Two scientists use electric jolts to induce a woman named Mrs. Van Houten with surreal and erotic dreams. After a set of strange scenes ranging from having sex with a man inside a Cream of Wheat box to a trip into the abyss of Hell, a surprise ending reveals who the woman receiving the jolts of electricity is.
Producer Stephen Sayadian said in an interview: "We did it as a series of six or seven vignettes; we just sat down and hashed out the concepts. We’ll go to Heaven, we’ll go to Hell, we’ll have one in the Wild West. It was supposed to be like an old Vaudeville review." His studio also produced one sheets and promotional posters for horror movies such as Dressed to Kill and The Funhouse and the sets used in both movies' posters were also used in filming Nightdreams.[1] It cost $60,000 to make.[2]
Release
Reception
The film has received generally positive reviews. It was described by Playboy magazine as “the first avant-gardeadult film…Fellini meets Eraserhead,” and by Velvet magazine as “the Citizen Kane of adult films.”[3]Adult Video News,[4]Adam Film World[5] and Hustler[6] all gave it ratings of between four and five stars in their reviews. Adam Film World said, "The film is outstanding for its superb and visually exciting cinematography and extraordinarily imaginative erotic fantasies.[5]
Pornographic film historian Jim Holliday called it "the most unusual, unique and innovative adult film yet made" and said Nightdreams "pioneered a whole new subgenre within the industry" within five years of its release due to its "raunchy gritty sexuality…combined with truly new wave sets and the Miami Vice '80s look".[7]
Box office
According to Sayadian "neither Nightdreams or Café Flesh were ever that successful as porn films. But they broke house records as midnight movies."[1]
In 1986, Holliday placed it in 13th place on a list of the top 40 best adult films as selected by a consensus of industry experts.[7] In 2001, Adult Video News placed it in 62nd place on its list of the greatest adult movies of all time.[9] In 2007, AVN called it one of the "50 most influential adult releases of all time" for starting the alt-porn genre, which uses "MTV-inspired, rock-video schtick, hipster references and underground music."[10]
Nightdreams was followed by Nightdreams II in 1989, and Nightdreams 3 in 1991. Both of these films were directed by Stephen Sayadian. The Mrs. Van Houten character also appeared in Sayadian and Stahl's 1989 effort Dr. Caligari.
^ abJim Holliday, Only the best: Jim Holliday's adult video almanac and trivia treasury. Van Nuys, CA: Cal Vista Direct, 1986.
^"The XRCO Hall of Fame", Adam Film World Guide 1993 Directory of Adult Films, p. 279
^Mike Ramone, "The 101 Greatest Adult Tapes of All Time", Adult Video News, Vol. 17, No. 7, August 2001, pp. 34–52.
^Mike Albo, Paul Fishbein, Mark Kernes, Mike Ramone, Jared Rutter, Peter Warren and Nelson X, "The 50 Most Influential Adult Releases of All Time: Groundbreaking Titles That Forever Changed the Industry", Adult Video News, Vol. 23, No. 1, Issue 290, January 2007, pp. 62–93.
