Bad Dreams

In 1975, Unity Fields members commit mass suicide by fire, driven by their psychopathic leader Franklin Harris. Cynthia Weston, a child at the time, refuses to join and narrowly survives the blaze. She is left in a coma that lasts thirteen years.

Thirteen years after the fire, Cynthia awakens in a hospital and is haunted by horrific flashbacks from her childhood at Unity Fields. She is enrolled in an experimental group therapy program for borderline personality disorder led by Dr. Alex Karmen. The medical team debates whether she truly belongs in the group.

Dr. Alex Karmen begins Cynthia's therapy within the group, though he is uncertain she fits in. His mentor, Dr. Berrisford, convinces him to persevere and help Cynthia adjust to modern urban life. The dynamic in the therapy room becomes crucial to her treatment.

Cynthia experiences haunting visions of Harris, including one where he drowns Lana during a baptism-like ritual. Moments later, Lana is found dead in the hospital pool, intensifying the sense that Harris has returned to claim more victims.

Miriam, Cynthia’s roommate, is discharged after a vision-led encounter with Harris in the hospital elevator. Shortly after, Miriam is found dead on the sidewalk outside the hospital, seemingly a suicide tied to the hauntings.

Ed and Connie, fellow patients who are lovers, walk into the blades of an industrial fan in the hospital’s utility room. The deaths appear to be at the hands of Harris, whether real or perceived by Cynthia as a manifestation of her torment.

Ralph Pesco, a troubled masochist with violent tendencies, escalates into a psychotic episode. After knocking down a policeman, he goes to the basement and commits suicide by stabbing himself multiple times.

Cynthia is drawn into further danger when Gilda, a clairvoyant patient, asks her to resist Harris. Instead of being killed, Gilda drinks formaldehyde stolen from a supply room and dies, illustrating the deadly influence of the haunting.

Dr. Karmen discovers that Dr. Berrisford has deliberately laced the therapy medications with psychogenic substances to induce suicidality for research. The revelation reframes the deaths as the result of medical manipulation rather than supernatural possession.

Alex confronts Cynthia about the visions as the hospitals spirals into chaos. Berrisford knocks Alex out and abducts Cynthia, while Dr. Karmen contacts the police and Detective Wasserman to intervene as the scheme unravels.

With the hospital alarm sounding, Cynthia makes her way to the rooftop where Alex finds her on the ledge. Berrisford stands nearby, pressuring her to jump as the suspense peaks and the tension between truth and illusion intensifies.

Cynthia leaps from the rooftop, but she awakens back at the Unity Fields house in a vision. Harris greets her there, though it is only a vision, and she then awakens to Alex holding her as they teeter over the ledge.

Berrisford seizes a revolver and tries to manipulate the scene, but Cynthia realizes he is not Harris. In a desperate struggle, she pushes him over the ledge to his death, finally breaking his influence over her and the patients.

Police and Wasserman arrive to secure the scene as the crisis subsides. Karmen consoles Cynthia; she briefly sees Harris again but then finds reassurance in Alex’s embrace, signaling the start of her recovery and a return to stability.