Nightmare and Dreamscapes - Episode 1
I decided to review all the episodes of the short TV series Nightmare and Dreamscapes, which adapts 8 Stephen King short stories to the screen. This will contain massive spoilers for the episode and the short story.
Battleground
Summary: We meet our protagonist, Mr John Renshaw, who’s a professional killer. His current victim is Mr. Morris, the owner of a toy factory. Renshaw manages to knock out both security guards, dispatches the cameras and then goes in for the kill. After shooting Morris, he takes a little fairy figure as a souvenir (which he seems to do with every victim) and notices a picture on Morris’ desk, which shows Mr. Morris’ Mom and her distinguish signature.
Renshaw then travels home while informing his contact that the job is done and the money can be wired to his account. His home turns out to be a penthouse in a luxurious apartment building, which includes an indoor-outdoor pool. After falling asleep on the couch, the girl from the reception wakes him up because he’s got a package. After carefully inspecting it, he notes the familiar signature on the return address. He carefully opens it to find a green metal box containing typical toy soldiers, jeeps and helicopters. He turns his back to it for a minute, but suddenly the box is empty. The toy soldiers are alive and dead set on killing Renshaw. They inflict needle sized wounds on his arm and neck before he gets his MG and starts shooting up the couch they’re hiding under. He manages to hit quite a few of them, but then the helicopters start attacking at face height and the surviving soldiers start shooting with their grenade and rocket launchers.
Not seeing a way out, Renshaw is forced to hid in the bathroom, where he takes care of his wounds. The toy soldiers give him a note, telling him to surrender, but he’ll have none of it. When they start blasting the door, he grabs the bug spray and flees onto the small ledge outside the window that goes around the building. Outside one of the helicopters almost manages to shoot him down, but he wins and shoots the thing. On the balcony he puts a toy duck in the pool and lets it swim forward as a distraction. When the toy soldiers look at the duck, he blinds the ones standing in front of the bathroom with a fire extinguisher while burning the rest with the bug spray and a lighter. After destroying them all, he checks them out to see what made them come alive, but can't find anything. He puts anything left over into the garbage disposal.
Thinking that he won the battle, Renshaw takes a dip in his pool, only to have something attack him underwater, slashing his wrist. First he tries to sew the wound up himself, but he’s shaking to much, so he gets the heck out of his apartment. Inside the elevator he has to battle the last remaining toy soldier, who looks like a miniature Rambo. After a long cat and mouse game he manages to destroy the soldier, only to discover a bomb in its backpack. The whole elevator blows up and in the last scene we are back to the toy box in the apartment. The sticker on the back has come unglued and reveals that as a special surprise this box contains a commando and a nuclear bomb. The last thing we see is the little fairy figurine, which starts spinning on her own.
My opinion: This is one of my favourite episodes of this series. The acting from Mr. William Hurt is great and the idea of having no dialogue works out wonderfully. The only thing that bothered me was that Renshaw is able to crush the commando by pushing it between the closing elevator doors. Shouldn’t the doors simply open again if they hit an obstacle? The special effects look good, especially when you consider that this is just a TV series. The thing with the fairy was kind of superfluous, but I guess it was there to show us that the toys from this company are more than what they seem. Also, I totally want that apartment.
Comparison with the original short story: Well, first of all, the short story Battle Ground isn’t even from the Nightmares and Dreamscapes book, but from Night Shift. The first difference is that the story starts after the murder, but since we’re not in Renshaws head in the episode, it makes sense to film this part. Otherwise everything is updated to modern times, with cell phones and laptops. The biggest difference is the finale. In the book Renshaw never manages to destroy all the soldiers, but is blown to bits in his apartment when he delivers the final blow with a bottle of lighter fluid and tries to flee. To me all the changes make sense for the adaptation from book to screen.
Rating: Great
Battleground
Summary: We meet our protagonist, Mr John Renshaw, who’s a professional killer. His current victim is Mr. Morris, the owner of a toy factory. Renshaw manages to knock out both security guards, dispatches the cameras and then goes in for the kill. After shooting Morris, he takes a little fairy figure as a souvenir (which he seems to do with every victim) and notices a picture on Morris’ desk, which shows Mr. Morris’ Mom and her distinguish signature.
Renshaw then travels home while informing his contact that the job is done and the money can be wired to his account. His home turns out to be a penthouse in a luxurious apartment building, which includes an indoor-outdoor pool. After falling asleep on the couch, the girl from the reception wakes him up because he’s got a package. After carefully inspecting it, he notes the familiar signature on the return address. He carefully opens it to find a green metal box containing typical toy soldiers, jeeps and helicopters. He turns his back to it for a minute, but suddenly the box is empty. The toy soldiers are alive and dead set on killing Renshaw. They inflict needle sized wounds on his arm and neck before he gets his MG and starts shooting up the couch they’re hiding under. He manages to hit quite a few of them, but then the helicopters start attacking at face height and the surviving soldiers start shooting with their grenade and rocket launchers.
Not seeing a way out, Renshaw is forced to hid in the bathroom, where he takes care of his wounds. The toy soldiers give him a note, telling him to surrender, but he’ll have none of it. When they start blasting the door, he grabs the bug spray and flees onto the small ledge outside the window that goes around the building. Outside one of the helicopters almost manages to shoot him down, but he wins and shoots the thing. On the balcony he puts a toy duck in the pool and lets it swim forward as a distraction. When the toy soldiers look at the duck, he blinds the ones standing in front of the bathroom with a fire extinguisher while burning the rest with the bug spray and a lighter. After destroying them all, he checks them out to see what made them come alive, but can't find anything. He puts anything left over into the garbage disposal.
Thinking that he won the battle, Renshaw takes a dip in his pool, only to have something attack him underwater, slashing his wrist. First he tries to sew the wound up himself, but he’s shaking to much, so he gets the heck out of his apartment. Inside the elevator he has to battle the last remaining toy soldier, who looks like a miniature Rambo. After a long cat and mouse game he manages to destroy the soldier, only to discover a bomb in its backpack. The whole elevator blows up and in the last scene we are back to the toy box in the apartment. The sticker on the back has come unglued and reveals that as a special surprise this box contains a commando and a nuclear bomb. The last thing we see is the little fairy figurine, which starts spinning on her own.
My opinion: This is one of my favourite episodes of this series. The acting from Mr. William Hurt is great and the idea of having no dialogue works out wonderfully. The only thing that bothered me was that Renshaw is able to crush the commando by pushing it between the closing elevator doors. Shouldn’t the doors simply open again if they hit an obstacle? The special effects look good, especially when you consider that this is just a TV series. The thing with the fairy was kind of superfluous, but I guess it was there to show us that the toys from this company are more than what they seem. Also, I totally want that apartment.
Comparison with the original short story: Well, first of all, the short story Battle Ground isn’t even from the Nightmares and Dreamscapes book, but from Night Shift. The first difference is that the story starts after the murder, but since we’re not in Renshaws head in the episode, it makes sense to film this part. Otherwise everything is updated to modern times, with cell phones and laptops. The biggest difference is the finale. In the book Renshaw never manages to destroy all the soldiers, but is blown to bits in his apartment when he delivers the final blow with a bottle of lighter fluid and tries to flee. To me all the changes make sense for the adaptation from book to screen.
Rating: Great