Scream Dream Blu-ray Review

Visual Vengeance

Blu-ray Release: July 28, 2026

Video: 1.33:1/1080i (SD master)/Color

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

Subtitles: English SDH

Run Time: 68:00

Director: Donald Farmer

When heavy metal front woman Michelle Shocked is fired from her band for bad press related to Satanic rumors, she proves everyone right by transforming into a bloodthirsty demon who embarks on a spree of killing and possession. (From Visual Vengeance’s official synopsis)

It’s always exciting when I get a review copy of a film I almost covered for a podcast. It’s extra exciting when I get a review copy of a film I almost covered on multiple episodes of the podcast. Donald Farmer’s Scream Dream (1989) was initially going to be included on the four-part podcast Patrick Ripoll and I recorded about Shot-on-Video (SOV) Horror Movies (listen to part one here). Then it was going to be included with our two-part SOV Addendum podcast (listen to part one of that here). When those didn’t work out, I almost picked it for the Heavy Metal Horror episode I recorded with Justin Clark (listen to that here). Finally, thanks to Visual Vengeance’s new Blu-ray, I have a good excuse to talk about Scream Dream.

Donald Farmer came onto the straight-to-video horror scene in 1987 with Cannibal Hookers and Demon Queen – two barely feature-length, tailor-made exploitation films built on juvenile transgressions, nudity, and surprisingly impressive gore effects, at least in the case of Demon Queen. He followed those up with a video documentary about Spanish schlockmeister Jess Franco, The Bizarre World of Jess Franco (1988), and Scream Dream, which saw him engaging with heavy metal culture during the height of the Satanic Panic and only a couple of years after the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) Senate hearings that inspired the Parental Advisory label, which was itself (in part) an answer to the Satanic Panic.

Rock ‘n roll horror was born out of rock opera concept albums and began with the release of Brian De Palma’s The Phantom of the Paradise (1974). But heavy metal horror films – as in horror movies about heavy metal/hard rock music and musicians – hit its stride rather quickly in the mid ‘80s around the release of Beverly Sebastian’s Rocktober Blood in 1984, followed by a small collection of similar, easily confused titles, including Claudio Fragasso’s Monster Dog (1984), Krishna Shah’s Hard Rock Zombies (1985), Charles Martin Smith’s Trick or Treat (1986), John Fasano’s Black Roses (1988) and Rock ‘n Roll Nightmare (1987), Steven Baio & Johnny Vanokur’s Hard Rock Nightmare (1988), Luca Bercovici’s Rockula (1990), and Mark Freed’s Shock ‘Em Dead (1991).

Coincidentally, Scream Dream has quite a bit in common with Shock ‘Em Dead, in particular. The latter was shot on 35mm, but edited on video, so it ended up appearing as if it was SOV, and its cast was led by former adult film star Traci Lords. Scream Dream’s secondary female lead, Melissa Moore, who appears in a number of Farmer’s films, would grow into a bona fide scream queen and had a history as a Playboy model, which isn’t exactly the same as being in hardcore porn, but is close enough for our comparison here (technically, she was in at least one adult film, but it wasn’t until 2021). 

Scream Dream also recycles a lot of ideas from Demon Queen, to the point that it’s pretty easy to confuse the two movies. They’re both succubus stories with equally ambitious creature effects, softcore aspirations, and their plots are both so boilerplate that you can almost overlook the fact that the storytelling is mostly incoherent (whenever things get too weird, Farmer falls back on dream reveals – a lot of them). Having not yet listened to the commentary on this disc, I do wonder if Farmer ever considered making Scream Dream a direct sequel to Demon Queen.

Farmer is still making Z-grade movies for the direct-to-streaming market (11 since 2020 alone) and continues to make minor cult hits, including Shark Exorcist (2015) and Debbie Does Demons (2022), but this ‘80s to mid-’90s period of his career holds a special place in the hearts of trash horror connoisseurs. Of these, his unauthorized I Spit on Your Grave (1978) remake/semi-sequel Savage Vengeance (1993) is usually considered the nadir of his career, while Scream Dream and Red Lips (1995), with their superior (still wonky) pacing and cheap-but-imaginative visuals are among the fan favorites.

The comparatively remarkable gore and demon effects are credited to Rick Gonzales, who had previously been a make-up assistant on George Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985). Gonzales’ work added a dash of production value to multiple Donald Farmer movies, beginning with Demon Queen (possibly his best work, especially considering that it was his first solo gig), Vampire Cop (1990), Savage Vengeance, and Shark Exorcist. Highlights include a hungry hand puppet creature, a man’s hollowed-out face post essence draining, and a reasonably effective full-body succubus prosthetic suit. 

