Born in 1950 in Briarcliff Manor, New York, Joseph Ruben emerged as a distinctive voice in cult cinema during the 1970s and 1980s. He directed and wrote The Sister in Law (1974), a film that blends erotic themes with a thriller narrative, showcasing his early ability to navigate complex character dynamics. His later work, Dreamscape (1984), further solidified his reputation, merging science fiction with psychological tension. Ruben's films often explore the fringes of genre, making him a significant figure in the SassyFlix catalog.
Dreamscape
Twenty-six year old Alex Gardner has psychic abilities. He was once in a psychic abilities scientific study under the leadership of Dr. Paul Novotny, but left the study seven years ago without a word or a trace, no longer wanting to live continually hooked up to electrical probes. Alex has since lived off his big winnings at the race track, his uncanny ability to pick the winners consistently which has come to the attention of some low life criminal elements who want a piece of his action. Dr. Novotny does locate Alex for the two to discuss his latest scientific breakthrough: dream therapy. Through electronic connections, he has discovered a way for psychics to be able to enter into the dreams, or as the case may be, nightmares of others, in order to treat the patients through or in dealing with the dreams/nightmares. The reasons for Alex agreeing to participate as one of the psychics are threefold: to get away from that criminal element at the track, they who are after him; a little moral suasion on Dr. Novotny's part; and Alex's attraction to Dr. Novotny's associate, Jane DeVries. The study is clandestinely supported by the government, the liaison for the government being Bob Blair, a personal friend to the President. As Alex begins to see the benefit to others in the work, he also begins to suspect that others involved in the study, namely a fellow psychic named Tommy Ray Glatman, and Blair himself, are working on their own agenda against the goals of the study. That alternate agenda may have something to do with the fact that the President himself has of late been suffering from recurring nightmares - something only his inner circle knows - which is now dictating his political agenda. If Alex comes close to discovering the truth of that agenda, his life, the lives of others in the study, and that of investigative writer Charlie Prince, who Alex befriends, may be in jeopardy.
