My Brother Has Bad Dreams (1972) User Reviews

A movie that must be seen

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 6 October 2021]

Writer/director Robert Emery made one hell of a movie here. Seriously, this is one of the most downbeat movies that I've ever seen and yet it's one that you can't turn away from. I mean, this is a movie where the lead, Karl, is a stunted child of a man who jerks off to his sister and constantly lives under the shadow of a brutal moment in his family's history that he witnessed. So what happens when a drifter enters his world of mannequins, monsters and barely repressed and maybe inherited murderous needs?

This feels very stagy and I say that with complete love and respect. There are long stretches of dialogue by actors perhaps not ready for the complexity of what they've been given to say and yet it still more than works for me.

Strangely enough, so much of this film reminds me of Pin, which also has a mannequin and sister obsessed virgin of a murderous man and ends on a much different note. And oh yes - no spoilers here - this movie has one of the most audacious, astounding and just plain what did I just watch endings of any movie I've ever seen.

Also known as Scream Bloody Murder - and it has nothing to do with the other Scream Bloody Murder - this Tampa-filmed slice of exploitation is practically screaming for a label to clean it up, have someone smarter and more social media-connected than me do a commentary track and give it a collectible slip case.

Drive-In Psycho Clone

[lindsaykeaton · 5/10 · 14 May 2022]

While it has all the ingredients for a memorable film, My Brother Has Bad Dreams keeps its pacing a bit too sluggish for most of its run time to ever generate much excitement. If nothing else, the characters and performances are genuinely weird.

Karl and his spinster sister, Emma, live together since their father murdered their mother and they're just a huge ball of sexual repression until a mysterious biker named Tony comes into their lives and all hell breaks loose. Well, it breaks loose slowly.

Keep this movie in the darkness... It doesn't deserves to be watched!

[insomniac_rod · 3/10 · 15 October 2006]

"My Brother Has Bad Dreams" is an extremely obscure Drama/Horror movie about a demented/traumatized man that as a child witnessed how his father killed his ill mother. Years after, still traumatized by the events, he starts having "bad dreams" about the horrific events he went through so he decides to start an obsession for mannequins and starts a killing rampage. Yes, his motives are also extremely obscure.

His sister comes to live with him and she thinks his brother needs help! so she along with another male friend help him stop the horror but that's when things start to get horrible (literally).

Ah. Why bother? This is the kind of movie that you wish you never watched it. It's cheap, boring, and lacks of a feeling. I mean, it shouldn't even be considered a Thriller because most of the scenes are just too weird to be classified. There is minimal gore, scares, or nerve tense moments. I'm sure nobody is ever going to comment about it but if you are an unfortunate viewer, I warn you: this is a horrible, bad movie.

The title is intriguing but it may be the scariest thing about this rarity. Please, don't look out for this one, it's not worth your attention.

Should be named "Scream Bloody Boring"

[CupidGrl · 1/10 · 4 January 1999]

I thought I would warn all those horror fans out there,DO NOT rent this movie.The cover may catch your attention,but it is the most boring movie I have ever viewed.The plot is as follows.A mentally ill boy witnesses his dad kill his mom when he was 8 years old.And now that he's older,he's having flashbacks,and seems to have a wierd obsession with manicans,and the wheel-chair his mother was killed in.He meets a guy,and brings him home,and his sister gets attached to him,and makes him stay to help her brother.The story drags on,with nothing happening,if you do decide to get this movie,stay tuned for the end,to see the cheesiest ending in any movie.

Yes, well, your brother being totally cuckoo seems like a bigger problem to me!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 30 August 2022]

In horror, a strong and catchy title is almost half the work! And this crazed low-budget puppy from the early 70s has a great title! "My Brother Has Bad Dreams" is a great title, at least, because the alternate title "Scream Bloody Murder" is weak and derivative, pretty much like the film itself.

Carl is a very peculiar young man. The most normal things he does to fill his days are masturbating to his sister and going for skinny-dips with complete strangers. His slightly more disturbing hobbies are sleeping with mannequin dolls he calls mother and bashing in the skull of the friendly neighborhood mailman. The root of Carl's lunacy goes back to when he was a little boy and witnessed how his alcoholic father killed his paralyzed mother. Or is his loving sister keeping other secrets for Carl, maybe?

