Dead Sleep (1990) User Reviews

Another Cheesy Linda Blair Film

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 17 February 2014]

A young nurse (Linda Blair) investigates suspicious deaths in a psychiatric ward.

I am not sure why after "Exorcist" it seems that Linda Blair ended up in cheesy films alongside David Hasselhoff, or with unknown Italians, or in this "ozploitation" film. I suspect it had something to do with drugs, but why that affected her acting is not clear.

There are some redeeming qualities to this film, and I think it would be worth a revisit if it was cleaned up an audio commentary was added. While it could never be a cult classic, I suspect Blair has interesting stories to share about this film and it would be good to get someone (Shout Factory?) to collect them.

Obviously, I'll watch anything with Linda Blair in it

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 20 October 2018]

At 3 AM, my mind works like this: "Sam, there is a movie that rips off Coma and has Linda Blair in it. We must not sleep. We must watch this."

Director Alec Mills only did one other film, Bloodmoon, but he was a camera guy and cinematographer on several Bond films like License to Kill and Moonraker. I would assume, after watching this movie, that he did the parts that are really boring, like the travelogue footage when Bond makes it to another country.

I'm on a quest to watch every Linda Blair film, so this is part of that Quixotic endeavor. Here, she plays Maggie Healey, an American who learned to be a nurse and moved to Australia where she gets a drug-addicted rich boyfriend who likes to draw pictures of her on his sailing ship. I'm not making any of this up.

She becomes a nurse at this clinic where they advise long-term sleep therapy. Being in a medically induced coma for two weeks sounds awesome and I fully endorse whatever these wacky Aussies are doing. Unfortunately, all of the bare-breasted women and men in pajamas that they have sleeping Michael Crichton-style end up killing themselves. The drama!

I wrote this while sleeping...can you tell?

[sadie_thompson · 1 April 2004]

Actually, I was almost half awake...almost.

First, the basics. This is an Australian movie, made in 1990, and it stars Linda Blair and several people you've never seen before or since. The plot involves a doctor who indulges in malpractice for reasons that aren't disclosed, and the nurse who stops him and becomes a hero(ine).

Now, the nitpicking. This is a silly movie, and I had several bones to pick. First--judging by this film, only topless women develop mental illness. A vast majority of the nuts in this film are women, and for some reason they aren't allowed to wear clothes. The men wear pajama-like things, but the women just bare it all. I'm not really clear on why that is--all I can figure is that the director wanted to look at boobs. Makes sense, I guess.

Second--who wrote this?!? I know it was in the credits, but who watches credits? Periodically it seems like a moderately good TV movie, and then it just sinks like a rock. Example--when Linda Blair's personified conscience (she's some kind of muckraker, I suppose) gets angry at Linda, she lets loose with the "f-word" and just generally tells poor Linda off. Since projectile vomiting isn't an option, Linda has to defend herself with words. The words the screenwriter gave her are "For someone with no credentials you sure are --pause-- obnoxious." EXCUSE ME? I thought it was terribly funny, but is it supposed to be? The pause made it even better--Linda Blair is a marvelous pauser. Still, what could have been a great dramatic moment falls flat on its butt.

Third--all the people were people you would never want to meet. Ever. The head nurse is a twit, the head doctor (the bad guy) is a twit, Linda Blair comes near twit-ness occasionally, and the muckraker is certainly aggravating. How can you feel for these people when they're such creeps? I believe you're only supposed to like Ms. Blair--that's how it seems to me. I feel sorry for her, being the only protagonist in a movie full of jerks. Correction--in a stupid movie full of jerks.

Now, I can't be too hard on this movie, because I'm a Linda Blair fan and I wouldn't want people to think all of her movies suck. (Some don't, you know.) There were some good moments--when Linda's roommate gets all over her for not having a job, she gives her the Linda Blair P***ed-Off Look, which is priceless. It's just a mean stare, but it packs a wallop. I also enjoyed hearing simplified medical jargon--"The eyes are discolored, which indicates kidney failure" kind of stuff. I even liked the end of the movie, where Linda and Doctor Meanie get in a catfight. I was glad to see her dadgum fingernails make it into a scene. Every time I see her in movies she's got extremely long talons, but they don't seem to serve any purpose. They do here, lemme tell ya. (Example--"Airport 1975," where you get a close up of these long, purple fingernails, only to see them attached to the fingers of a chubby-faced girl. It's startling.)

Overall rating--2 out of 5 stars. Linda Blair, if you ever read this, PLEASE DO A COMEDY SO WE DON'T HAVE TO WATCH YOU SUFFER.

Crikey, this is boring......

[blurnieghey · 3/10 · 30 December 2023]

As a general rule, when I'm looking for a movie to watch, all I need to see is the word "Australia" in the description of the movie to know enough to keep looking. No offense to any Australians out there, mind you, and if watching padded-out, wordy, tepid, boring flicks with minimal action rocks your world then more power to you, although if you guys drink as much as the characters in this film do, that might have something to do with it. Anyways, I love Linda Blair and I find her quite cute and a talented actress with charm that lights up whatever B-movie junk she finds herself thrust into, but I knew she'd be put to the test in lighting up a garbage Australian flick before I even hit play and, arguably, this is one of the lesser films I've seen her in.

While I wouldn't describe this film as being entirely awful, it is predictable to where you know exactly what is going to go down before you are even 20 minutest into it, making this slow-moving, padded out timewaster that much harder to get through, with 98 minutes feeling like over two hours if you manage to make it that far. The basic premise itself is actually somewhat believable (I don't put anything past what the corrupt healthcare systems in Western countries will do for a buck), but this film can't decide if it is serious or schlock. It is too cheesy to be serious and too boring and toned down to be schlock and, seeing as it is a low-budget flick with middling actors and writers, the correct move should have been to go over the top with the exploitation and have some fun, but no dice. It's about what you'd expect and, sadly, even Linda can't save it.

