10 Terrifying Dream Sequences In Horror Movies

Alright, time to stop reading if you haven't watched this trippy war horror classic Jacob's Ladder, as the rest of this entry digs deep into spoilers for the cryptic flick.

Starring Tim Robbins as a troubled Vietnam veteran whose is plagued by nightmarish hallucinations, the film slowly unravels its central mystery whilst giving canny viewers hints of Jacob's true dilemma. About halfway through this unsettling film, Jacob has a vivid nightmare of a filthy hospital where he's being held down and operated upon by faceless doctors.

The floors are soaked with viscera, the fellow patients all seem deformed, dead, dying, or outright demonic, and the entire ordeal is one he's glad to awaken from.

Only he never really does, as the end of this ingenious, poignant war film reveals that Jacob's entire post-Vietnam existence has been the dream and these brief flashes of bloody hospital beds and emergency operations are the reality as doctors desperately attempt to save his life. A haunting retelling of Ambrose Bierce's classic An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, this one is a rare "it was all a dream" twist which works to perfection.