Despite being saddled with one of those supremely irritating "dream vs. reality" type plots, DREAM DEMON is a surprisingly well-made British horror film which could be considered the British equivalent of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The budget may have been low (especially considering the state of British cinema in the '80s) but the producers of this movie picked some fairly good actors and mixed them into a complicated plot involving a girl's dreams which become reality. This is a film which manages to be pretty suspenseful in places and even - wow! - scary on occasion. I wouldn't consider it a great movie but it passes the time nicely and has some over-the-top splatter for gore fans to enjoy, while displaying an imagination usually lacking in late '80s cinema.Opening with a superbly crafted shock scene involving a decapitation at a wedding of all places, the film alternates between reality and dreamscapes repeatedly with the lines between the two becoming ever more blurred. Shots of heroines running down weirdly-lit netherworldly corridors deserve a nod to HELLRAISER, that other major late '80s British horror movie, but the script remains unpredictable at all times. The cast is an interesting one, with Jemma Redgrave giving a powerful performance in the leading role as the dreamer, with Kathleen Wilhoite as her imported American friend (shame about that dated haircut though). Surprisingly the heavies are played by Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail, two well-known British comedy actors. The surprising thing is that they're actually very good as the two loathsome reporters, with Spall being particularly repulsive.The splatter effects are kept to a minimum but tend to go over-the-top when they do appear. In all the film doesn't really make much sense (at least to this viewer), and with the flashback to the burning figure I wasn't really sure how that linked to all of the terror. Still, there is plenty to be entertained by for the horror fan including walls which crack and bleed and lots of shadowy menace. An intriguing effort.

Sort of a send-up of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Dream Demon" must be the only horror flick that references the Falklands War. The plot is pretty routine - woman starts having nightmares and it turns out that they relate to her past - but I liked the gag that they pulled in the opening scene; seriously, not even the Evil Dead movies thought of that! The only cast member whom I recognized is Timothy Spall (Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies). His character got to experience the REALLY ugly stuff, and I suspect that it was fun to create those makeup effects. Overall, this movie is probably worth seeing once.PS: at the 1988 Fantasporto festival (held in Porto, Portugal), "Dream Demon" got nominated for Best Foreign Film.

Dream Demon starts at a wedding as the Minister (Richard Warner) ask's the bride Diana Markham (Jemma Redgrave) to take her vows but she hesitates & declines so the groom Oliver Hall (Mark Greenstreet) slaps her across the face, Diana ain't going to take that sort of thing so slaps him back which makes his head fly off his body & fountains of blood spurt everywhere. Diana suddenly wakes up, it was just a horrible nightmare. Diana is in reality engaged to Falklands War hero Oliver & their wedding becomes a big story with two local scumbag reporters Paul Lawrence (Jimmy Nail) & Russell Peck (Timothy Spall) who constantly hassle her for a story & try to dig a bit of dirt up if you know what I mean. One day Diana befriends an American teenager named Jenny Hoffman (Kathleen Wilhoite) who claims she can't remember anything about her childhood but then confusingly says she remembers growing up in the house in which Diana now lives having just moved in a mere 2 weeks ago. Diana continues to have terrifying nightmares, a doll that a large maggot crawls out off, the basement turning into a labyrinth of dark corridors, a split in the wall appearing & starting to pour with blood & both Paul & Russell turn up horribly disfigured taunting her. Jenny also starts to experience Diana's nightmares, but in reality while Diana sleeps. Diana starts to lose her grip on reality as her nightmares take over, is it all in Diana's imagination? Is the sudden appearance of Jenny a mere coincidence? Is the house somehow involved? Is there a purpose to these gruesome nightmares? You will have to watch it to find out...This British produced film was co-written & directed by Harley Cokeliss & while I thought Dream Demon had potential it ultimately disappoints. The script by Cokeliss & Christopher Wicking is at fault here, basically it's one big unexplained mess. Even now I simply don't know what really happened & I finished watching it mere hours ago, where do the two newspaper journalists come into it? What were their purpose & why do they just walk off at the end discussing fast food? Why does not one single person die during the entire film? Where's the horror & threat? Why does Jenny not remember anything about her childhood but specifically remembers the exact house she grew up in in London? I mean London is a pretty big place you know & considering she can't remember anything else... What were the meaning & purpose of these nightmares? I know it recounts the house's past but why? Nothing is put right, nothing is avenged, nothing is resolved & at the end nothing has changed from when Dream Demon started. One final baffling question, does anyone else think Kathleen Wilhoite looks like a man? That jaw line, that nose & her face in general screams transvestite! On the positive side director Cokeliss manages to create some terrific sequences, I absolutely love that wedding scene at the beginning! The scenes that feature the disfigured Paul & Russell are pretty creepy especially a scene in a lift, I don't know what they did to Jimmy Nail to make him look the way he did but he gave me the creeps big time! It moves along at a nice pace but for the first hour or so it's just Diana having a nightmare, waking up & telling people about it & then having another nightmare, waking up again & telling people that she's had another one, & so this pattern continues for over an hour & I found it started to become dull as I wanted some sort of explanation of what was going on. The slightest hint of a story would have helped, there are also various plot threads that are left unexplored like the possible child abuse suffered by Jenny, the Angel symbolism, the two-timing fiancé & Diana's virginity & marital fears. There are some impressive gore effects too, the aforementioned decapitation at the wedding, a fist punched through someones head & some gory make-up effects plastered on Spall including him having his ear pulled off. It's just a shame there wasn't more of them & that ultimately they were all only dreams & everyone in the film survives. With a modest budget of about £3,000,000 Dream Demon has nice production design & is well made with a certain class & the late 80's London setting makes it feel a little different. The acting is surprisingly strong throughout except Kathleen Wilhoite, now I have nothing against her but she does look like a bloke & she is both terrible & annoying in her role, urgh. Well what can I say to sum up? There is no dream demon that the title refers to, it has a very loose poorly thought out story which is confusing & when all said & done Dream Demon disappointed & in no way could be described as the British A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). It's unusual & has some great ideas & individual scenes but isn't something that I could recommend to the casual film-goer, however die-hard horror fans would probably get something out of it but just don't expect too much.

"Dream Demon" features some imaginative visuals and clever camera shots, but is doomed by its terribly confusing, almost indecipherable plot. When it's all over, few answers have been given to the viewer and the rules of the dream-vs-reality game are never explained. This picture remains a blurry enigma from beginning to end. (*1/2)