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Dream Demon  (DVD)

7/10

Stars: Jemma Redgrave, Timothy Spall, Kathleen Wilhoite, Jimmy Nail, Susan Fleetwood, Nickolas Grace, Annabelle Lanyon, Mark Greenstreet

Director: Harley Cokliss

A new director's cut for this pretty scary this-house-possessed horror flick, hampered by an unconvincing central performance from Jemma Redgrave and unbelievable characters, but conceptually fairly interesting.

Redgrave plays bride-to-be Diana, who moves into a rented house on the run-up to her wedding with a decorated war hero, and immediately starts experiencing the most horrendous blood-soaked nightmares that not only strike us as convincing, but tell her the truth about her fiance (Greenstreet) and bring her face to face with the horrific past of the house itself.

She's soon joined by Jenny (Wilhoite - very good), an American who feels that she may once have lived there.

Have a housemate handy with whom to watch this one, excitingly thought out by director Cokliss, who has perhaps retained some of his own more livid nightmares and incorporated them into the story. It's armchair-clutching stuff.

David Quinlan

UK 1988. UK Distributor: Arrow Films (originally Palace). Colour.
89 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 19 Jun 2020