Moira Davis (Shannon Tweed) is unhappily married to abusive husband Daniel (Joe Cortese) who is having an affair with his secretary (Rochelle Swanson) practically under Moira's nose. Moira begins having dreams where she is making passionate love to a mysterious man in a house she doesn't recognise. A visit to an astrologer (Stella Stevens) reveals that Moira's dreams are 'real' and that her and her mystery man share a psychic link. After a few near misses, Moira eventually meets the man of her dreams, whose name is Nick Richardson (Andrew Stevens) and has been having the same dreams about her. The two quickly begin an affair and fall in love but Moira's powerful husband finds out and swears revenge. What is to become of Moira and Nick?
'Illicit Dreams' is everything you might expect from a low-budget sexual thriller: B-movie cast – check; clichéd one-dimensional characters – check; shaky acting – check; questionable chemistry - check; largely implausible plot line – big check. Nevertheless, I thought the psychic dreams/star-crossed lovers angle was intriguing and I did find myself rooting for Moira who is desperate to escape from her brute of a husband and sail off into the sunset with Nick. If you haven't seen this film, read no further
Unfortunately it was not to be and here is where the film really fails the viewer. It all comes to a head in a predictable chase scene with Daniel, having already murdered his secretary after she betrays him, brandishing a gun and threatening to kill Moira too. At the last minute, Nick saves her by shooting Daniel dead. He takes Moira in his arms and swears he'll never leave her and then Moira wakes up in bed next to her husband who sleepily asks her to make him a cup of coffee and the film ends. My reaction to this was "whaaat?!" And not in a good way.
This film is no 'Inception' or 'Vanilla Sky' as at least with those films you still had a pretty good idea of what was real and what was dream. With 'Illicit Dreams', the audience is left not knowing whether the whole film was Moira's elongated dream or just parts of it and it just left too many unanswered questions to be enjoyable: was any of it real? Is Nick real or just a figment of Moira's imagination? What about Nick's friend and his scenes without Moira – were they not real either? Did she even visit the astrologer or was that part of the dream too? Is Daniel really as bad as he's painted? Was he having an affair at all or again, was this part of Moira's dream? Was the first part of the film real up to a point? If so, when did the dream take over? Or was the last scene of Moira waking up a dream too?
The filmmakers intended to keep the viewer guessing (mission accomplished) but was it also their intention to frustrate and annoy? Best case scenario is that the film was only partially a dream and now the action will play out in real life exactly the same. Alternatively, the dream will have inspired Moira to end her unhappy marriage. But either way, so much was left unanswered that I'd even go as far as saying that the ending ruined the whole film for me.
I've given this film 4 out of 10 holding my attention as long as it did but I certainly have no desire to watch it again.
'Illicit Dreams' is everything you might expect from a low-budget sexual thriller: B-movie cast – check; clichéd one-dimensional characters – check; shaky acting – check; questionable chemistry - check; largely implausible plot line – big check. Nevertheless, I thought the psychic dreams/star-crossed lovers angle was intriguing and I did find myself rooting for Moira who is desperate to escape from her brute of a husband and sail off into the sunset with Nick. If you haven't seen this film, read no further
Unfortunately it was not to be and here is where the film really fails the viewer. It all comes to a head in a predictable chase scene with Daniel, having already murdered his secretary after she betrays him, brandishing a gun and threatening to kill Moira too. At the last minute, Nick saves her by shooting Daniel dead. He takes Moira in his arms and swears he'll never leave her and then Moira wakes up in bed next to her husband who sleepily asks her to make him a cup of coffee and the film ends. My reaction to this was "whaaat?!" And not in a good way.
This film is no 'Inception' or 'Vanilla Sky' as at least with those films you still had a pretty good idea of what was real and what was dream. With 'Illicit Dreams', the audience is left not knowing whether the whole film was Moira's elongated dream or just parts of it and it just left too many unanswered questions to be enjoyable: was any of it real? Is Nick real or just a figment of Moira's imagination? What about Nick's friend and his scenes without Moira – were they not real either? Did she even visit the astrologer or was that part of the dream too? Is Daniel really as bad as he's painted? Was he having an affair at all or again, was this part of Moira's dream? Was the first part of the film real up to a point? If so, when did the dream take over? Or was the last scene of Moira waking up a dream too?
The filmmakers intended to keep the viewer guessing (mission accomplished) but was it also their intention to frustrate and annoy? Best case scenario is that the film was only partially a dream and now the action will play out in real life exactly the same. Alternatively, the dream will have inspired Moira to end her unhappy marriage. But either way, so much was left unanswered that I'd even go as far as saying that the ending ruined the whole film for me.
I've given this film 4 out of 10 holding my attention as long as it did but I certainly have no desire to watch it again.