Second Sight, out now

Joseph (The Stepfather) Rubin’s 1980s sci-fi horror movie gets a welcome release on Blu-ray, showcasing a young Dennis Quaid and a fresh-from-the-Temple-of-Doom Kate Capshaw. But what are Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow doing here too…?

1983/1984 saw a mini boom of dream manipulation movies; in addition to this one, we also had Brainstorm and A Nightmare on Elm Street. One lost its leading lady and the other became a huge horror franchise – interestingly, Dreamscape co-writer Chuck Russell would go on to write/direct A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Of the three, Dreaimscape was the least notorious, and while it did solid box office and video rentals, slithered back into the shadows, like its villain the Snakeman.

The story is pure hokum – roguish psychic Alex Gardner, blackmailed by Max Von Sydow into helping at a sleep clinic where a young child is being terrorised by a snake creature. If Alex can enter the dream he can defeat the beast, right? And it’s not just any old Snakeman – the child dreams in Dynamation! The beast is a stop-motion creation in the style of Ray Harryhausen.

Elsewhere, Twin Peaks’ David Patrick Kelly is clearly hiding a secret behind his sniping and Christopher Plummer’s benevolent offers of help to the American President (Eddie Albert) might not be quite what they appear.

This is 80s pulpy fun, hobbled by an awful, screeching synth score by the legendary Maurice Jarre and some special effects that were highly ambitious but don’t stand up to Blu-ray scrutiny.

It’s a tidy 2K scan with DTS-HD Master Audio / PCM Uncompressed Stereo. An audio commentary by Bruce Cohn Curtis (producer), David Loughery (co-writer) and (special make-up artist) Craig Reardon offers some fun behind-the-scenes trivia, and The Actor’s Journey is a 15-minute retrospective with Dennis Quaid. Dreamscapes and Dreammakers interviews Ruben, Loughery again, actor David Patrick Kelly and members of the effects team, clocking in at just over an hour.

Nightmares And Dreamsnakes is a 23-minute segment looking at the creation of the Snakeman, from design to sculpting to animation and on-set challenges. There’s also some Snakeman test footage, a conversation between producer Bruce Cohn Curtis and Chuck Russell, stills and theatrical trailer.

Verdict: At one hour 39 minutes this fun 80s movie never outstays its welcome, and with a price point of around a tenner it’s the right price too. It’s probably not as good as you remembered it to be, but that’s so often the case, particularly where the 2K scan reveals the imperfections. 7/10

Nick Joy