Movie Review: Scream Dream

SCREAM DREAM – Visual Vengeance Blu-ray Review by Matt Boiselle

Heavy metal, Satanic Panic, rubber monsters, buckets of gore, and enough teased hair to threaten the ozone layer — Scream Dream is pure shot-on-video insanity from the glory days of underground horror.

Directed by Donald Farmer, Scream Dream follows heavy metal frontwoman Michelle Shocked, who finds herself booted from her band amid some particularly nasty rumors involving Satanism. Unfortunately for everyone around her, those rumors aren’t exactly unfounded. Michelle transforms into a bloodthirsty demon and launches into a rampage of murder, mayhem, and possession.

Made during the height of the 1980s Satanic Panic, Scream Dream embraces everything that makes regional shot-on-video horror so much fun. This is gritty, homemade filmmaking packed with rubber creatures, splattery kills, outrageous performances, bar-band heavy metal, and an unmistakable DIY charm. It’s rough around the edges — as it should be — and its sheer enthusiasm makes it difficult not to have a good time with it. Fans of obscure VHS-era horror should feel right at home.

Visual Vengeance, through MVD Entertainment, brings Scream Dream to Blu-ray for the first time, presenting the film from an SD master sourced from the original tape elements. Considering its shot-on-video origins, preserving that lo-fi aesthetic is part of the experience — this is a movie born for the VHS generation.

The disc is loaded with new material, including an audio commentary with producer/director Donald Farmer and the Heavy Metal Horror Primer video essay featuring Justin Decloux and Adam “Riot” Thorn. Interviews with actors Nick Riggins and Jesse Raye dig further into the production, while The Art of the Scream features special effects artist Rick Gonzales discussing the movie’s wonderfully gruesome handiwork.

Also included are a behind-the-scenes image gallery, excerpts from a Donald Farmer theatrical Q&A, trailers, Visual Vengeance trailers, and optional English subtitles.

Collectors get plenty of physical extras, too, including a reversible sleeve featuring the original VHS artwork and a folded mini-poster. First-pressing copies sweeten the deal with a “Stick Your Own” VHS sticker set, a limited-edition O-card, and perhaps the most appropriate bonus imaginable for this particular movie — a limited-edition Scream Dream guitar pick.