Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) has rather advanced psychic abilities. At one time he had been part of a psychic research center but left the program when he was 19. Now he spends much of his time at the racetrack picking winners. A gangster at the track, Snead (Redmond Gleeson) wants Alex to pick some winners for him and sends a couple goons to threaten him if he doesn’t cooperate. At the same time the director of the psychic center, Dr. Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow), tracks him down and sends a couple guys, Finch (Chris Mulkey) and Babcock (Peter Jason) to bring him to the center for a meeting. Alex goes along with Novotny’s minions in order to avoid Snead’s minions.
At the center Alex meets Novotny’s associate, Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw) and another psychic, Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly). Alex finds out that Novotny is working on a government financed project, under the jurisdiction of the CIA and Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), that is designed to help people who are suffering from night terrors. To do that the patient and the psychic are connected to each other by means of electrodes. During the patient’s REM sleep the psychic projects themselves into the dream of the patient. They then can actively participate in the dream and alter it.
Alex isn’t really interested until he meets a young boy named Buddy (Cory Yothers) suffering from terrible nightmares. Alex learns to use his psychic power and ends up helping Buddy. Eventually Alex learns how to enter people’s dreams without being connected to the machine.
Alex is approached by Charlie Prince (George Wendt), a novelist who is interested in writing a book about dream manipulation. He tells Alex that something sinister is going on with Blair, who seems to have his own agenda. Blair is friends with the President of the United States (Eddie Albert). The president is having nightmares about being responsible for a nuclear holocaust. When Prince is murdered Alex finds out that Blair intends on using Tommy Ray to kill the president in his dreams and that he himself is a loose end.
“Dreamscape” was released in 1984 and was directed by Joseph Ruben. It is an American science fiction horror film.
When you’re in a dream world, the sky is the limit as far as special effects are concerned. Here the nightmare world is filled with darkness and shadows. It has a bit of a Mario Bava vibe to the cinematography in the dream world. Some of the scenes are drenched in red and often expressionistic. The storyline runs rampant from spy thriller to horror movie and back again in rapid pace, often making the real world look as offbeat as the dream world. It keeps your attention. The highlight of all this is the snakeman monster from Buddy’s nightmare that ends up becoming Alex’s nemesis.
The MPAA rating system, which replaced the Hays Code, was established in 1968. The ratings at that time were G, M, R and X. In 1984 the PG-13 rating was added. A nude scene between Alex and Jane was removed in order for the film to qualify for the new PG-13 rating. It was the second film to use the new code. The version with the nude scene was distributed in the European cuts but was never released in the U.S.
It’s actually a pretty decent little movie and has some good 80’s actors.