Corruption in the world of psychiatry? Never!

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 19 June 2023]

While the idea of Linda Blair as a psychiatric nurse coming to the realization that the Australian hospital that she works for employees corrupt doctors is silly, this ends up being a surprisingly good film that is not a horror movie except for the patients. She is told when she gets the job not to become emotionally involved with the patients, but as they come to trust her, she can't help but come to care about them more than she should. The doctors and head nurses are impressed with her dedication, but they are unaware that once she realizes what is going on behind the scenes that she intends to expose them. Of course, this leads her into a lot of trouble, but this time, it's not the devil that made her do it.

While Linda Blair's career has been mostly in forgettable exploitation films, when she gets a good script and gets the chance to show what she is capable of, she can be pretty impressive. I was pretty shocked at what I thought this was going to be was completely the opposite, reminding me of social dramas from the forties like "The Lost Weekend", "The Snake Pit" and "The Lady Gambles". The supporting cast of Australia actors are also excellent, especially Tony Bonner as the corrupt psychiatrist Who obviously cares more about money than taking care of his patients, evidenced by phone call that Blair makes to him where he tells her off for interrupting his social time. The horror is for his patients, seemingly on the road to recovery when suddenly, an induced coma results in permanent sleep.

Great midnight flick

[riverflows · 8/10 · 26 June 2005]

I saw this movie from netflix because most Linda Blair movies are not in video stores and I'm glad I did. I think Linda is a great actress and she is not bad to look at either. I think she is very underrated. I would love to see her make another big Hollywood hit. It would be awesome to see her have a comeback. My mom actually saw her at a teen party back in the 1970's. This movie has story to it and involves all of her character's life and not just the suspenseful parts. It is all around enjoyable and fun to watch at night when your in the mood for and older thriller movie. It's not an A class movie but it is a necessity for Linda Blair fans.

Amazingly Realistic

[parhat · 10/10 · 16 October 2005]

Now, you have never faced a real situation of doctors murdering their patients for money. If you faced that situation, the movie portrayed is quite realistic. No one wants to rock the boat and everyone pretend to be stupid. I have seen it all the time. Yes, they look like "twits", but don't real life when you found somethings wrong, don't they all look like "twits"? While the movie is not on par with blockbuster or something as entertaining, I have had a bad luck to fight with corruption that is in similar scale to the ones in the movie, but the reality is much much worse, the ending is not as nice and neat like the movie, and the general apathy of people is quite ridiculously high. Collecting monthly and weekly salaries and making a living without rocking the system bad or good is usually their motto.

No doctor will admit that they kill their patients or make the patients conditions worse so they can collect more money by getting their patients to stay in the hospitals much longer or subjected to a more drastic measures when they could prevented the crisis by giving something as simple as an pill. You see many hospitals give doctors 50% of the cut from the money they collect from their patients. It makes for much longer hospital stays if they have their insurance covered. And believed it or not if the insurance is canceled, they will kick you out in a second's notice.

I have seen this issue hundreds of time and people just don't get it. Why doctors do what they do, is what I have seen in real life so many times and when you go through the bureaucrat you will see some of the worse treatment of denial ever.

It is only when the majority public knows about it that and facts are all out that they might look into the issue. This is the general state of what corruption is really like, just as the way the movie is exactly portrayed.

Mine you the movie is not entertainment, but in real life this is one of those movies I have to show children what bureaucrats, and doctors who kill their patient (happens much more than you think) is like.

If only people can see through it in real life just like the movie, it would be great, but people just can't see through this analogy. For this, it is the best Linda Blair movie I ever seen. Only Exorcist ranks second on the "reality" ratings. I can be quite vocal about this issue because three of my relatives are doctors and three more of my relatives are nurses. So this is straight from the horse's mouth!

Better Than The Critics Say

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 21 April 2015]

I found this movie better than the critics reviews. It's a horror-thriller. Like most movies, you have to watch them for your self to know if you will like it or not. This particular film I liked.

Basically, Dr. Jonthan Heckett is a psychiatrist working with a treatment called "Dead Sleep". Maggie Healey (Linda Blair) is a nurse hired in a psychiatric ward who discovers that Dr. Heckett's treatments are not helpful to the patients - in fact, the treatments are quite harmful. Maggie finds herself pulled into investigating the situation.

The film does have an amount of realism to it... the movie does not give us Dr. Heckett's exact motive but one might guess it's for insurance money - money in his own pocket (along with others that are in on it).

Apathy for the patients is what most of the doctors and nurses have in the film - yet, as I mentioned above, the viewer is left wondering what their exact motive is.

The "realism" is the fact that is it possible that a doctor could do such a thing to people... keep them, make up illnesses just for insurance money in their pockets... that is what makes this movie scary and realistic/plausible.

The ending I did not like - I would have rather seen arrests made but I am assuming that arrests did occur after the film ended.

Good late night film.

8/10

"This Is A Hospital Ward, Not A Gymnasium!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 31 October 2021]

Maggie Healey (Linda Blair) has just landed a job as a psychiatric nurse at the prestigious Elysian Fields Hospital. She soon uncovers a horrible secret, resulting in her quitting her position.

Oh no!

Maggie's boyfriend winds up in Elysian Fields for "treatment" and meets with a tragic end, causing Maggie to get her job back. This time, she sleuths around for answers.

Even diehard fans of Ms. Blair might have a difficult time with her Pollyanna / snoopy-pants character. Still, the story's good with some suspenseful moments...