''Nightdreams'' is a 1981

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

with strong horror elements, directed by Francis Delia and written by

Jerry Stahl Jerry Stahl (born September 28, 1953) is an American novelist and screenwriter. His works include the 1995 memoir of addiction ''Permanent Midnight''. A 1998 film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role. His works include memoirs, ...

and

Stephen Sayadian Stephen Sayadian, also known as Rinse Dream, is a multimedia artist who was active in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the advertising creative director for Larry Flynt Publications and an art director and production designer for VHS box art covers a ...

(credited as "Herbert W. Day" and "Rinse Dream", respectively).

Plot

Two scientists use electric jolts to induce surreal and erotic dreams in a woman named Mrs. Van Houten. The dreams include a series of bizarre scenes, ranging from having sex with a man inside a

Cream of Wheat Cream of Wheat is an American brand of farina (food), farina, a type of breakfast porridge mix made from wheat middlings. It looks similar to grits, but is smoother in texture since it is made with ground wheat berry, wheat kernels instead of gr ...

box to a descent into the abyss of

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

. A surprise ending ultimately reveals the true identity of the woman receiving the electric shocks.

Cast

Dorothy LeMay The ''AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') Hall of Fame has honored people for their work in the adult entertainment industry since 1995.Loni Sanders as The Demon's Slave * Jennifer West as Doctor * Kevin James as Heaven Man * Fast Steppin' Freddie as Cream of Wheat * Paul Berthell as Slice of Bread * Ken Starbuck as The Demon * Jacqueline Lorians as Brunette Cowgirl * Danielle as Blonde Cowgirl * Andy Nichols as Doctor *

Michelle Bauer Michelle Bauer (born October 1, 1958) is an American actress, model, and B movie scream queen. Early life Bauer was born and raised in Simi Valley, California. She is of Mexican heritage on her mother's side and Czechoslovakian heritage on her ...

as Chained Girl

Production

Producer

said in an interview: "We did it as a series of six or seven vignettes; we just sat down and hashed out the concepts. We’ll go to

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

, we’ll go to

, we’ll have one in the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

. It was supposed to be like an old

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

review." His studio also produced

one sheet In the entertainment industry, a one sheet (or one-sheet) is a single document that summarizes a product for publicity and sales.

s and promotional posters for horror movies such as '' Dressed to Kill'' and ''

The Funhouse ''The Funhouse'' is a 1981 American slasher film directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Larry Block and starring Elizabeth Berridge, Kevin Conway, William Finley, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, Wayne Doba, and Sylvia Miles. Th ...

'' and the sets used in both movies' posters were also used in filming ''Nightdreams''. It cost $60,000 to make.

Release

Reception

The film has received generally positive reviews. It was described by ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' magazine as “the first

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

adult film Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

…

Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

meets ''

Eraserhead ''Eraserhead'' is a 1977 American independent surrealist body horror film written, directed, produced, and edited by David Lynch. Lynch also created its score and sound design, which included pieces by a variety of other musicians. Shot in bl ...

'',” and by ''Velvet'' magazine as “the ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

'' of adult films.” ''

Adult Video News ''Adult Video News'' (also called ''AVN'' or ''AVN Magazine'') is an American trade magazine that covers the adult video industry. ''The New York Times'' notes that ''AVN'' is to pornographic films what ''Billboard'' is to records. ''AVN'' spon ...

'', ''

Adam Film World ''Adam Film World'' (''AFW'') and ''Adam Film World Guide'' (''AFWG'') were American magazines about pornographic film, starting in 1966 as ''The Adam Film Quarterly.'' History Knight Publishing Corp. had launched ''Adam'' magazine in 1956 as ...

''''Nightdreams'', ''Adam Film World Guide 1984 Directory of Adult Films'', p. 66 and '' Hustler'' all gave it ratings of between four and five stars in their reviews. ''Adam Film World'' said, "The film is outstanding for its superb and visually exciting cinematography and extraordinarily imaginative erotic fantasies.

Pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

historian

Jim Holliday Jim Holliday (1948 – December 15, 2004) was an American pornographic film director, critic, and historian. He was a founder and previously the honorary historian of the X-Rated Critics Organization. Holliday was also a member of the AVN Hall o ...

called it "the most unusual, unique and innovative adult film yet made" and said ''Nightdreams'' "pioneered a whole new subgenre within the industry" within five years of its release due to its "raunchy gritty sexuality…combined with truly new wave sets and the ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

'' '80s look".

, ''Only the best: Jim Holliday's adult video almanac and trivia treasury''.

Van Nuys, CA Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 190 ...

: Cal Vista Direct, 1986.

Box office

According to Sayadian "neither ''Nightdreams'' or ''

Café Flesh ''Café Flesh'' is a 1982 post-apocalyptic cult film, cult Pornographic movie, pornographic science fiction film designed and directed by Stephen Sayadian (under the pseudonym "Rinse Dream") and co-written by Sayadian and Jerry Stahl (credited as ...

'' were ever that successful as porn films. But they broke house records as midnight movies."

Home media

The film was subsequently released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

Caballero Home Video Caballero Home Video is an American independent pornographic film studio, based in Canoga Park, California founded by Noel C. Bloom. It was previously known as Caballero Control Corporation.Jennings, p.180 The company was founded in 1974, making ...

, which re-released it in 2006 on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

Accolades and awards

The film was voted into the

XRCO Hall of Fame The XRCO Hall of Fame lists well-known adult entertainment works and workers. The list is managed by X-Rated Critics Organization and inducted annually during the XRCO Awards. The first XRCO Awards were presented in Hollywood on February 14, 198 ...

in 1992."The XRCO Hall of Fame", ''Adam Film World Guide 1993 Directory of Adult Films'', p. 279 In 1986, Holliday placed it in 13th place on a list of the top 40 best adult films as selected by a consensus of industry experts. In 2001, ''Adult Video News'' placed it in 62nd place on its list of the greatest adult movies of all time.Mike Ramone, "The 101 Greatest Adult Tapes of All Time", ''

'', Vol. 17, No. 7, August 2001, pp. 34–52. In 2007, AVN called it one of the "50 most influential adult releases of all time" for starting the alt-porn genre, which uses "

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

-inspired, rock-video schtick, hipster references and

underground music Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, Popular music, mainstream popular music culture. Underground styles lack the commercial success of popular music movements, and may involve the use of avant-g ...

."Mike Albo, Paul Fishbein, Mark Kernes, Mike Ramone, Jared Rutter, Peter Warren and Nelson X, "The 50 Most Influential Adult Releases of All Time: Groundbreaking Titles That Forever Changed the Industry", ''

'', Vol. 23, No. 1, Issue 290, January 2007, pp. 62–93.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes "

Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is about long and up to about wide, and surrounds most of the Pa ...

" as covered by

Wall of Voodoo Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California who were active from 1977 until disbanding in 1989. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single " ...

as well as renditions of "

Ol' Man River "Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 musical '' Show Boat'' with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, ...

" and ''

Gymnopédies The ''Gymnopédies'' (), or ''Trois Gymnopédies'' ('Three Nude Dances"), are three piano compositions written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie. He completed the whole set by 2 April 1898, but they were at first published individually ...

''.

Sequels

''Nightdreams'' was followed by ''Nightdreams II'' in 1989, and ''Nightdreams 3'' in 1991. Both of these films were directed by Stephen Sayadian. The Mrs. Van Houten character also appeared in Sayadian and Stahl's 1989 effort '' Dr. Caligari''.

References

Works cited

External links

* * * * * * * {{IAFD movie, night+dreams+3, 1990, Night Dreams 3 1980s American films 1980s English-language films 1980s pornographic films 1981 science fiction films 1981 directorial debut films 1981 fantasy films 1981 films Alt porn American avant-garde and experimental films American fantasy films American pornographic films American science fiction films Films about dreams Films about sexuality Films shot in Los Angeles Films with screenplays by Jerry Stahl Pornographic film series Pornographic horror films English-language science fiction films English-language fantasy films