With nut-ball characters like these, and the "Psycho"-inspired plot, "My Brother Has Bad Dreams" easily could have been one of the gloriously demented highlights from the American exploitation era. Unfortunately, though, it became an intolerably slow-paced, overly talkative, and painfully dull psychological melodrama instead. Especially the first half is a true ordeal to sit through. The second half is much better, but still rather lame compared to what it could have been. During the climax there's a totally unnecessary police car chase, and out-of-the-blue shark attacks. A story like this one doesn't need car chases and sharks, but some more and juicier psycho-killer mayhem would have been welcome.

Unfairly Forgotten Horror Pic

[michellegriffin-04989 · 7/10 · 7 August 2020]

The kind of true insanity only a regional horror film from the 70's could conjure up. The plot is just Psycho with a twist (instead of a mother, we have a sister the lead character is obsessed with) and a little dash of homoeroticism. The lead actor is great at playing someone really cringey you want to look away from, but can't. He's wonderfully awkward. It has some pacing problems, but it's definitely not a movie one forgets as soon as the credits roll.

Terrifyingly bleak, doomy 1970s psychodrama

[GroovyDoom · 9/10 · 24 January 2018]

If you place great value in how many people are murdered by a psychopath during the course of a horror film, then this movie is not for you. If the reasons for a person becoming mentally unstable and committing murder are intriguing to you, then you may enjoy this low budget gem that seems to have slipped into oblivion.

It's easy to understand why this happened. First off, the original title, "Scream Bloody Murder", was appropriated by another film almost a month after this one was originally released in November 1972. Marc B. Rey's "Scream Bloody Murder" come out about six weeks later, and it also concerned a mentally ill young man with mother issues who goes on a small but gruesome killing spree. Another distributor picked up this film in 1975 and retitled it "My Brother Has Bad Dreams", and it occasionally was advertised as simply "Bad Dreams".

The plot concerns a young man named Karl, who has led a sheltered life with his sister Anna in their family home. As a child, Karl witnessed his father murdering his mother, and the trauma has made Karl withdrawn and disassociative. The adults who are familiar with the family history, such as Anna and also the mailman, Mr. Phillips, treat Karl as if he is still a child, even though he is in his 20s. His behavior has started to worsen, as Karl constantly slips in and out of delusions that his mother is still alive, despite Anna repeatedly trying to bring him back to reality. Even more alarming, Karl has taken to collecting mannequins and substituting them for the real people he is missing from his life, carrying on with them as if they're alive. He has also started spying on Anna in a sexual way.

One day while he is swimming, Karl meets another young man named Tony, who befriends him and treats him as another adult. Karl brings him home for dinner, and Tony hits it off with Anna. Soon he is spending a few days with them, sleeping with Anna and slowly coming to understand the basics of their unusual family dynamic. Unfortunately, this threatens Karl's sense of security, pushing him even further into madness.

This is exactly the kind of movie that gets under my skin, and "Scream Bloody Murder" reminds me a lot of "Slipping Into Darkness", which also had a similar "Psycho" vibe and depicted the devastating mental breakdown of a young man. It's full of hallucinatory images, and if you think mannequins are creepy, you'll get a lot of mileage out of this for horror's sake. Nothing can prepare you for the brutally abrupt way the plot resolves itself, or the strange finale that I'd love to divulge here, but really should be experienced without prior knowledge.

Very odd psychodrama with incest and mannequins.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 6 September 2010]

Karl is a man-child and he is traumatized by having witnessed his wheelchair bound mother's murder by his drunken father when he was a child.His older sister Emma takes care of him.Karl particularly enjoys talking to mannequins and sleeping with them.He founds another friend:a motorcycle-riding Vietnam vet Tony.Emma is a 28 year old virgin.She falls in love with Tony.This is the beginning of Karl's madness...Very downbeat and ugly horror movie shot in Florida.It offers some genuine shocks and surprises.The plot moves slowly and there are some scenes that drag a lot,but if you are in the mood for some odd chills give "My Brother Has Bad Dreams" a chance.8 mannequins out of 10.