Theme: Dreams

Dreams are the thought processes that occur when we sleep. Meaning has frequently been attributed to dreams ranging from ancient cultures who believed that dreams held auguries and omens to the language of symbolism attributed to them by Sigmund Freud.

In genre cinema, dreams are frequently seen as having precognitive power and able to predict events before they occur. The Surrealist movement is frequently fascinated with dreams and makes their play of symbolism literal. Some other films involve people entering into dreams or daydreams for fantastical adventures.

Dream themes found enormous popularity in the horror movie with A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and its villain Freddy Krueger, a boogeyman who kills people in their dreams. A host of sequels and copycat films about dream-invading killers followed for several years after.

Popular in the silent era was the All a Dream Ending where the story pulled back at the end to reveal that everything that transpired was a dream. The horror film also makes frequent use of the dream jump where something disturbing is pulled back from to then reveal it is a character only dreaming. Both are now clichés from overuse.

There is also the dreamscape film about people who have the ability to venture into the dreams of others or else the use of devices that allow them to do so. Also of note in the late 2010s have been a number of films dealing with the horrors of sleep paralysis.