Dreamscape by Chan Walrus – Review

Hello everyone Kevin with film Fervor here once again to bring you another Independent Film review. Today we are looking at Director Chan Walrus’s Micro Budget Science Fiction film Dreamscape staring Chan Walrus, Simon Goodway, Zach Miller, Megan Reilly and Shaun Wools.

Dreamscape is a Science Fiction space horror film following a crew of a space salvage ship while they explore a boring area of space. The monotony is broken up when they find a derelict freighter drifting seemingly abandoned but in good enough shape to salvage. As the crew explores the ship strange disappearances and deaths start to plague the small crew that culminates in a surprise ending that can leave the viewer confused as to how it all happened.

The movie was filmed on a small budget in Chan Walrus’s garage using a single DSLR handheld camera. Normally this sort of camera leaves a fairly poor quality to a film but it was hardly noticeable in Dreamscape. The cinematography is professionally done with only a few strange issues that could potentially jar you out of the experience. The first is a zoom in on the captain eye for no apparent reason that I could tell and comes off more of an accident than a plot point and lastly several of the actor’s heads are slightly out of frame in several shots. The color scheme during the film is a creepy green and yellow that adds to the sense of unease and tension but takes a little getting use to when you first see it, one issue though it makes the Captain’s eyes look very Jaundice.

The sets used in the film are actually quite well constructed and make for believable interiors to spaceships and lends to the feeling of authenticity to the film, where it falls short though is the props of the ships themselves. The miniatures used are hard to make out and I found you need a good imagination to make them seem like actual spaceships but this is easily forgiven for the very well done interior shots and the absolutely beautiful space field backdrop.

Where the film truly shines though is the music score composed by mister Walrus. The opening theme is wonderfully Scifi at the beginning and then turns into a disturbing almost horror movie feel. The Ambient music truly sets up the theme of the film perfectly and from the outset you can tell it will go from Science Fiction to horror reminiscent of the Alien films.

If I had one complaint about the film it would be the “twist” ending. It comes out of the blue and really serves to make the Captain character pointless as she is unable to do anything or effect the story in any relevant way and just leaves you wanting a satisfying ending. The scene however did give the relative new young actors a chance to practice their craft in a meaningful way and while the Captain was a mostly pointless character the acting by Megan Reilly helped bring the scene to life.

All and all Dreamscape is a interesting Micro budget film that has a strong start and gives you a hard left turn at the end that perhaps could leave you feeling unfulfilled. That said however at a run time of a little over twenty minutes it is worth a watch just for the soundtrack alone if you are a fan of Science Fiction/horror movies.