{"id":23505,"date":"2016-12-09T20:28:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T01:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=23505"},"modified":"2016-12-09T20:28:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T01:28:39","slug":"dreamscape-1984-collectors-edition-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/09\/dreamscape-1984-collectors-edition-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreamscape (1984): Collector\u2019s Edition [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Between Joseph Ruben\u2019s \u201cDreamscape\u201d and Wes Craven\u2019s \u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street\u201d arriving at just about the same time, 1984 had a keen insight in to dreams and transforming it in to compelling entertainment. Whereas the latter film is a dark horror masterpiece, \u201cDreamscape\u201d is its own kind of cinematic offering. It\u2019s an entertaining and often intelligent look in to dreams that opts more for dark fantasy with a hint of adventure. It also sparks allusions, however coincidental, Craven\u2019s film featuring dream demons and a villain who in one instance conjures up blades from his fingers to attack hero Alex Gardner. Despite the coincidence, it\u2019s fun to imagine these films are kind of working within the same universe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That said, \u201cDreamscape\u201d is a very entertaining and underrated horror fantasy that conjures up elements of \u201cScanners\u201d and \u201cThe Fury\u201d to create what is a pretty ahead of its time premise. Dennis Quaid plays Alex Gardner, a psychic with a remarkable ability who uses his powers to bet on horses and seduce women. When the US president begins having horrific nightmares that are slowly eating away at his health, Alex is tracked down by his old mentor Dr. Novotny, as played by Max Von Sydow, and asked to help in their classified research involving dreams and the psyche. Alex is able to hone his abilities, realizing that he can use his talent for entering dreams and interacting with his subjects to help people and grant them peace of mind. But he garners the attention of fellow psychic Tommy Ray Glatman, who is growing envious of Alex\u2019s progress, and wants to ensure he\u2019s the only psychic in the program.<\/p>\n

Slowly, though, as Alex learns his way around the dreamscape, he discovers that program director Bob Blair, wants to use the psychics to infiltrate the dreams of their enemies and work as assassins, killing them while they sleep. Alex soon is on the run and hopes to save the president while Tommy has his own plans. \u201cDreamscape\u201d is an imaginative movie with a very original premise that always keeps true to its tone of action adventure and a touch of comedy here and there. Though Quaid\u2019s turn as hero Alex initially establishes him as something of an anti-hero, he manages to slowly build himself up as a hero we can definitely root for. The movie even establishes his kind of journeys, as he helps a man with a fear of a cheating spouse, and even bonds with a young boy who is being terrorized by a dreaded snake man that is horrifying him and making him ill.<\/p>\n

Director Joseph Ruben sticks true to the mold of eighties genre films, injecting a lot of awe and amazing elements to this universe, while also adding a keen sense of menace at every corner. There are a ton of horrific moments including a jump scare from a closet, and the great battle with the film\u2019s iconic snake man. But Ruben also balances out the fantasy beautifully with a well realized dream world that our hero Alex and villain Tommy can battle in. \u201cDreamscape\u201d is filled to the brim with a top notch cast, from Von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, and Dennis Quaid, to George Wendt, and David Patrick Kelly who plays a great adversary. \u201cDreamscape\u201d has so much potential for follow-up films, it\u2019s just a shame we never saw this concept and universe re-visited. It\u2019s by no means as scary as \u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street,\u201d but it\u2019s nevertheless a bold mix of horror, action, and comedy, and a very fun experience.<\/p>\n

Scream Factory includes some keen content including an audio commentary from the 2000 DVD with Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis, Co-Writer David Loughery, and Makeup Artist Craig Reardon. If you\u2019re a die hard fan you\u2019ll especially love this track. From the 2000 DVD, there\u2019s also a two minute reel of raw test footage of the Snake Man. There\u2019s a two and a half minute still gallery. There\u2019s also the two minute original theatrical trailer for \u201cDreamscape.\u201d The hour long \u201cDreamscapes and Dreammakers\u201d is a brand new and detailed look at the development and making of \u201cDreamscape\u201d with commentary from Co-Writer David Loughery, Director Joseph Ruben, Cinematographer Brian Tufano, Associate Producer and Co-Writer Chuck Russell, Editor Richard Halsey, Miniature Supervisor Susan Turner, Special Photography head Kevin Kutchaver, Visual Effects Supervisor Peter Kuran, Stop Motion Visual Effects Supervisor James Aupperle, Special Makeup head Craig Reardon, Miniature Construction guru James Belohovek, and David Patrick Kelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNightmares and Dreamsnakes\u201d is a twenty three minute look at the concept and creation of \u201cSnake Man\u201d who was originally, as they explain, supposed to be a Rat Man. \u201cDennis Quaid: The Actor’s Journey\u201d is a fifteen minute brand new interview with star Dennis Quaid who discusses his work on \u201cDreamscape,\u201d and his thoughts on astral projection. Finally there\u2019s \u201cBruce Cohn Curtis & Chuck Russell \u2013 In Conversation 2016\u201d is a twenty three minute sit down with Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis and Associate Producer and Co-Writer Chuck Russell, both of whom have a conversation with one another about their history together and their work on \u201cDreamscape.\u201d If you have any other reason to see this last segment, watch it for the implied reboot of \u201cDreamscape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between Joseph Ruben\u2019s \u201cDreamscape\u201d and Wes Craven\u2019s \u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street\u201d arriving at just about the same time, 1984 had a keen insight in to dreams and transforming it in to compelling entertainment. Whereas the latter film is a dark horror masterpiece, \u201cDreamscape\u201d is its own kind of cinematic offering. It\u2019s an entertaining and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[58,71,1490,304,477,678,703,874,906,1087],"class_list":["post-23505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-dark-fantasy","tag-dreams","tag-horror","tag-monsters","tag-mystery","tag-romance","tag-science-fiction","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23507,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23505\/revisions\/23507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}