Hallucinations - 1986
(This Film Rates a B+ )
A super low budget film that was shot on video during the winter. Three young and odd brothers (One adopted-Todd, one cognitively impaired-Mark and one sexually preoccupied-John) are left at home as their mom has to work a double shift, per her note. She won't be home until late, but dinner is in the fridge. Mark receives a frightening phone call and later that evening has wild hallucinations involving violence and mayhem in their basement. He wakes up with blood on his hands, but it quickly vanishes. Mark recounts the nightmare with his two brothers and John goes to the basement to inspect. He comes back up to confirm but the bloody scene disappears after Todd and John go down a second time. Meanwhile, Mark continues to have horrifying visions and these begin to spread. The storyline gets a little confusing from there. What is real and what is a hallucination are blurred. "You're not real, you're not real"! It takes a while to get to the only logical conclusion. Mind over matter. Yet, the film has good build and a fair amount of suspense. The bloody hallucinations are intense even if overlong and with very fake looking gore. But it's all very satisfying. Truly. There is snow, snow shoveling, and lots of cold winter goodness plus you get a ton of vomiting and one peeing plastic elf. Some of the sound effects are truly terrible (26-minute mark). I wonder if the cat in the litter box just about bad timing was or super well played (2-minute mark). Nothing here should work. Nothing! It all seems so absurd, but if you know what you are getting into, it's all a fun 60-minute ride into 80's horror.