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.