Bad Dreams (1988) ***

While 1988's Bad Dreams is certainly derivative of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (review) (released the previous year) and shares an actress with that film in Jennifer Rubin, I found it to be a fun little genre exercise. The cult leader angle (a perfectly cast Richard Lynch; did he ever not portray an ultra creepy bad guy?) distinguishes the film just enough so that it doesn't feel like a complete rip-off and it's actually quite well made—the segues between the flashbacks and present time are particularly well-handled. 

Bruce Abbott (Re-Animator (1985); review) is good here, feeling right at home in another role in a horror film largely set in a hospital and Charles Fleischer (the voice of Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, released the same year; review), who was in the first A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) (review) even pops up. Bad Dreams is nothing to write home about, but it's got some stylish set pieces, decent gore, a few very funny moments, and Sy Richardson's reaction shot in the finale is priceless.