REVIEW: SCREAM A LITTLE DREAM

SCREAM A LITTLE DREAM is not a great film. Hell, it's not even a good film. However, this micro-budget effort from director T.J. Moore is an endearing kind of little film. And hey, it's in 3D, so I give it some major points for that alone!

The film opens up with Jessica (Megan Magee) and her friend Chrissy (Angela Robb) just wrapping up a night of drinking and making the ill-advised choice to drive home. Cut to six months later, Chrissy is dead from a car accident that happened that night, and Megan is having a series of dreams involving a masked black-skull demon (maybe?) stalking and killing her.

Her friends Kay (Julie A. McNamara) and Marie (Meaghan Bloom Fluitt) are at their wits' end trying to help her out. Jessica is also being stalked in real-life by detective Fred Stevens (T.J. Doyle) and then it turns out that the killer may be more than just a dream, but a real live waking threat!

Anyway, all of this aside, hoo-boy, this film is a hot mess. From a story/acting perspective, the outlook is pretty grim. From a technical standpoint, it's even worse. And yet...as I said there is something endearing about this film. It took me back to a time around 25 years ago, when a local filmmaker that I knew used to make these terrifically awful films. These were bombastically bad shot on video pieces of crap that were still somehow released because he had a deal with an F-list distributor. Now, I won't go into all of those details, but suffice it to say as bad as those movies were, a lot of fun was had by all making them.

And that is what struck me about this film, the sense of innocence and simplicity about it. Sure it's not great, and sure, it's rough as can be, but it does have that early we-don't-know-what-we're-doing-but-damn-it's-fun-to-do vibe that is missing from more slick, well-heeled productions, and that definitely counts for something. And like I said earlier, bonus points for making it in 3D!