A Masterpiece!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Apparently inspired by the various writings of H.P. Lovecraft, Beyond Dreams Door is the chilling tale of young Psychology student Benn Dobbs who, after becoming part of a college study on dreaming, suddenly finds himself haunted by a continuing series of terrifying nightmares which appear to bleed into the waking world. As Dobbs tries to unravel the meaning of his dreams, he discovers that beyond dreams door is where horror lies... And the door has been opened. This is an entertaining and unique film well worth the time of anyone willing to seek it out.STORY - The film was shot on practically no budget and skillfully uses suspense, atmosphere and storytelling to it's advantage. The pacing doesn't seem slow at any time and is quite gripping, giving viewers just enough information to grasp what's going on but make their own individual articulations, oozing Lovecraftian inspiration throughout. What we have is a suspenseful horror story centering on the terrors that may, or may not, lurk within or beyond the subconscious. Very few films today have such a strong grasp of story. 5/5EFFECTS - Due to the budget there are not that many special effects in the film, and while those that are in it are not bad at all their age does show. The effects for the creature were spot on, but unfortunately everything else is only average. 3/5ACTING - The acting here is quite good, but unfortunately dialogue and delivery is poor. The actors regularly paused in the middle of sentences for what I assume was supposed to be dramatic effect, but it comes off as the type of dialogue you get in a terrible dub of a foreign film trying to lip sync dialogue that just doesn't fit with mouth movements. Fortunately this trend seems to die off by the middle of the film and the actual dialogue isn't bad, it's just delivery that drags it down. Beyond that the actors portray the small cast of characters strongly. 3/5MUSIC AND SOUND - The musical score for this movie was extremely well done, creating a more than creepy atmosphere for the duration of the film. It's a soothing, yet foreboding tune that sets one at ease while also making the skin crawl and hairs stand on end. Sound effects were also done very well, there were none of the noticeable errors or drops in sound quality that regularly plague films shot in 16mm. 5/5OVERALL - I give this film a solid 8 out of 10. The odd pausing in the middle of sentences was extremely noticeable early on in the film, and the dialogue is overall the most noticeable issue. The characters received an adequate amount of development but certainly could have been more flushed out, and the acting was very strong coming off as stiff only a few times. I think the best way to put it would be to say that the film was above average, but fell just short of what it obviously could have been. Truly deserving of more than the budget it had, and definitely deserving of a modern day DVD release.

Hopefully Jay will get this film re-released. I personally very much enjoy it. It has a certain quality that most modern horror films do not have--the ability to watch it more than once or twice and still have it perk your interest. A film doesn't have to have dazzling modern special effects or top Hollywood actors in it to be good. What I look for in a film is an interesting story and an overall enjoyable viewing experience. This film certainly meets that criteria. I came across this film in an independent video store that (sadly) has closed down a few years ago because they were bought out by a large chain. Support your local independent video stores and support independent film!

I found this to be pretty enjoyable. I could see how people might be frustrated by the uneven monster and gore effects. Sometimes they're pretty good, and sometimes (particularly when they show too much) they're pretty cheesy. Given how much of the movie is composed of nightmares, or nightmares intruding into reality, the way things look can be blamed on the dreams.The story isn't clear from the start, since the movie starts off with a dream within a dream (or maybe even a layer or two beyond that). It becomes clear that the main character, Ben Dobbs, is a college student who after years of not remembering his dreams, is now having a series of nightmares. Each one picks up where the previous left off, more or less. He finds that when he tells people about his dreams, they start seeing them too, even when they're awake.There's one dream sequence involving someone going into a basement, and finding a figure facing the wall in a corner, and then the camera retreating in a shaky hand-held fashion that I wonder if it influenced a certain other movie....The video box claimed the movie was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft (though not based on anything by him specifically). I can sort of see that, with some of the stories of his that deal with dreams, and also his poetry. There's a poem recited in the movie from which the title comes.I liked it and I'd be curious the see the DVD which may be coming out this year.

The box promises a lot more than this film delivers, as a large majority of the film is dull, repetitive, hopelessly cheap dream sequences accomplished with a fog machine and colored lights. The acting is poor, and it looks like a handful of college students decided to throw together this schlocky film on a boring weekend. The overall premise is intriguing, but the film fails to deliver on its promises.