In the long term, even the silliest and cheapest regional indie horror movie can have major archival value as a chronicle of a specific place and time. Scream Dream offers us a glimpse at the local Tennessee area’s rock subculture – a long bygone scene overlooked by fans, perhaps rightfully, for more influential scenes, like the LA hair scene, New York protopunk scene, or Bay Area alternative scene, as chronicled in Jo Ann Gillerman, Jim Whiteaker, and James Gillerman’s superior SOV horror freakshow, Night Feeder (1988). 

Bibliography:

• Bleeding Skull! A 1980s Trash-Horror Odyssey by ​​Joseph A. Ziemba and Dan Budnik (Headpress, 2013).

Video

Scream Dream was made for video and hit VHS in 1990 from Triworld Films and American Entertainment Company (AEC). The only official digital release was a barebones budget disc from Sub Rosa. Culture Shock also semi-recently released a special collector’s edition VHS. Visual Vengeance’s new Blu-ray debut features a 1080i, 1.33:1 transfer made from an SD master of original tape elements.

The results are typical for SOV horror movies, especially those not shot on higher-grade equipment. Detail and texture depends greatly on how bright the lighting is. The darkest sequences appear particularly fuzzy and grainy. Analog tape artifacts, like tracking lines and ghosting issues, aren’t too bad, though there is a distinctive pixel pattern running down the left side of the frame throughout. Farmer’s use of searing blue and red gels gives the transfer a nice color boost that would’ve appeared more muted on the original VHS version.

Audio

Scream Dream is presented with its original English mono in compressed Dolby Digital sound. The whole film has a roomy echo quality and there are major discrepancies between the volume of set-captured and post-dubbed effects and dialogue. None of this is too surprising and important dialogue (“important dialogue”) is clear enough to understand. Well, most of the time – sometimes, the beep-boopy synth and palm-muted electric guitar music drowns it out. I believe that all instances of the sound failing to come in after scene changes are inherent in the original material.

No one is credited with the score, though Gene Amonette is credited as ‘music producer’ and the in-film band that performs “Scream Dream,” “Voices in Your Mind,” and “Ball Buster” is a referred to as Rikk-O-Shay, who might be the same band currently playing Ohio brewery cover gigs under the name RikOShay. Something like 15% of the runtime is musical performance mimed with the intensity of a local public access broadcast and another 10% is end credits. 

Extras

• Commentary with Donald Farmer – This newly-recorded track is moderated by fellow zero-budget, SOV filmmaker and director of Vampires and Other Stereotypes (1994) Kevin J. Lindenmuth. Together, the duo discuss Farmer’s wider career, DIY special effects, critical drubbings, the careers of the cast & crew, and the making of Scream Dream. Farmer is also full of mostly unrelated anecdotes about UFO sightings, William Shatner’s dogs, and actor Jim Varney’s health (noting that Jim Varney does not appear in Scream Dream).

• Interview with Donald Farmer (52:47, HD) – Farmer looks back at his work with Fred Olen Ray, building a story around locations and access to Rikk-O-Shay, casting, working with effects artist Rick Gonzales, distribution, and referencing his own movies.

• Heavy Metal Horror Primer (32:25, HD) – Radioactive Dreams: The Cinema of Albert Pyun (pub: 2019) author Justin Decloux and The Weird Book of Bad Movies (CreateSpace, 2017) author Adam 'Riot' Thorn walk us through the chronological history of metal music and metal-themed horror movies.

• Nick Riggins Interview (5:04, HD) – The actor and performer briefly sums up his time on the film and writing at least some of the songs.

• Jesse Raye Interview (11:06, HD) – The actress looks back at her career as model and actress, and making Scream Dream.

• The Art of the Scream (15:50, HD) – Special effects artist Gonzales runs down his inspirations, career collaborations, his semi-regular working relationship with Farmer, and creative/technical processes.

• Behind-the-scenes image gallery (0:53, HD)

• Excerpts from a post-screening Q&A with Farmer (6:01, HD)

• Trailer (made by Visual Vengeance)

• Start-up trailers for Todd Sheets’ Violent New Breed (1997) and Farmer’s Vampire Cop

• Visual Vengeance trailer reel

The images on this page are taken from the BD and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.