NIGHT DREAMS (1981) – The Dungeon Review!

Night Dreams is the most unusual, unique and innovative film you will ever see. That is what this wackadoodle trailer promises. Unusual and unique are kinda the same thing, but in any case it is not an inaccurate statement. The trailer goes on to say that Night Dreams is mesmerizing, dazzling, outrageous, insane, riveting, hysterical, surreal, outlandish, mysterious, relentless, magnetic, erotic, indecent, flaming, steaming, disturbing, monstrous, kinetic, sweeping, ethereal, mind-boggling and shattering. I can not say that each one of those descriptors doesn’t fit Night Dreams at some point during its runtime. Despite its many fascinating flourishes Night Dreams is first and foremost a hardcore adult film. This means there are scenes where penises are shown entering vaginas and some of the scenes go on for a goodly long time. I haven’t seen a whole lot of adult films; maybe a half-dozen titles and all of them have been from the 70s. I don’t really have much in the way of reference points to draw from but Night Dreams is definitely the most unusual and unique adult flicks I have ever seen.

Watch the Trailer…

Stephen Sayadian who wrote and directed Dr. Caligari which I reviewed here last week, wrote Night Dreams along with Jerry Stahl. Night Dreams is exactly what its title suggests a series of weird, funny, sexy, surreal and twisted dreams; the sexually explicit dreams of Mrs. Van Houten (also the name of the bored housewife with disease of the libido in Dr. Caligari). Mrs. Van Houten is participating in an experiment and is being closely monitored by a pair of doctors. The doctors watch Mrs.Van Houten carrying on as she shouts, writhes and masturbates and of course dreams. Her dreams range the gamut from a creepy and kinky segment featuring sex with a man-sized jack-in-the-box, two sexy cowgirls who speak in unison and are obsessed with fire, sex with the man from the Cream of Wheat box (later a horn-playing piece of Wonder Bread makes an appearance), sex with a roaring fish, and it goes without saying that Satan shows up. All the segments really do have a perfect dream-like feel, and the visuals outside of the sex are very creative and always interesting. It felt like a pornographic stage play at times.

Yep. You are going to get an eyeful of long graphic sex scenes but there are plenty of other enthralling sights and sounds to enjoy in Night Dreams. I’ll let these images from Night Dreams speak for themselves. Several of the below screen caps are courtesy of David Arrate’s Night Dreams Tumblr post. Night Dreams really is one of a kind!

Mrs. Van Houten played by Dorothy LeMay.

Jack-in-the-box man.

An apt use of the song Ring of Fire. The version in Night Dreams is courtesy of Wall of Voodoo.

Part of a complete breakfast.

Masturbating for hookah-smoking sheiks.

What the hell?

Again…what the hell?

Mrs. Van Houten says good-bye.

Directed By: Francis Delia

Starring: Dorothy LeMay, Loni Sanders, Jennifer West, Kevin James, Fast Steppin’ Freddie, Paul Berthell, Ken Starbuck, Jacqueline Lorians, Danielle, Andy Nichols