FilmSkool — a free film school
Bad Dreams
Unity Field, a "free love" cult from the '70s, is mostly remembered for its notorious mass suicide led by Harris, its charismatic leader. While all members are supposed to burn in a fire together, young Cynthia is spared by chance. Years later, the nightmare of Unity Field remains buried in her mind. But when those around Cynthia start killing themselves, and she begins having visions of Harris, she may be forced to confront the past -- before it confronts her.
1988 · Directed by Andrew Fleming · 86 min · Horror · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 2 frames
Tagline
When Cynthia wakes up, she'll wish she were dead...
Plot
In 1975, a cult called Unity Fields commits mass suicide by fire at the behest of its psychopathic leader, Franklin Harris. Cynthia Weston, a child in the cult, refuses to commit suicide and is the sole survivor, but remains comatose.
Thirteen years later, Cynthia awakens from her coma in the hospital. Plagued by disturbing flashbacks of her childhood, Cynthia is forced to attend experimental group therapy sessions for borderline personality disorder at the facility, led by Dr. Alex Karmen. Cynthia is soon visited by visions of a burnt Harris, who beckons her to end her life and attacks fellow patients. In one vision, patient Lana, is drowned by Harris in a baptismal ceremony; moments later, she is found dead in the swimming pool. Cynthia's roommate, Miriam, subsequently dies after leaping from a window in an apparent suicide. Alex reassures Cynthia she is not to blame for the deaths.
Ed and Connie, patients who are lovers, are later killed by walking together into the blades of an industrial fan in the utility room of the hospital. Ralph Pesco, a troubled masochist patient with a tendency for violent outbursts, becomes enamored with Cynthia; finding himself on the edge after the deaths of his fellow members in the group, he knocks down a policeman who was watching him, and goes to talk to Cynthia, who was spending the night with Dr. Karmen in order to feel safe. When he is distracted, Ralph and Cynthia take an elevator to the basement of the hospital. There, during an apparent episode of psychosis and violence, he commits suicide by stabbing himself multiple times.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Andrew Fleming, Steven E. de Souza
- Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski
- Edited by: Jeff Freeman
- Music: Jay Ferguson
- Production design: Ivo Cristante
- Produced by: Gale Anne Hurd
Cast
- Jennifer Rubin as Cynthia
- Bruce Abbott as Dr. Alex Karmen
- Richard Lynch as Harris
- Dean Cameron as Ralph
- Harris Yulin as Dr. Berrisford
- Susan Barnes as Connie
- John Scott Clough as Victor
- E. G. Daily as Lana
- Damita Jo Freeman as Gilda
- Louis Giambalvo as Ed
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: No Frills Film, 20th Century Fox
- Budget: $4,000,000
- Box office: $9,797,098
- Themes: suicide, fire, cult, burned alive, slasher, mass suicide, cult leader
More by Andrew Fleming
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.