6 Horror Movies About Dreams and Nightmares
Do you know what’s real?
Have you ever had a dream or a nightmare that feels so real?
There’s something after you and you run and run and run and you can feel and see your legs pumping but you’re hardly moving. Your breath is coming in gasps as you look for somewhere to hide, but there’s nowhere. You don’t want to check over your shoulder but you also have to, but what if it’s right behind you? Closer than you thought?
It’s frightening when you don’t know what’s real and what’s not.
Which is why dreams and nightmares make for great horror stories.
Everybody knows the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, which is why they’re not on this list.
Here are six horror movies involving dreams and nightmares that you may not have heard about.
Contents
1. Ink (2009)
Ink is a dark fantasy horror story.
When night falls, two forces fight to control the dreams of humans: the Storytellers who bring good dreams and the Incubi who cause nightmares.
John and his daughter, Emma, become unwitting participants in this ongoing battle when a third type of being, a Drifter, steals Emma’s soul to use as a bargaining chip to become an Incubi himself.
Star Ratings
IMDB: 6.8 out of 10 | Amazon: 4.3 out of 5
2. Before I Wake (2016)
Before I Wake is a dark fantasy horror story.
Jessie and Mark lose their son in a drowning accident and take in eight-year-old Cody as a foster child.
Cody has nightmares and talks about the ‘Canker Man’ but Jessie tells him that nightmares can’t hurt people. Turns out, when Cody sleeps, things physically manifest, like butterflies and the couple’s dead son. When Jessie realises what’s going on, she encourages Cody to manifest her dead son for her.
Things start to spiral out of control when the ‘Canker Man’ starts to appear and people in Cody’s life start to go missing.
Star Ratings
IMDB: 6.2 out of 10 | Amazon: 4.2 out of 5
3. The Initiation (1984)
The Initiation is a slasher horror story.
Kelly has had a recurring nightmare of someone burning alive in her home since she suffered from amnesia when she was nine.
Now she’s at college and about to participate in her sorority’s initiation ritual, involving the pledges breaking into Kelly’s father’s department store and stealing a night porter’s uniform. The head of the sorority also lets three coed guys into the store to scare the pledges.
In the meantime, a murderer has escaped from a psychiatric facility, has killed Kelly’s father, among others, and is now in the store.
The college students wander around the store, unaware that they’re being picked off in gruesome ways, until they start to find the bodies of their friends. They desperately try to hide or stay one step ahead of the killer until they can get out of the store.
Star Ratings
IMDB: 5.6 out of 10 | Amazon: 4.2 out of 5
4. Dream Demon (1988)
Dream Demon is a supernatural horror story.
Diana starts to have disturbing nightmares about her wealthy, soon-to-be husband, Oliver. Her therapist tells her the dreams are from the stress of the pending wedding and the harassment of the press.
Diana befriends Jenny and tells her about her nightmares. Jenny has a hallucination of being attacked and when she runs and wakes up Diana, they realise that Diana’s dreams impact reality.
The two woman start having horrific shared visions seemingly anchored to the basement in Diana’s new home. Jenny tries to leave but stuff happens and Diana starts to be unsure of what is real and what is not.
Star Ratings
IMDB: 5.5 out of 10 | Amazon: 4.4 out of 5
5. Muse (2017)
Muse is a supernatural horror story.
For a year after the death of his girlfriend, Samuel, a professor of literature, has had a recurring nightmare about a woman being brutally murdered.
When a woman is found dead in the same circumstances as his dream, Samuel sneaks into the crime scene to find out what happened. He meets Rachel who had the same dream and they work together to find out who the mystery woman is and what’s going on.
Star Ratings
IMDB: 5.4 out of 10 | Amazon: 4.2 out of 5
6. The Return (2006)
The Return is a psychological horror story.
Joanna, a woman with a troubled past, has visions of a murder that happened fifteen years ago. She returns to Texas after a long time away and her visions gradually become more specific and more threatening.
She’s drawn to the place in her visions, a place she hasn’t been since she was a child, and finds herself in a repetition of the crime.
Star Ratings
IMDB: 4.6 out of 10 | Amazon: 4.0 out of 5
Published: 26 September 2022
