Scream A Little Dream

 

So, when I was contacted earlier this week about writing a review for Scream A Little Dream, it was proposed to me that this thing initially was going to be a steaming pile of shit. And to the right person or movie goer, that's exactly what this piece is going to end up being-if that said person can actually make it all the way to the end credits. I'm here to inform you that if you're at all like me and have been steeped, tempered and molded into the ways of the horror subgenre predominantly known as shot-on-video or S.O.V., then number one, we can be good friends and get along very well with each other and number two, you will probably be able to get past any sort of nonsense that would otherwise make you want to kill yourself as the blood drains from the very cardiac system that keeps your heart beating every second of every day so that you can sustain life. Zits and zombies, Scream A Little Dream really is just that-it's a modern day S.O.V. flick that I just didn't see coming and that to me makes my blood warmer and cozier than anything else. I really didn't think that this sort of thing could still be done in this day and age what with everything being in 1080p and 4k and 8k and all of this other resolution centered bullshit where the standard nowadays is that video and audio has to be so damn clean, crisp and clear that nothing is left to the haziest of hazy imaginations when it comes to plunking your ass down into a comfy chair to absorb an absolute train wreck of a film that shouldn't exist, and yet somehow it still does. Is Scream A Little Dream perfect? Hell no. Is it an award winning piece in the realms of cinematography, story telling and prose? Absolutely not. Not in the fucking slightest. But what this flick does have is heart and loads of charm. I was swept off my feet by the idea and presentation of it all and I really enjoyed it for what it is. Like I said before, I've been knee deep into shot-on-video fare for over a decade now and trust me-there's way, waaaayyy worse out there than this. Take Curse On Butthole Hill for example (the real title is Curse On Blanchard Hill, but you know-I fucking hate that movie to no end) which technically isn't an S.O.V., but it's close enough and that flick has no soul, heart or anything behind it that would make me want to do anything more with it than find the source material for the film itself so I could toss it into a fucking cremation furnace so that it could never be in print ever again. Ever. But on the other hand here we have a film like Scream A Little Dream where you can tell that the people involved wanted to put something into it to make it memorable and enjoyable sans blood, gore, nudity, sex and anything else that you you want out of an outrageous horror film. The story is achieved without employing any of those things and I think that alone deserves some adoration because that's tough to accomplish. But we have Kay, Jess and Marie as our main core that steadies the foundation here and this thing opens with Jess and Chrissy already smack-out drunk in a parking lot, kissing one another and talking about possibly driving home. Jess is under the table more than she thinks she is and six months later we learn that these two ladies were in an auto accident that left Chrissy dead and Jess alive with reoccurring nightmares. She keep seeing this bizarro woman (you can tell it's a female by the body shape and how they move and everything) even though she keeps referring to them as a 'he' for most of the runtime-who is wearing all black and this terribly made, cheap plastic mask that could have only been acquired from Spirit Halloween or maybe Walmart or something for less than ten bucks. But she is awoken every night around 3am by the same dream and the same figure, whom her friend Marie suggests that she has a guilty conscience or energy around what happened to Chrissy. They go through a lot of dream analysis and try to form different conclusions, but the dreams just keep getting worse, weirder and actually more real at a certain point. The resolution is something that I actually did not expect because I had my suspicions as to who or what this person was in Jessica's dreams, and it's not who I thought it was going to be or what was going to happen. The story is solid. The film and the presentation is not because of the limitations of the S.O.V. box that Scream A Little Dream sits in, but you know what-I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if it had more of a budget. I actually think that would have been a detriment. The camera shakes a lot, the audio randomly cuts out in certain spots, it's way to loud one second and the next you can't hear a fucking thing, the dialogue is lacking most of the time and any normal miscreant would check out in the first five minutes. I'm here to tell you to not do that. Watch this shit. Scream A Little Dream surely isn't for everyone, but it was definitely for me. My shoestring budgeted armor protected me through this one because I could see what was being done here and I really liked it. T.J. Moore, please make more. I'll be here for it.