kill somebody in their dream.
In the meantime, the President of the United States (Eddie Albert) is having terrible dreams. He keeps dreaming of the world in nuclear ruin. As his wife runs through New York City, the bomb goes off and he wakes up screaming. It was rather cool visuals. Blair goes to see his friend and tells the President that he can help him overcome his dream issues with the program, but the secret goal is to take him out because he is disarming the country.
Alex is dealing with the rivalry with Tommy Ray and has a budding romance with Jane (Kate Capshaw). During this time, Alex becomes aware of Buddy (Cory ‘Bumper’ Yothers), a wheelchair-bound kid that is having a terrible recurring nightmare. It is so bad that it drove another dream psychic crazy. They took the poor guy away in an ambulance…off to the nut house. Is “nut house” politically correct? Probably not, but I’m using it anyway.
Novotny refuses to allow Alex to help Buddy, but he puts his foot down and when he enters the dream, he meets snake man. Oh how I miss Claymation…they snake man was terrifying when I was younger and it’s creepy now. The film is shot so trippy that the dream worlds are scary immediately when you see them. When Alex and Buddy take on the snake man, it’s about as cool as it gets.
After the murder of conspiracy theorist and novelist, Charles Prince (George Wendt), Alex is given an offer by Blair to either become one of his assassins or die. Alex runs away and now is going to go head to head with Tommy Ray in the president’s dream. Unfortunately for Alex, Tommy Ray has figured out that he can control the dream and do whatever he wants in that world. He would be Freddy Krueger’s worst nightmare. At times, he has zombies attack the president and Alex and then turns into a snake man to scare Alex, and it works. It leads to a great conclusion and wraps up this incredible film.
DREAMSCAPE is as good as it gets. David Patrick Kelly was amazing in the role of Tommy Ray. He was the perfect actor to play across the likable Dennis Quaid. The entire cast was tremendous and the visuals of this film are very effective. The dream world for the snake man and the nuclear ruin were done incredibly well and even though we have Claymation going on here, they used a mixture of Claymation and some practical effects to really sell this. Quaid, as always, was great in this role, although I wish he didn’t wear those speedos in that one scene. I know they were selling him as a sex symbol, but that near thong is the thing that nightmares are made of.
I can’t recommend DREAMSCAPE enough. This is a case of everything coming together in the best possible way. There’s some unnecessary 80’s cheese like the guy that dreams about his wife getting gangbanged, but other than that, this is a pretty straight forward original horror film. When I was 12 I first saw DREAMSCAPE and I now have a bigger appreciation for what was accomplished. This is a great movie.
Rating: 9/10