Apparently inspired by the various writings of H.P. Lovecraft, Beyond Dreams Door is the chilling tale of young Psychology student Benn Dobbs who, after becoming part of a college study on dreaming, suddenly finds himself haunted by a continuing series of terrifying nightmares which appear to bleed into the waking world. As Dobbs tries to unravel the meaning of his dreams, he discovers that beyond dreams door is where horror lies... And the door has been opened. This is an entertaining and unique film well worth the time of anyone willing to seek it out.
STORY - The film was shot on practically no budget and skillfully uses suspense, atmosphere and storytelling to it's advantage. The pacing doesn't seem slow at any time and is quite gripping, giving viewers just enough information to grasp what's going on but make their own individual articulations, oozing Lovecraftian inspiration throughout. What we have is a suspenseful horror story centering on the terrors that may, or may not, lurk within or beyond the subconscious. Very few films today have such a strong grasp of story. 5/5
EFFECTS - Due to the budget there are not that many special effects in the film, and while those that are in it are not bad at all their age does show. The effects for the creature were spot on, but unfortunately everything else is only average. 3/5
ACTING - The acting here is quite good, but unfortunately dialogue and delivery is poor. The actors regularly paused in the middle of sentences for what I assume was supposed to be dramatic effect, but it comes off as the type of dialogue you get in a terrible dub of a foreign film trying to lip sync dialogue that just doesn't fit with mouth movements. Fortunately this trend seems to die off by the middle of the film and the actual dialogue isn't bad, it's just delivery that drags it down. Beyond that the actors portray the small cast of characters strongly. 3/5
MUSIC AND SOUND - The musical score for this movie was extremely well done, creating a more than creepy atmosphere for the duration of the film. It's a soothing, yet foreboding tune that sets one at ease while also making the skin crawl and hairs stand on end. Sound effects were also done very well, there were none of the noticeable errors or drops in sound quality that regularly plague films shot in 16mm. 5/5
OVERALL - I give this film a solid 8 out of 10. The odd pausing in the middle of sentences was extremely noticeable early on in the film, and the dialogue is overall the most noticeable issue. The characters received an adequate amount of development but certainly could have been more flushed out, and the acting was very strong coming off as stiff only a few times. I think the best way to put it would be to say that the film was above average, but fell just short of what it obviously could have been. Truly deserving of more than the budget it had, and definitely deserving of a modern day DVD release.
STORY - The film was shot on practically no budget and skillfully uses suspense, atmosphere and storytelling to it's advantage. The pacing doesn't seem slow at any time and is quite gripping, giving viewers just enough information to grasp what's going on but make their own individual articulations, oozing Lovecraftian inspiration throughout. What we have is a suspenseful horror story centering on the terrors that may, or may not, lurk within or beyond the subconscious. Very few films today have such a strong grasp of story. 5/5
EFFECTS - Due to the budget there are not that many special effects in the film, and while those that are in it are not bad at all their age does show. The effects for the creature were spot on, but unfortunately everything else is only average. 3/5
ACTING - The acting here is quite good, but unfortunately dialogue and delivery is poor. The actors regularly paused in the middle of sentences for what I assume was supposed to be dramatic effect, but it comes off as the type of dialogue you get in a terrible dub of a foreign film trying to lip sync dialogue that just doesn't fit with mouth movements. Fortunately this trend seems to die off by the middle of the film and the actual dialogue isn't bad, it's just delivery that drags it down. Beyond that the actors portray the small cast of characters strongly. 3/5
MUSIC AND SOUND - The musical score for this movie was extremely well done, creating a more than creepy atmosphere for the duration of the film. It's a soothing, yet foreboding tune that sets one at ease while also making the skin crawl and hairs stand on end. Sound effects were also done very well, there were none of the noticeable errors or drops in sound quality that regularly plague films shot in 16mm. 5/5
OVERALL - I give this film a solid 8 out of 10. The odd pausing in the middle of sentences was extremely noticeable early on in the film, and the dialogue is overall the most noticeable issue. The characters received an adequate amount of development but certainly could have been more flushed out, and the acting was very strong coming off as stiff only a few times. I think the best way to put it would be to say that the film was above average, but fell just short of what it obviously could have been. Truly deserving of more than the budget it had, and definitely deserving of a modern day DVD release.