Death Dreams (TV 1991)

Despite her husband's doubts, a woman reaches out to her dead daughter with a psychiatrist's help.

Director:

Martin Donovan

Writers:

William Katz (novel), Robert Glass (teleplay)

Stars:

Christopher Reeve, Marg Helgenberger, Fionnula Flanagan

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Reeve	...	George Westfield
Marg Helgenberger	...	Crista Westfield
Fionnula Flanagan	...	Psychic Physician
George Dickerson	...	Dr. Martin Drake
Conor O'Farrell	...	Bennett Massell
Cec Verrell	...	Denise Massell
Jim Jarrett	...	Fromme
Jan Devereaux	...	Mimi
Pat Atkins	...	Mrs. Parker
Kevin Page	...	Dr. Holvag
Robert Ward	...	Dr. Green
Harry Johnson	...	Judge Wiley
Richard Morrison	...	Jury Foreman
Wendell J. Grayson	...	The Bailiff
Jack Angeles	...	The Priest

Storyline

Crista thinks that she has a great life, beautiful daughter Jennie, and perfect new husband George. Then Jennie tragically drowns and everything starts going downhill when she finds out that George was involved in her death.

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Plot Keywords:

smoking | pond | necklace | rubber boat | doctor | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 June 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anklage aus dem Jenseits

Company Credits

Production Co:

ABC Video Enterprises, Capital Cities Television Productions, Dick Clark Film Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (PFL)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

I'm still here

Crista Westfield (Marg Helgenberger) is the wife of Wall Street investment broker George (Christopher Reeve) living in Connecticutt with Jennii (Taylor Fry), the 7 year old daughter from Crista's first marriage. When Jennii is found drowned in their home pond, everyone assumes that it is an accident but after Crista has a car crash, where she is clinically dead for 6 minutes, she begins to have visions of Jennii. Dissatisfied with the doctors George takes her to, Crista seeks out Dr Margaret Neuberger (Fionnula Flanagan) in New York, who helps her discover what really happened.

Helgenberger is dressed in expensive clothes as a wealthy wife, in particular a purple velvet evening dress for her 1 year anniversary party, and at times she looks very beautiful, but at other times she is ravaged by director Martin Donovan's close-ups and unflattering lighting. She has a sex scene with George where the most attention is paid to her back, and she uses the remnants of a mid-western accent. When George finds Crista with Dr Neuberger and raves angrily, Helgenberger stands in a corner listening to him and breathing, and her reaction to a hostile defence attorney is to not give any eye contact and squirm in embarrassment. Although there are times when Crista is in psychological pain, Helgenberger never makes us feel that Crista is `mad' - we believe her belief.

The teleplay by Robert Glass, based on the novel by William Katz, has Dr Neuberger tell Crista that her soul has stayed with Jennii when Crista was clinically dead, which explains the connection, and Donovan's representation of Jennii with golden light, her distorted voice and the sound of wings is more tolerable than his grab bag of other tricks. We never do find out why Jennii is killed, apart from a vague reference to `spin control', and George being described as having a `pathological need to dominate'. Reeves' anger somewhat telegraphs the case to be made against George, but a response to Crista's `My husband has no reason to kill me' is Dr Neuberger's funny `Then he's a very unusual husband'.

Subjective camera, slow motion, tilted camera, quick pans, split screen, heartbeats on the soundtrack, and dissolves all draw attention to style and not the content. Flanagan's attempt to make Neuberger charmingly eccentric doesn't quite work, and the conclusion has a rather unsatisfying ambiguity.