Visual Vengeance: Scream Dream (1989) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Visual Vengeance

Initially the work of Donald Farmer, one of the torchbearers of the SOV lo-fi video film movement of microbudget horror films made on the fly, came to The Movie Sleuth through new sublabel Blood Sick Productions and Farmer’s 2024 film Blood B*tch Baby.  A cross between Lovecraftian horror, burlesque kitsch and latex rubber hand puppet monsters, it was the third in a line of releases from the newly formed boutique label of grimy SOV trash.  Now it seems Visual Vengeance is starting to get into Farmer’s oeuvre and they’ve done some digging with a restored (as best it can be) tape master of Farmer’s 1989 riff on heavy metal rock horror Scream Dream which more or less wallows in similar occult burlesque terrain but feels of it’s time and somehow has better more comprehensive makeup effects and runs at a brisker time.  Think of it as a VHS tape remake of Charles Martin Smith’s 1986 heavy metal horror flick Trick or Treat or 1991’s Shock ‘Em Dead.

 
Michelle Shock (Carol Carr) is the frontwoman of a heavy metal rock band who has garnered some notoriety over Satanic Panic indoctrinating her fans.  Fired by her label and replaced by Jamie Summers (Playboy Playmate Melissa Moore), the spurned Michelle Shock wages a war of vengeance on her bandmates, her manager, her guitarist and especially the new lead vocalist.  In between fending off demanding fans and a shady manager, gradually Michelle somehow or another after being gummed on by a rubber demon puppet starts to take possession of the new vocalist Jamie Summers and through her begins wreaking unholy havoc replete with fully body transformations and a fanged horned demoness. 

 
Running a mere 69 minutes and featured on a mostly intact tape with some minor tracking issues in some shots and a somewhat wobbly image, Scream Dream isn’t all that entertaining or wild but for Donald Farmer fans it does point to one of his earliest efforts made available on Blu-ray disc for the first time.  Featuring a running commentary with Farmer, an interview with actor Nick Riggins who plays Derrick, interview with Jesse Raye who plays an annoying reporter who continues to hassle Michelle Shock and her manager for sordid details and interview with vfx artist Rick Gonzales, the set comes with quite a bit including a guitar pick and ticket stub to one of Michelle Shock’s shows.  Also inside is a foldable mini poster. 

 
Very much in the same vein as Blood B*tch Baby in terms of mixing together the burlesque and the gothic heavy metal rocker which fed into the Satanic Panic of the era when it was made, Scream Dream has its lo-fi charms and the Hot Topic oriented slipcover makes the endeavor look a lot cooler than it actually is.  Staunch collectors of the Visual Vengeance catalog will naturally snatch it right up while others who could do with fewer movies of rubber puppets gumming bare boobs will probably pass on this.  Visual Vengeance is one of my favorite new boutique labels for putting the spotlight on the SOV world and their release for Scream Dream is a good if not silly borderline Troma-esque one.

--Andrew Kotwicki