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Released by: Troma Entertainment
Released on: 9/11/2012
Director: Daniel Boyd
Cast: Jesse Emery, Marjorie Fitzsimmons, Laurie Pennington
Year: 1987
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The Movie:
The mid-80s entry into the direct-to-video world is the story of a handful of bus travelers who sit in the terminal and share recent nightmares they've all had. Yep, all the scary stuff is just a dream. With a cast of terrible actors, one by one they tell their nightmares to one another. Sounds terrible and it kind of is, but they seem like they were really trying to make something good.
A chick with weird eyebrows starts the whole debacle by waking up in the terminal after having a nightmare. Hers is about meeting a young man at the swimming pool who teaches her a few things. Turns out he's a ghost, someone who spilled his brains into the pool as the result of a diving accident. He terrorizes her with the help of other victims the pool has taken (one couldn't swim, one got electrocuted), and just as she's about to eat dirt she wakes up. This starts everyone else deciding to share their nightmares.
Next is a Boy Scout dream. No not that kind. The leader turns out to be a psychopath and tries to kill all the kids (and fails). Then a woman shares her tale about being in love with a newsman, who turns out to be a vampire. Next is the dream some guy had where he could bring back the dead just by looking at an obituary and wishing them to life. The dipshit brings back a psychotic murderer. Last is the dream of a college professor about some evil demon he released on accident that wants to eat him. But then, just when you think it's about to end and everyone gets on the bus, it isn't the end. Seems everyone's personal nightmare is on the bus with them. Who saw that coming? But that's not the end either. The kid wakes up in his bed and the whole fucking movie was a dream. In yo' FACE, M. Night!
Dumb story, bad acting, and lots of eye-rolling horror movie cliches, but there's still a little merit here. It's low budget filmmaking that really wants to be something big, and you know they really tried to make something decent, but it just fails on most levels. The effort is obviously there, but the quality isn't. Filmed in West Virginia, it's a nice little time capsule for the area in that era, not a real hot spot of independent movie making back then (is it now?). And of course the movie is dripping with 80s goodness. Huge eyeglasses, lots of hairspray, shoulder pads, terrible moustaches, ugly clothes…it's all there. The only thing not there is a movie worth recommending other than for the cheese factor or the nostalgic aspect.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Seems evident Troma used was a tape source, as it looks like a tape. Black levels are a lot less than wonderful, the colors are kind of washed out, and the image is overall murky. It's totally watchable, and the tape source seems at least decent, it just lacks the average DVD quality we're all spoiled with at this point in the game. The audio is right on par with the video: so-so but serviceable. Sometimes the dialogue gets too quiet and is drowned by the music bed, other times its fine. The a/v is consistently inconsistent.
For extras, a trailer for the movie, a few trailers for other Troma output, and the same tiresome “Tromatic Extras†they always throw on. How many times do they think we need to see that Tromette girl fuck up the name “Chaucer� Surely the people at Troma have other things they can share with their audience besides the same three or four extras on every disc. Load it with other trailers or something. Geez.
The Final Word:
Crap movie fans may dig it, yesteryear memory seekers might dig it, but it's pretty forgettable.
