This was a "promising" good movie with some dialogue and a lack of plot or character development that prevented it from being a great movie. If you can overcome some of the poor lines spoken by the leading couple, particularly such memorable lines as: "Give me a shout if you'd like me to come over there and wipe you". "You'd like that, wouldn't you, you perv"; then you might find a fairly engaging thriller worth the hour and a half to see it. As I said, some of the lines were hideous and the numerous "toilet" scenes were filled with an inane dialogue that does nothing to advance the plot, deepen character understanding, or shed light on the film's overall themes.
The second greatest problem is the poor plot development. Of what relevance is the night stalker to Susan's revelation that she is linked psychologically and spiritually to Karen? I could be misinterpreting the movie, but the link between Karen's nightmares and Susan's nightmares suggests they are two parts of the same psyche, at odds with the apparently "beautiful" life Susan leads and the hideous life Karen leads. Susan lives a life of comfort but not exactly "love", Karen one where men are purely bestial and live only to rape and repress women. You can argue that Susan feels like she is a victim--she dreams of women raped and murdered at the hands of the night stalker. In her waking world, her husband dominates her life and literally takes her for a ride but she has no sense of independence. Her body is not her own; the fertility treatments are destroying her own babies, possibly her sanity, and one wonders if she wants pregnancy only to please her man without taking her own safety into account. This is most striking when she gets up for a bathroom break and her husband nearly orders her back to bed. Though her dreams and miscarriage are taking a toll on her, her husband's motives and treatment of her feels slimy and completely insincere and he never really take his eyes of his solitaire game.
On the other hand, Karen has no man whom she loves. The scary retinue of people on the bus are there only to mock her and attack her. Hers is a far more dangerous world, where women are not kept in gilded cages but are victimized and attacked, eroticized in ways that are vile and reprehensible. Yet why does Karen choose to live in an abandoned industrial district? I know that in nightmares the dreamer doesn't consciously choose her surroundings, but this fact in itself suggests a woman who does not care for her own safety; it could also be a clue to her true identity,complete with a "Saw" movie washroom with fluorescent lights, a Hollywood cliché for typical serial killer furnishings. We all know the cliché--the abandoned warehouse is where Hollywood movie serial killers always keep the victim strapped and bound to a table. Could we try some originality please? Not that violence should be condoned, but serial killer movies are a dime a dozen. Karen has no one else to confide in. She is merely there to dream that she is really Susan Hamilton, but there is no deepening of the connection between the two women other than that each one dreams the other girl is her true alter-ego.
And what role does the hypnotist have to play in the plot? He is finally revealed to be the night stalker, but what are his motives for attacking the two women? Karen and Susan keep referring to the secret hidden sins they have no wish to reveal. The hypnotist is stalking both of them, but to what end? And why? Both women are pregnant and then have miscarriages, all of this being revealed to both of them as one women sleeps to awaken as the other woman living a similar yet different life. What are Karen's sins that she finds herself staring down at the murdered body of Susan only to find that she sees her face in the mirror transforming into that of the mad hypnotist? A little theory: I think that aside from Multiple personality disorder, Karen and Susan are two sisters somehow separated and kept estranged from each other. Karen, lovely as she is, is beaten up and injured in her dreams only because she is somehow the night stalker. Sometimes Karen sees herself as the victim because she cannot subconsciously realize until the end of the film that she is the murderer of each of the young women. Her facial injuries are all inflicted by the women she has slain.
Why? Karen cannot accept that she has been denied the kind of life that Susan has lived. We always think the grass is greener, the roses smell sweeter on the other side. This is my theory, however incorrect it may be.
The second greatest problem is the poor plot development. Of what relevance is the night stalker to Susan's revelation that she is linked psychologically and spiritually to Karen? I could be misinterpreting the movie, but the link between Karen's nightmares and Susan's nightmares suggests they are two parts of the same psyche, at odds with the apparently "beautiful" life Susan leads and the hideous life Karen leads. Susan lives a life of comfort but not exactly "love", Karen one where men are purely bestial and live only to rape and repress women. You can argue that Susan feels like she is a victim--she dreams of women raped and murdered at the hands of the night stalker. In her waking world, her husband dominates her life and literally takes her for a ride but she has no sense of independence. Her body is not her own; the fertility treatments are destroying her own babies, possibly her sanity, and one wonders if she wants pregnancy only to please her man without taking her own safety into account. This is most striking when she gets up for a bathroom break and her husband nearly orders her back to bed. Though her dreams and miscarriage are taking a toll on her, her husband's motives and treatment of her feels slimy and completely insincere and he never really take his eyes of his solitaire game.
On the other hand, Karen has no man whom she loves. The scary retinue of people on the bus are there only to mock her and attack her. Hers is a far more dangerous world, where women are not kept in gilded cages but are victimized and attacked, eroticized in ways that are vile and reprehensible. Yet why does Karen choose to live in an abandoned industrial district? I know that in nightmares the dreamer doesn't consciously choose her surroundings, but this fact in itself suggests a woman who does not care for her own safety; it could also be a clue to her true identity,complete with a "Saw" movie washroom with fluorescent lights, a Hollywood cliché for typical serial killer furnishings. We all know the cliché--the abandoned warehouse is where Hollywood movie serial killers always keep the victim strapped and bound to a table. Could we try some originality please? Not that violence should be condoned, but serial killer movies are a dime a dozen. Karen has no one else to confide in. She is merely there to dream that she is really Susan Hamilton, but there is no deepening of the connection between the two women other than that each one dreams the other girl is her true alter-ego.
And what role does the hypnotist have to play in the plot? He is finally revealed to be the night stalker, but what are his motives for attacking the two women? Karen and Susan keep referring to the secret hidden sins they have no wish to reveal. The hypnotist is stalking both of them, but to what end? And why? Both women are pregnant and then have miscarriages, all of this being revealed to both of them as one women sleeps to awaken as the other woman living a similar yet different life. What are Karen's sins that she finds herself staring down at the murdered body of Susan only to find that she sees her face in the mirror transforming into that of the mad hypnotist? A little theory: I think that aside from Multiple personality disorder, Karen and Susan are two sisters somehow separated and kept estranged from each other. Karen, lovely as she is, is beaten up and injured in her dreams only because she is somehow the night stalker. Sometimes Karen sees herself as the victim because she cannot subconsciously realize until the end of the film that she is the murderer of each of the young women. Her facial injuries are all inflicted by the women she has slain.
Why? Karen cannot accept that she has been denied the kind of life that Susan has lived. We always think the grass is greener, the roses smell sweeter on the other side. This is my theory, however incorrect it may be.