IT was directed by Neil Jordan and stars Annette Bening as the heroine and Robert Downey Jr. as the villain. Stephen Rea and Aidan Quinn have supporting roles. How bad could the serial-killer suspenser “In Dreams” be?
Here’s a clue about this film with such prestigious names attached: If “In Dreams” were any good, would DreamWorks SKG be releasing it in the bleak midwinter? They’ve dumped it like a barrel of sludge into the post-Christmas moviegoing Marianas Trench, where it will sink without leaving so much as a ripple. Deservedly, alas.
To its credit – and pay attention, because this is the only praiseworthy element in the whole preposterous shebang – “In Dreams” has a terrifically spooky opening sequence, showing divers exploring the underwater graveyard that used to be a village, before it was evacuated and flooded to make a reservoir. Some dark secret lies buried underneath all that water, and Jordan instantly draws us to the edge of our seats, expecting a severed head or some such thing to come tumbling out of a murky cranny, a la “Jaws.”
The submerged New England village happens to be the dumping ground for little girls abducted and slaughtered by a serial killer. It so happens that area resident Claire Cooper (Bening) keeps having horrible nightmares about kidnapped children. Her nocturnal misery is so great that it’s threatening her marriage to her airline pilot husband (Quinn).
When their own daughter is stolen and later found dead in the lake, a grief-stricken Claire tries to kill herself. Waking from a coma weeks later in a hospital, she comes to believe that her dreams predict the future. Her husband and her shrink (Rea, in a Thorazine-glazed performance) believe Claire has lost her mind.
She hasn’t; rather, the killer has found her mind. The mysterioso murderer (Downey, unseen until well into the picture) has established a psychic connection with Claire and invades her subconscious to make his thoughts her own.
What makes this premise so frightening is the loss of control over the most private aspects of one’s identity. It’s why supernatural horror shows like “The Exorcist” are more frightening than standard slasher films. You can always run away from a nut with a hatchet, but how do you escape a malicious being who can capture your soul?
“In Dreams” never makes this fear palpable. Bening wiggles and wails and gnaws poor Quinn’s lips bloody, but we don’t for a second feel her terror. It doesn’t help that an “Amityville Horror”-type of scene involving a garbage disposal vomiting apple butter is apt to make audiences cringe, for all the wrong reasons.
Worse, this is the kind of mediocre material that depends on incredible coincidences and a stupid heroine. If a serial killer were on the loose and you believed he was particularly interested in your scalp, would you go running off into the woods at every opportunity? Would you disarm yourself when one shot would dispatch the killer and end the movie? Do you think characters in a horror movie by the likes of Neil Jordan ought to behave that way?
Eventually the greater horror of “In Dreams” is wondering how a script this cheesy took over the minds of people like this fine director (who graced us last year with a truly scary film, “The Butcher Boy”) and his top-flight cast. There’s a place for ludicrously plotted B-movie horror, but this lot are slumming (Jordan is no John Carpenter, and Bening is no Jamie Lee Curtis).
And if you think that Downey will save this mess when he at long last appears on the scene, all too briefly – keep dreaming, pal.
IN DREAMS 1/2
Starring Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr. Directed by Neil Jordan. Running time: 112 minutes. Rating: R. Loews State, Lincoln Square, Crossbay I in Queens, others.