The eighties seemed to be a time for good movies in Australia and New Zealand. Coda, Mr Wrong, Next Of Kin and The Dreaming. This is an excellent film that has some very frightening scenes and an edge of your seat finale. Penny Cook plays a doctor who treats a severely injured Aboriginal girl and become entangled in a truly frightening series of supernatural events that happened decades in the past. It has one of the most memorable scenes that involves an x-ray. I urge anyone who loves good solid thrillers and horror movies. This is Australian film making at it's finest.

This film is one of the most impressive films ive ever bought for less than £3. It really shocks on all levels then spirals towards an incredibly tense finale which will leave you wishing to take stock of what is important to you in life.

And theres a bit where an X-ray starts screaming. Genius.

Cathy Thornton (Penny Cook) is a hard working doctor whose life is thrown for a loop when her archaeologist father Bernard (Arthur Dignam) unleashes a curse by going on a particular dig. Several months after the dig has taken place, a group of young aborigines try to pilfer artifacts from a university, believing the artifacts belong to them. One of them is mortally wounded during the attempt, and after Cathy has attended to the girl in the hospital, she becomes plagued by nightmares of savage dudes who resemble vikings and wield weapons that look like hockey sticks.

"The Dreaming" is not for those genre addicts who prefer really meaty and straightforward narratives. This story of exploitation and mistreatment of indigenous people is more like a waking nightmare captured on film, with lots and lots of genuinely spooky atmosphere. If potential viewers are so inclined, they'll simply go with the flow and enjoy the unrelenting doom and gloom. Things do get violent but never especially gory. The antagonists are definitely quite creepy and malevolent. The acting is quite solid from our three main performers. Cook is appealing enough for one to feel some sympathy watching what she goes through. Dignam (of the cult hit "Strange Behaviour") is effective as the dad, and Gary Sweet rounds out the star trio by playing Cathy's concerned & perplexed companion. John Noble of the "Lord of the Rings" franchise and the TV series 'Fringe' makes his film debut as Dr. Richards. The images are often striking and distressing, and everything is beautifully photographed (by David Foreman) on scenic locations and the music score by Frank Strangio is wonderfully sinister.

Recommended to fans of the weird and the obscure.

Seven out of 10.