10 Movies You Wrongly Thought Were Innovators
5. Nightmare On Elm Street Wasn't The First Movie To Have Killer Dreams
Despite having a great concept, Wes Craven had remarkably little luck selling A Nightmare On Elm Street to studios; most of them felt the concept was silly. He eventually made it for a tiny budget and proved them wrong, though another film came out a few months before Nightmare that used a similar idea.
Dreamscape is a fantasy film with Dennis Quaid, who plays a man who can enter the dreams of others. Soon he’s getting mixed up in political plots and tangling with snake men, and it all gets a bit nuts. There’s also an undeniable link between the two; if characters die in their dream they die for real, and there’s a clawed killer that appears in both.
Dreamscape is more light-hearted, though, and despite being a cult movie it’s a good deal more obscure than Nightmare. In a strange twist of fate Dreamscape writer Chuck Russell would go on to helm A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.