IN DREAMS by DeWyNGaLe Rating: A-
Lately, many horror movies have been released. They are all the same- predictable and gory. In Dreams is a very different horror movie that doesn't rely on blood and gore to make it scary. Annette Bening stars as Claire Cooper, a wife and mother. Her husband is Paul Cooper, played by Aidan Quinn. Her daughter, Rebecca, played by Katie Sagona is happy. The three of them live in a big house, have a housekeeper, and are truly happy. There is something keeping Claire from happiness though. Terrible things, things that she can't explain. All her life, she has had dreams of children dying. She has a psychological link to a serial killer. No one believes her, but she knows she isn't psychotic.
Rebecca stars as the mirror in her school play of Snow White. She has been rehearsing her one line over and over again. Earlier on in the day, Claire had visions of a little girl being led through an apple orchard by a man. She suspects this is the child that has been missing for some days now. When she finds out that the remains of the girl were found far from an apple orchard, she is extremely confused. Rebecca gets the line perfect in the play, and her mother and father are very proud. After the play, all of the kids involved socialize for a while. When Claire comes to pick up Rebecca, Rebecca is not there. The police are out searching everywhere, but she is nowhere to be found. The next day, the remains of Rebecca Cooper are found. Claire is now starting to wonder if she is seeing the future of what this brutal killer is going to do.
She has more visions of what this man is going to do, and tries to inform the police and her husband about what is going to happen next, but no one believes her. She is admitted to a mental home now. Her psychiatrist doesn't even believe what she is saying. The thing is, Claire isn't crazy. She knows what she is talking about. She finds out in her room that the man's name is Vivian Thompson. A creepy phrase is written all over the walls- MY DADDY WAS A DOLLAR. It continues on and on. I have chills just thinking of this terrifying scene. She tries her best to find Vivian now and see what it is that he wants. She escapes from the mental home to track down Vivian. When she finally finds Vivian it is not a pretty sight. One of the creepiest scenes in any movie I have ever seen follows when she meets Vivian for the first time. An ending scene keeps you guessing and on the edge of your seat. What happens? I am afraid you will have to see In Dreams for yourself to find out.
In Dreams is the scariest, creepiest, eeriest film in a long, long time. It is almost impossible to tell what is going to happen in her dreams, and what is going to happen in real life. Everything is explained extremely well, and it was easy to understand what was going on. There is hardly any blood and gore in In Dreams, and this just proves you don't need the blood and gore to make a good scary movie. Teen audiences will trash this film because of the cast and the fact that it isn't a trashy slasher movie. Every scene is packed with action, the film never slows down. It keeps your attention extremely well. The film was very disturbing as well. Some of the images and sounds will stick with me throughout the movie year of 1999.
Annette Bening delivers a wonderful performance as she makes you believe the pain that Claire is going through. At times, she overacted a little bit, but that doesn't take away from her outstanding performance. Aidan Quinn gives a great follow up to his role in October's Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. He should get many more roles as the year goes on. Robert Downey Jr. is very mysterious and creepy. He makes the role of Vivian Thompson interesting, but at the same time extremely scary. In Dreams is up there with Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It may be a different type of film, but it is just as scary as Scream.
The Bottom Line- In Dreams will be in my dreams for a while.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews