BEYOND DREAM’S DOOR
Directed by Jay Woelfel
1989 – 79 minutes/Fullscreen
DVD Provided by Koch Entertainment
Article written by Tim Tompkins

Ben Dobbs is finding himself trapped within his nightmares. What’s worse, other people are beginning to join him . . .

Dobbs, a young psychology major at a local university, has recently volunteered to participate in a sleep research program. He is a unique subject, having no memory of any dreams since his early childhood. Now, however, he’s having a doozy of a dream. In one single epic nightmare, which continues nightly as each segment links to the one before it, he is encountering all manners of horrors. There is a malicious game of hide and seek, a younger brother he never had in real life, and a series of strangers, including a nude temptress, any of whom can suddenly transform into terrifying monsters. As these increasingly surreal and disturbing images begin to prey upon his mind, Dobbs seeks help, first from his psychology professor Dr. Noxx, then from teaching assistants Eric Baxter and Julie Oxel. Too late, though, the group comes to realize that Dobbs is dreaming what another man has dreamt before him years before. Now all of them are being drawn into these same dreams, even while awake. Ben Dobbs is being used as a portal. There is a dream creature lying in waiting, a force which doesn’t want to be forgotten, doesn’t want to be ignored . . . and doesn’t play nice.

Since BEYOND DREAM’S DOOR’s original release in 1989, comparison between it and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET has been inevitable. Like NIGHTMARE, DREAM’S DOOR deals with a young person beset by bad dreams that can, and soon do, turn deadly. But once the viewer looks beyond (no pun intended) the superficial similarities, it becomes clear that director Jay Woelfel’s film is quite different from the more famous Wes Craven work. For one thing, NIGHTMARE relied on a central villain figure, a boogeyman around whom the plot and its many sequels revolved. In contrast, in DREAM’S DOOR the malevolent force involved is too wonderfully mysterious, too vaguely defined (in the best possible sense) to be compared to the type of monstrous yet still very human baddie that Freddy Krueger originally was, or the anti-hero he eventually became in the many NIGHTMARE sequels.

No, in Woelfel’s story it is the human (and living) characters who are the film’s focus. Four leads almost equally share the film’s running time. Each character faces the same danger, and it is how each reacts to the central crisis that determines his or her eventual fate, good or bad (in a nice parallel to an experiment the professor runs at the beginning of the film). The evil force which they face is frightening, even intriguing, but it never steals the spotlight, or becomes charismatic or witty. That tale had already been well told. This film has its own unique approach. It never feels like the setup for a lengthy series of popcorn movies, and while the story does most literally have a door which could have been left open for sequels, the screenplay goes out of its way to make certain that in the end that door is closed.

Comparison to other works aside, however, is BEYOND DREAM’S DOOR a success? The answer is a definite yes. The film is well-paced, well-acted, and visually remains interesting from the first frame to the last. Though it is a lower-budget independent production, there is no onscreen evidence that the project in fact had a production crew mainly consisting of Ohio State University film students. For the most part, only the film format and sometimes grainy film stock itself mark DREAM’S DOOR as being a smaller-scale production.

The film’s story is simply told but never simplistic. The underlying theme, one of forgotten dreams, resonates throughout. To forget one’s dreams in the world we know can lead to a lifetime of regrets. In Ben Dobbs’ world, forgetting one’s dreams is a mistake that can eventually prove fatal. This message is delivered clearly, but thankfully Jay Woelfel, who wrote the screenplay in addition to directing, has enough confidence in the material to play it subtle at times in which a lesser filmmaker would have hammered the whole business into the ground. Confidence is also the secret to the film’s direction. The look is visually rich, and very self-assured, given that it was Woelfel’s first full-length release. He isn’t afraid to take chances. He loads scenes with interesting and surreal dream imagery, without falling into the pitfall of becoming pretentious. At one point the film even pays homage to the classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and manages to do so in a competent and amazingly uncampy manner.

All of the “little” touches are also in place in DREAM’S DOOR. The cinematography is quietly effective. The choice of simple locations and costuming gives the story a timeless feel (if it weren’t for the onscreen prominence of electric typewriters, most viewers couldn’t guess that the film is now almost fourteen years old). The film’s music score, composed by Woelfel himself, lends the proceedings an appropriately eerie air. All of this, meanwhile, is liberally spiced up with a good amount of gore and monster effects for the more visceral horror fan. In fact, the film features an ambitious amount of effects for a low-budget production. If the lead creature does appear a bit rubbery at times, overall the film’s other effects work, with a good set of simple but effective techniques doing a nice job of showing the carnage the dream monster leaves in its wake.

BEYOND DREAM’S DOOR comes highly recommended. It’s a film that has aged remarkably well, one that goes about its business seriously and sincerely, never feeling the need to wink at the audience. It’s a film every horror fan should see at least once, and is a requisite for the collections of those who love the “bad dreams” sub-genre. In short, it’s a winner.

Koch’s DVD release comes with tons of extras. The print itself has been newly restored from the original director’s cut along with a new remix 5.1 stereo soundtrack. Speaking of which, the disc also comes with a 50-minute version of the soundtrack and 2 commentaries, one with director Jay Woelfel and the other with cast and crew. Bonuses included trailers, three short films, three making of featurettes, deleted scenes, special effects test footage, 11 minutes worth of alternate footage, still galleries, and well, it’s just full of extras.