DEAD DREAMS (Josh Koffman). 92 minutes. Opens Friday (October 14) at the Yonge & Dundas 24. See listing. Rating: N
Director Josh Koffman clearly intends Dead Dreams to be a mind-bending thriller with a fractured narrative. Unfortunately, the mystery is predictable and dull, a deal breaker for genre fare.
Cory Sevier plays Carl, a guy who wakes up one morning with his memory wiped. A mysterious man in sunglasses (who therefore can’t be trusted) in his room vaguely suggests that Carl solve the murders of his girlfriend and several other generic 20-somethings.
Carl comes close to unravelling his lady friend’s murder several times before suddenly waking up in his room again, forced to repeat the process without ever knowing if he dreamed it all or what the man in shades wants. With few suspects around, the killer’s identity is obvious, particularly when flashbacks show one character sporting comically evil facial hair straight out of a Star Trek rerun.
Dead Dreams isn’t as creepy, suspenseful or mysterious as Koffman intends. Its failings are made all the more apparent by a soundtrack composed of public-domain music already used in superior genre movies like The Shining.
