Uneasy Dreams

I'll never make fun of Jemma Redgrave again, not after seeing 1988's Dream Demon. She and Kathleen Wilhoite play a couple of unlikely friends trying to navigate a series of nightmares suddenly encroaching on waking life. There's some genuinely creepy stuff in this movie but the main appeal is in these two characters.

Redgrave plays Diana, a conservative young schoolteacher in London who's preparing for her marriage to a decorated military officer, an '80s tanned, blonde douche called Oliver.

We don't have reason to suspect he's a douche, though, except from Diana's dreams. In her dreams, he suddenly becomes a snarling prick when Diana finds herself in a slutty wedding dress or feeling compelled to say "No" during the wedding ceremony.

Wilhoite plays Jenny, a goth from LA who's in town investigating her lost childhood memories. She and Diana meet when Jenny rescues her from a couple obnoxious reporters, one of whom is played by Timothy Spall, who can sell "obnoxious" very efficiently.

The film has some good ideas for the hallucinations the two women have, including a looking glass version of Diana's flat. I have to agree somewhat with a review quote from The Guardian on Wikipedia that the film should have, "stuck to what it is really about, which is people haunting themselves." The third act makes the threat entirely external whereas, at first, it seemed more intimately related to the protagonists' own psychological issues, particularly Diana's. The film does such a good job of establishing her falling apart, it's a big letdown when her story kind of evaporates.

But both Redgrave and Wilhoite are great, with good rapport, making it kind of a "buddy haunting" film, like a buddy cop movie. Diana's situation is so nicely established as bewildering and stressful, it's a genuine relief that someone as cool and level-headed as Jenny suddenly shows up in her life.

I still don't think Jemma Redrave strikes the right tone as the leader of UNIT on Doctor Who but I definitely have more respect for her talent now.

Dream Demon is available on The Criterion Channel.