The very solid Season 1 hits its low point with this episode and the next. I originally rated it a 6 but bumped it up to a 7 just based off the fact that it was inspired by another great 80's movie - Dreamscape. That is two good movies in a row, if you are counting.
Some viewers have already compared it to Nightmare on Elm Street, and sure there are some obvious similarities here, most notably the idea of not falling asleep for fear of dying in your dreams. However, no, this was clearly inspired by Dreamscape, even having the laboratory room directly from that movie, and the tone and atmosphere are also near exact copies.
That is actually a good thing. But whereas that movie had a psychic psycho hired to assassinate the President and Elm Street had an over-the-top and nearly charismatic bad guy in Freddie Krueger, this show has just a quiet stalker who wants to kill women simply because they sort of soft rejected him. Pathetic. Of course, it is a tremendous coincidence that he targets Prue, who he has no idea is a witch with powers.
The moment she realizes she can use her powers in her dreams, of course, the laconic stalker gets the same fate that he had been giving his victims, though I would think that simply waking up before hitting the bottom would have saved all these lives.
The side-plot in this one is the comical consequences of a love spell cast by Piper and Phoebe. Seeing the ladies get too much of what they asked for has its fun moments, but I'm kinda bothered by the idea of how different this would be if male witches did the same thing. The personal gain is straight outta control in this season.
Some viewers have already compared it to Nightmare on Elm Street, and sure there are some obvious similarities here, most notably the idea of not falling asleep for fear of dying in your dreams. However, no, this was clearly inspired by Dreamscape, even having the laboratory room directly from that movie, and the tone and atmosphere are also near exact copies.
That is actually a good thing. But whereas that movie had a psychic psycho hired to assassinate the President and Elm Street had an over-the-top and nearly charismatic bad guy in Freddie Krueger, this show has just a quiet stalker who wants to kill women simply because they sort of soft rejected him. Pathetic. Of course, it is a tremendous coincidence that he targets Prue, who he has no idea is a witch with powers.
The moment she realizes she can use her powers in her dreams, of course, the laconic stalker gets the same fate that he had been giving his victims, though I would think that simply waking up before hitting the bottom would have saved all these lives.
The side-plot in this one is the comical consequences of a love spell cast by Piper and Phoebe. Seeing the ladies get too much of what they asked for has its fun moments, but I'm kinda bothered by the idea of how different this would be if male witches did the same thing. The personal gain is straight outta control in this season.
