Nightmare Sequence: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'' I get up put on the light, dreading the oncoming night''

 

Some dreams are heart-warming visions of hope, filled with cute and cuddly creatures, so delightful they make you want to fall asleep right away—some dreams, but not all.

 

See also [[Bad Dreams]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Tetsuo's series of nightmares and hallucinations in ''[[Akira]]''. These dreams vary from giant stuffed animals attacking him, to visions of his horrifying future, to having his intestines spill out of him from simply falling. I don't even want to mention the [[Body Horror|further horrors]] that this poor kid has to go through during the story (even though he does partially deserve it).

* Pretty much the entire premise of ''[[Nightmare Inspector]]'' is Hiruko the Baku's entering into people's nightmares with them in order to figure out what they mean.

* Happens several times in ''[[Chrono Crusade]]''. Chrono has a nightmare where he's surrounded by dead bodies as Aion tempts him back to his side (hinting at his backstory). Rosette has a nightmare at the start of the [[Darkest Hour]] that serves to recap some of the trauma she's been through as well as gives a clear idea of her psychological state. And in an early episode of the anime, Rosette has a nightmare that's half flashback, half nightmare about her brother's kidnapping by the [[Big Bad]].

 

== Comic Books ==

* Yorick in ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'' suffers from constant nightmares, usually involving his girlfriend Beth. So much so that when Yorick finally does meet her his first reaction is to storm off in the belief that he's just having another cruel dream.

* In [[Transmetropolitan]], Spider Jerusalem has one after he stuffs himself with drugs (again) when he realizes he has become a Japanese-like anime, a cheesy live action TV series and a [[Rule 34|porn movie]]. Sadly, he has a fairly good dream at the beginning.

 

== Film ==

* Constantly used in the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' books, ''I Live In Your Basement!'' having the most by far.

 

* The ''Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad'' episode "To Sleep, Perchance to Scream" is centered around nightmares.

* Most of the ''[[Dollhouse]]'' episode "The Attic" is not just a nightmare sequence, but an entire, parallel nightmare world in which inmates' fears can kill them not only in the dream sphere, but also in real life.

** Frasier has two nightmares: a creepy one where he dreams that he killed Niles and married Daphne, while keeping Niles's ashes in a tin next to the coffee; and a panick-stricken one where his radio booth fills up with dozens of telephones, only one of which is ringing, which he frantically tries to find and answer while Roz's booth morphs into a car dashboard and she yells that if he doesn't find the right telephone in five seconds, [[Thelma and Louise|she's going to drive them off a cliff.]]

* Played with on ''[[The Daily Show]]'' for Hallowe'en 2001. [[Steve Carell]], reporting on a haunted house, complains that it isn't scary enough. A dream sequence follows involving his high school gym coach, [[Stephen Colbert]] as the show's new host, and clips from ''Corky Romano''. He wakes up screaming - next to Jon Stewart. They ''both'' scream. {{spoiler|But only because they weren't expecting to see a camera in their bedroom.}}

* Played for laughs in the ''[[Blackadder]] The Third'' episode ''Ink and Incapability'' where Blackadder has a nightmare which starts off with Baldrick "waking" him up and ends up with Baldrick turned into an Alsatian. Then Baldrick wakes him up.

{{quote|"Hang on a second, if we go on like this you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."}}

* ''[[Big Bad Beetleborgs]]'' had an episode centered around this trope, in the episode "Booger Man" there was a monster called Booger Man (also known as Booger) who was a boogeyman that came to Hillhurst and gave the house monsters nightmares. Flabber has a nightmare involving the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe. At the end they send him over to the Crustaceons lair to give Les Fortunes nightmares.

* Played for laughs in the ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' episode "A Nightmare on Dick Street", since the aliens never had dreams before.

 

== Music ==

* ''All'' videos by [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tool&search_type=&aq=f Tool.]

* [[Iron Maiden]] has many (mostly by Steve Harris, who must sleep horribly), most notably "Infinite Dreams" and "Dream of Mirrors". Also, "The Number of the Beast" was based on both ''[[The Omen]] II'' and a nightmare of Harris.

 

== Video Games ==

* In the same vein of the series above, ''[[Nightmare House]] 2'' has several of these. {{spoiler|It's actually Romero trying to mess with your head by using his mind control Core.}}

* A few in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' as Shepard goes through a serious case of [[Survivor Guilt]] and wonders why s/he is still alive and so many of his/her friends, loved ones, and innocent people are dead.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110519180529/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/180 This] ''[[Loserz]]'' strip.

* No one seems to sleep that well in ''[[Slightly Damned]]'', as a significant portion of the characters get either nightmares or [[Recurring Dreams]].

* In the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]], Candi is trying to set a good example by not giving in to the family curse [[All Women Are Lustful|like her sisters did]]. This results in her suffering gargantuan levels of [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] between herself and Denny. She has a dream that begins subtly enough one night, [[Erotic Dream|with her and Denny giving in]]. [[Space Whale Aesop|Then zombies attack]]! She awakes to save Denny from a ''Meethlite'' attack! They finally elope, because they're tired of waiting for a decent time to get their families together. [[Can't Have Sex Ever|Only to discover]] that Candi being pregnant means her powers don't work, which leads to {{spoiler|Denny's neck being crushed by Musaran's foot}} and to [[Second Law of Metafictional Thermodynamics|Candi herself being nearly burned alive]]—arguably a fate worse than zombies!

** In the sequel, it's lampshaded. Her previous UST for Denny combines with her actual sense of guilt for having given in with Donte to create ''titanic'' levels of shame that harass her in her sleep! [[Stealth Pun|So where does she end up]]? [[Don't Explain the Joke|Aboard the]] ''Titanic'', [[Captain Obvious|of course]]. Except the only things awaiting her on her nightmare's version are the ghosts of Gunner and Skellig Soorfelt (who died in the first story) as well as Denny and an [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome|aged-up]] [[Enfante Terrible|Angie]]. [[Freud Was Right|And an unopened box of condoms]].

* ''[[Zombie & Mummy]]'' "...[http://www.zombie-and-mummy.org/have_a/nightmare.html have a nightmare]"

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090625230637/http://chesspiece.smackjeeves.com/comics/561130/dannys-nightmare-fuel/ These] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090625214202/http://chesspiece.smackjeeves.com/comics/561131/drink-his-blood-damn-it/ three] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090625221525/http://chesspiece.smackjeeves.com/comics/561132/you-killed-your-father/ panels] of [https://web.archive.org/web/20120830153535/http://chesspiece.smackjeeves.com/ Chess Piece]. Very freaky.

{{quote|'''Phantom''': ''Papa's '''blood''' is delicious, Papa's '''blood''' is pure, it is essence and we are bathe[d] in bless. So drink... and be happy. After all. You killed him.''}}

* The Phase novels from the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. Phase has nasty nightmares really often, sometimes several in one night. and given that Phase has suffered [[Transformation Trauma]] for real, and has fought an unkillable [[Eldritch Abomination]], and has been tortured by a [[Mad Scientist]], he has ''horrific'' nightmares.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

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