Death Dreams (1991 TV Movie) User Reviews

Predictable But Pretty Good

[Rainey-Dawn · 7/10 · 28 July 2023]

This is a pretty good made for TV film. It's a ghost story of a woman, Christa, who married George and he adopted his wife's daughter, Jennie, (from a previous marriage) and the daughter drowns. After Jennie drowns, Christa sees Jennie's photo on a billboard and has a car wreck - killing her best friend in the car with her. Christa is under the care of a few psychiatrists for awhile. Christa starts to see her daughter more often, George wants to get Christa some additional mental health help. Another friend of Christa tells her of a psychiatrist who also believes in spirits and bids Christa to go see her. Christa and the physic psychiatrist ends up pressing charges of murder of Jennie against George - a courtroom drama follows. The questions are: Is Christa simply mentally unbalanced due to the loss of her daughter, friend and mother? Did George really kill Jennie or is he being framed?

I rather liked the film. It's something a little different than other ghost stories - and there isn't much 'horror' in the film. The film is a crime-thriller drama and not labeled as horror but easily fits into the paranormal horror genre.

Christopher Reeve is great in this one -great to see him in other projects. (R. I. P. Christopher - miss you). Marg Helgenberger was super good as well. In fact, the entire cast does a great job.

Worth watching if you like ghost stories and/or crime-thrillers.

7/10.

I'm still here

[petershelleyau · 23 February 2003]

Crista Westfield (Marg Helgenberger) is the wife of Wall Street investment broker George (Christopher Reeve) living in Connecticutt with Jennii (Taylor Fry), the 7 year old daughter from Crista's first marriage. When Jennii is found drowned in their home pond, everyone assumes that it is an accident but after Crista has a car crash, where she is clinically dead for 6 minutes, she begins to have visions of Jennii. Dissatisfied with the doctors George takes her to, Crista seeks out Dr Margaret Neuberger (Fionnula Flanagan) in New York, who helps her discover what really happened.

Helgenberger is dressed in expensive clothes as a wealthy wife, in particular a purple velvet evening dress for her 1 year anniversary party, and at times she looks very beautiful, but at other times she is ravaged by director Martin Donovan's close-ups and unflattering lighting. She has a sex scene with George where the most attention is paid to her back, and she uses the remnants of a mid-western accent. When George finds Crista with Dr Neuberger and raves angrily, Helgenberger stands in a corner listening to him and breathing, and her reaction to a hostile defence attorney is to not give any eye contact and squirm in embarrassment. Although there are times when Crista is in psychological pain, Helgenberger never makes us feel that Crista is `mad' - we believe her belief.

The teleplay by Robert Glass, based on the novel by William Katz, has Dr Neuberger tell Crista that her soul has stayed with Jennii when Crista was clinically dead, which explains the connection, and Donovan's representation of Jennii with golden light, her distorted voice and the sound of wings is more tolerable than his grab bag of other tricks. We never do find out why Jennii is killed, apart from a vague reference to `spin control', and George being described as having a `pathological need to dominate'. Reeves' anger somewhat telegraphs the case to be made against George, but a response to Crista's `My husband has no reason to kill me' is Dr Neuberger's funny `Then he's a very unusual husband'.

Subjective camera, slow motion, tilted camera, quick pans, split screen, heartbeats on the soundtrack, and dissolves all draw attention to style and not the content. Flanagan's attempt to make Neuberger charmingly eccentric doesn't quite work, and the conclusion has a rather unsatisfying ambiguity.

good performances (mostly) but unsatisfying

[JamieWJackson · 4/10 · 16 November 2013]

Nearly all the reviews so far are raves. I'll take the other side. While Reeve and Helgenberger are in fine form here, and there are some engrossing scenes, the plot left me flat a few times, and the ending seemed like a quick patch-up job for the dramatic wounds opened by everything prior.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Why did the guard at her hospital room not follow her "to the sun room" where she said she was going? He stayed to guard an empty room instead of her. How would he think that made sense? Also, her friend is killed in a car accident but we don't see the friend in the accident or after it (even, say, a hand falling limply down to discreetly indicate death). Marg's character didn't seem to mourn the death very much at the time, either (unless I missed it). That felt strange, almost like the character was just being coldly deleted from the story. And then Jim Jarrett's character was so stereotypically sleazy that I kept waiting for his hidden agenda to be revealed, but I guess he didn't really have one. He was just sleazy. A lawyer like that would turn me off as a juror in nothing flat! Finally, there ends up being no real twist at the end, other than the apparitions switching their attention to George to give us the ending we want. The biggest surprise was Flanagan's medical history issues, but that development seemed basically just there to produce the trial outcome the script called for. It didn't change the main characters at all.

*** END SPOILERS ***

So, there's good work on display here, but I found myself thinking that it could have been a lot better with some more thought given to the plot and the characters. The premise and the acting talent deserved it.

Predictable and sloppy

[zombihntr · 3/10 · 23 April 2021]

After surviving a near-fatal car accident, Crista Westfield has visions of her deceased daughter who claims her drowning was no accident.

Ok, just the kind of plot best served up in a made-for-TV film.

Unfortunately, this is hampered by lazy plotting and bland characters.

Crista never seems very torn about accusing her new husband of murder and the scenes of her communicating with her daughter are rather dull and fleeting. Very little is ever explained (we don't even find out the husband's motive) and it culminates in an absolutely ludicrous finale that sees the husband on trial for murder despite the case resting solely on Crista's visions! Aside from being completely unbelievable and unnecessary, this scene only serves to highlight how sloppily constructed this film is. Performances are solid and I'm sure it was serviceable enough when it first aired and nothing else was on but that scenario has passed. Why bother with this when there are so many better supernatural TV dramas available?

