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| Allan Gray (Nicolas de Gunzburg) finds a coffin containing himself in a dream sequence. Modern critics praise this sequence as one of the most memorable sequences from Vampyr. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The
dream sequence is a literary device commonly used in film for creating tension, foreshadowing, revealing back story, analyzing character personality, and developing other aspects of story or character exposition. Occasionally the dreams are thrown in for comic relief or just plain weirdness.
Usually the dream sequence is a small part of the film that may occur with the character either sleeping or daydreaming. In some films such as
Wizard of Oz the dream is essentially the story. Conversely, in a film like
Inception the story is about the dreams and concerns the process of dreaming.
Probably the most common use of dreams in films is the nightmare. A character will have a dream that will cause them to awaken in terror accompanied by sweating or screaming or both. This
night terror will typically have something to do with a frightening aspect of the story and be directed to scaring the film viewer.
I can't immediately recall ever having a absolutely terrifying nightmare like those often depicted in film. The most frightening dreams I've had have generally been related to some undefined and unseen sense of terror that is not accompanied by any distinct visual that is inherently scary. In most cases these types of dreams will cause me to awaken in silence or with a start, after which I remain awake for a period of time feeling dread, anger, confusion, or sadness.
My dreams with scary visuals or themes tend to be more like nighttime entertainment as though I am watching a horror or suspense film in my sleep. If I do awaken, I will frequently return immediately to sleep in order to continue viewing the dream, sometimes with the intent of directing the dream to change the bad outcome the dream had been seeming to take. Dreams rarely terrify me, but usually they are just strange.
Do you tend to have terrible nightmares? Is there something in particular that seems to trigger these frightening dreams? How do you cope with night terrors? What types of things do you dream about that you find to be so scary?
