Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned! Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release. Part 5 is the double feature Bad Dreams/Visiting Hours!
Scream Factory does a great job on these double feature film sets. The films will have similar tones, and while they may not meet the criteria for their collector’s editions, if they can, they will still put some nice features on the disc adding to the value.
Bad Dreams is a neat little horror film. After a child survives a fire at a suicide cult she awakes from a thirteen year coma, only to find that the deranged cult leader might be alive as well. Bad Dreams on the surface seems to be sort of A Nightmare on Elm Street rip off, and that is a little true. But it does benefit from above average special effects, and some pretty good talent in front of and behind the camera. Bruce Abbott and Richard Lynch lead a more then capable cast. Bad Dreams was directed by Andrew Fleming who would go on and direct the cult favorite, The Craft as well as some great TV shows like Arrested Development. The pedigree is in Bad Dreams and for gore fans it has some pretty great deaths. Overall a pretty solid horror film.
Visiting Hours isn’t quite as good as Bad Dreams, but serves as a capable slasher film. An anchorwoman, Deborah Ballin survives an attack from a deranged killer. When the killer finds out she is still alive he pays her a visit! Also taking place in a hospital, Visiting Hours was released at the height of slasher mania. It doesn’t slash with the best of them, but it is a fun movie. It also sports a great cast, Lee Grant and William Shatner appear in Visiting Hours adding to its credibility. Like most slasher films that try to take themselves too seriously, Visiting Hours suffers from some pacing issues. Overall not as good as Bad Dreams, but still lots of fun.
You will find Bad Dreams/Visiting Hours packaged on the same disc but each film doesn’t suffer too much in video clarity and detail. Both movies look better than they have before with only a little noise and grain peeking in. Having seem Visiting Hours before on DVD I can say that the picture is noticeably better.
The audio won’t blow you away but it gets the job done. Both are presented in Master Audio Mono so not too much in the way of pushing your sound system to the max.
The extras on the disc are surprisingly packed, especially for Bad Dreams. On Bad Dreams there is an informative commentary by the director, plus interviews with the cast and crew. A feature on the cool special effects, a behind the scenes feature. Plus the original ending and theatrical trailer, not bad for a semi-successful horror film. Visiting Hours is light but still has a welcome interview with the screenwriter and some radio and TV spots.
Bad Dreams/Visiting Hours is a pretty solid horror double feature, above average films, average video and audio, plus some pretty solid extras make this a bargain double feature. If hospital killing shenangins are to your liking this disc is definitely worth your time.
Films, Bad Dreams: B+/Visiting Hours: B-
Video: B-
Audio: B-
Overall: B