An American Gothic Of Italian Descend

[mocpacific · 9/10 · 28 August 2005]

Pain and fear reflected in beautiful, dramatic close ups reminded me of some of the best Italian cinema of the 60's and 70's and yet the movie is unmistakable American. The seductive unpredictable style contributes to a constant state of dread. Marg Helgenberger gives a walloping performance of naked emotions without ever going over the top. Almost Italian yes but seasoned in Midwestern roots. Christopher Reeve is an astonishing surprise. The nuances of his villain, at least for three quarters of the film, are so beautifully drawn that I wonder why this film is not better known. "Death Dreams" subscribes to the smarter kind of Gothic thriller. Devoid of cheap shots and dressed up in witty dialogue and an elegant leisurely pace. Fionnula Flanagan and a titillating score complete this unexpected American dish sprinkled with exquisite Italian flavors.

Superb drama that all fans of ghost stories need to see.

[triple8 · 8/10 · 16 January 2005]

This story blows away half of the ghost stories on the big screen. Death Dreams is a book as well as a movie and both follow each other quite closely. It is hard for me to think that any fan of the ghost story genre would not have an interest in this. It is a superbly written, very unusual and intense story which probably would have done well on the big screen too.

The movie's tough to watch(as is the book to read) because of the subject matter but it does make me wonder why there's so many bad horrors that get released when there are material like this around.This story's got intensity, great talent in the acting department, twists and turns and genuine surprises and can be a bit frightening as well as intense. My thoughts are-if one likes a really engrossing psychological thriller/ghost story they should see this AND read the book.

The Butterfly In The Lake

[marielladesangelis · 8/10 · 19 March 2007]

That's why I couldn't find it. The Italian title of "Death Dreams" is (translated) "The Butterfly In The Lake" - Images of the anguishing story of death and life after death kept coming back to me without being able to put a name to those images. I remembered Christopher Reeve in a rather unusual against type kind of role - some consider it one of his best performances and I agree - But it is Marg Helgenberger (C.S.I) that dominates the film. The camera travels through her beautiful face and she's always compelling. She is a widow with a young daughter trying to rebuild her life with her new, wealthy husband (Reeve). We meet them during their first wedding anniversary party and something tell us that dark clouds are moving towards this, potentially, happy nest. I don't know how to explain it but a sense of dread took over me as if I was in a dream I couldn't control. And yet, everything looks so normal. The ending felt a bit rushed, dislocating, that's why I give it an 8 out of 10.

Christopher Reeve's best performance

[marcosaguado · 10/10 · 11 March 2004]

What a strange and mesmerizing film. A sense of dread takes over from the opening scene and never lets go. The performances are top notch. Christopher Reeve, never one of my favorites, took me completely by surprise. He's never been as complex or bold, he plays the ambiguity of his character with a panache worthy of James Mason. Marg Helgenberger is heart breaking. The director uses visual devices to create the uneasiness of the story making the experience utterly unnerving. Cec Verrel, Fiounula Flannagan, Conor O'Farrel and Jim Jarrett give also, original, entertaining, powerful performances. It is unusual to find something so stylish on television.

Believing The Unbelievable

[uhmartinez-phd · 9/10 · 16 November 2007]

I found myself on the side of the absurd, believing thoroughly, because Marg Helgenberg in a surprising and astonishing performance made me believe. I was so taken by her own conviction that I saw things the way she saw them. "Death Dreams" was made for Television but it's told with a ravishing cinematic language, look and feel. It doesn't respect any of the accepted rules of the genre but what is its genre? A ghost story? A supernatural thriller? A psychological whodunit? Yes, I think it could be all of that but above it all is a character driven drama dealing with the most unbelievable thing in the most believable way. The truth is not in the events themselves (I'm trying not to give anything away) but in the actor's faces. I completely forgot that Christopher Reeve was Christopher Reeve and that in itself is kind of extraordinary. I was afraid of him. Marg Helgenberger, long before CSI, shows an incredible dramatic range. A beautiful woman unafraid to show the signs of her torment. Look at the ravages of pain in her smiling face when her daughter's body is exhumed. Human, strange, fascinating. Waiting for the DVD.

Fascinating!

[Holdjerhorses · 9/10 · 5 June 2007]

Christopher Reeve as you've never seen him! Marg Helgenberger post "China Beach" and pre "CSI." An eerie, thought-provoking script (Robert Glass), beautifully acted.

Like all made-for-TV movies, this one moves along at a clip. Yet it's really a necklace strung of small moments that build . . . and build . . . to a truly disturbing conclusion.

From the opening scenes, nothing is quite "right." Everything's "normal," but not. This is "Superman" (Christopher Reeve) after all. Except it's not right.

No wonder.

The initial, "uh-oh," feeling quickly becomes darker with the accidental drowning of the little girl. And the exploration of this marriage. And the tragic dissolution of a mother who's lost her child.

And the sudden out-of-body experience of the mother (Marg Helgenberger) where her daughter says, "Stepdaddy drowned me." Uh-oh.

From then on, the story pits rationality and legal tactics (Mom goes after Hubby for murder, in court) against spiritual psychobabble -- or IS it? Maybe it's real . . . the dead girl slowly coming back to exact her revenge just as Mom's about to lose her sanity.

The builds are breathtaking. The ending is compelling but ambiguous.

Altogether a strange, beautifully written / acted / directed / photographed piece that rises above its genre with repeated viewings.