Bad Dreams
In 1975, a cult called Unity Fields commits mass suicide in a horrific manner—by fire—at the behest of its psychopathic leader, Franklin Harris (Richard Lynch). Only one young woman named Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin), a child at the time of the fire, survives, though she lies in a coma for thirteen years.
After she wakes, Cynthia is plagued by horrific flashbacks of her childhood at Unity Fields, and is forced to attend experimental group therapy sessions for borderline personality disorder at the hospital led by Dr. Alex Karmen (Bruce Abbott). Cynthia's visions become more vivid, and include Harris, who often appears to her with his flesh burnt. When her roommate, Miriam, is discharged from the hospital, Cynthia has a vision of Harris in the elevator with her; however, the doors close before she is able to warn her. Miriam is found dead on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, having leapt from a window in what appears to be a suicide.
A male and female patient are later killed by the blades on an industrial fan in a utility room of the hospital, which Cynthia also attributes to Harris, who she believes has come back from his death to kill those around her. Ralph, a troubled masochist patient, becomes enamored with Cynthia; one day, they take an elevator to the basement of the hospital. During an episode, he commits suicide by stabbing himself multiple times in the abdomen.
Awakening from sedation after the incident, Cynthia finds Harris sitting in her room, calling her his "love child," and urging her to commit suicide. Shortly after, Harris visits Hettie, a clairvoyant patient, in her room. Instead of allowing him to kill her, she drinks formaldehyde she stole from a supply room, effectively killing herself. When Dr. Karmel discovers his corrupt peer, Dr. Berrisford, has intentionally laced the therapy group's drugs with psychogenic substances (in the hope that it will effectively make the patients suicidal, and thus corroborate Berrisford's research), he confronts Cynthia, insisting her visions of Harris are not real.
Dr. Karmel then pulls an emergency alarm in the hospital, which elicits chaos. Cynthia escapes to the rooftop, where Dr. Karmel finds her standing on the ledge. Harris, invisible to Dr. Karmel, urges Cynthia to jump. She leaps from the building, but before hitting the ground below, awakens back at the house in which the Unity Fields members committed suicide. There, she is confronted by Harris, who welcomes her; however, it is only a vision, and she awakens to Dr. Karmel holding her by the arm as she dangles over the ledge. Berrisford, aware that Dr. Karmel has discovered his plot, goes to the rooftop as well, and attempts to push Dr. Karmel to his death as well. His attempt is thwarted by the arrival of hospital security, and Berrisford insists that Dr. Karmel is responsible for altering the patients' medication. He then pulls a revolver from his coat, but before he is able to shoot, Cynthia pushes him to his death.
insanity, cult, violence, flashback