Wonderful character development!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

How do I begin to describe this? I have seen this title one time in my life, and that was one time too many. How do I describe that mess I saw? Okay, so we jump in the car, and take that trip down memory lane. I was 14 years old when I watched this...I suppose I was expecting a lot of suspense. What I got, was under and hour and a half of implausible chaos. Right around 1975, a bizarre cult that would talk you into suicide, led by Harris ( rest in peace, Mr. Lynch) leads his sheep into his world of belief. One girl survives, chickening out of the suicide ritual, when a fire erupts, leaving many casualties, and burning Harris alive. Now 13 years have passed, and the only survivor awakens from a long coma, only to awaken to a continuing nightmare...she is haunted by Harris, who still wants her dead. He won't kill her, he wants it to be a suicide. Wow! The high rating, people must be entertained, thinking teen suicide is a joke! What's a joke, is the fact that this was a successful movie back then. On the plus side, I admire that something new was tried here, back in 1988, when this was released, the market was battered by countless slasher and horror movies similar to its genre, Bad Dreams was at least something new. Almost 30 years later, I won't give this movie the time of day. It's uneven, I thought the story line was lacking, and it just depended way too much on soap opera drama. Not to mention...I thought everybody in this movie was weird, especially Dr. Karmen. What was there to like, when you can't even like a character in the movie? Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not convinced of it. There was more bad then good, from what I remember. All in all, I would encourage you to bypass this one up, it's not one of the better films, it's certainly not the worse, but just to save you some time if you're the average person...4 out of 10 stars from me. ( PS: THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE IS A MAJOR LET DOWN!)

The film tell the story of the sole survivor of an interesting hippie-like commune/cult led by a David Koreshish type leader. Yet "Bad Dreams" is a cut above for many reasons. The first being that the film is filled with surrealistic arresting images-in particular, the house where the mass suicide took place is an intriguing looking building, tragically beautiful. Secondly, "Bad Dreams" encompasses a fascinating character in the African American female mental patient who frequently says mysterious and pseudo religious things and seems to be the only one who knows whats going on. Thirdly, the acting by all involved is really superior to what you find in most horror films. 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. I want to be challenged more in my mind than I want to be scared out of my wits. This is why Bad Dreams scores on all fronts. Bruce Abbott does well as the young psychiatrist who counsels his seven patients. It was written, produced and directed well. I can think of no flaws in the movie. The attention to detail was flawless like when after the blood sprays all over the hospital in later scenes you see workers scrubbing the blood from the floors and walls and ventilation shafts. That was realistic! They did not just assume that the blood was gone. Jennifer Rubin's portrayal of Cynthia, a naive yet scared girl hit on all cylinders. I so wish that she had not given up acting. She was by far one of the best actresses of her generation. From A Woman Her Men and a Futon to "Miami Vice," she could do it all and she shines bright in this psychological-horror movie. See the movie for her portrayal alone.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Bad Dreams is a much better movie than it's given credit for. The problem is that it was a blatant attempt to cash in on the Nightmare On Elm St franchise and it's glaringly obvious, particularly with it's similarities to the third movie. I'll make my point with this list: 1. Bad guy gets burnt alive and comes back to haunt people in dreams (although in 'Bad Dreams' it's more hallucinations really so I don't know why they called it such other than to attract Elm St fans.) 2. 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. The patients begin to see visions/dreams of a burnt man before dying.3. At one point needing a hall pass is mentioned which sounded like a reference to Elm St 1.4. A doctor in this is the same actor who plays a doctor in Elm St 1.5. In Elm St 3 Phillip falls from a high window to his death which appears like a suicide. The same happens with a character in this movie and the music in each of these two scenes are strikingly similar.I'm sure there were others but you get the picture. Otherwise they're really very different movies. Bad Dreams lacks the imaginative dream sequences and really over the top fantastic deaths of Elm St 3 but it plays things very seriously and a result is at least a much scarier horror movie. The villain is played by Richard Lynch which is the most perfect piece of casting as he looks scary to start with; you see visions of him both burnt and not burnt and the not burnt ones are actually scarier! What I don't understand is why they created so many similarities to Elm St 1 and 3 as the movie is very strong in it's own right and by the end you realise it has little in common otherwise. Maybe it was the production company asking for a new Elm St style movie so they tried a little too hard to please them. Maybe if it wasn't for the similarities this movie would be considered a classic. In any case, this is an underrated 80's horror gem with a great plot and scarier than average.

Well well, this surely surprised me. I didn't know what to think about this flick. The cover showed me some deformed hand holding a face. I catched this at a garage sale, 3 movies for 1 dollar. So I bought it. Glad that I could put it into my collection. First of all, it's a typical era movie, the end of the eighties. The slashers were over and movie makers were searching for new things, so they decide to make supernatural flicks, with the most famous Elm Street. Bad Dreams isn't bad after all, it's watchable for everybody in the genre. The storyline is simple, a girl is in a cult, the cult made a suicide, she's the only survivor. And waking out of a coma she suddenly has bad dreams about the leader of the cult. It's bloody, not gory. The filming is perfect and the score is nice too, only at the end they stated My Way as from a band but it's Sid Vicious, sure of it. Perfect performance by the girl and the leader of the cult. If you can catch it cheap, you won't be disappointed.