From the director of the underrated eighties supernatural slasher THE SLAYER (yay!) and the PG-13 PROM NIGHT remake (boooo!) J.S. Cardone, comes this thoroughly cheap and predictable if nonetheless entertaining body count film in a bunker made under the auspices of Charles Band's Full Moon Productions (in their Paramount video distribution era). NASA Captain Hickock (David Beecroft, TV's FALCON CREST) arrives at the Jackass Flats Proving Ground underground research facility to investigate the death of one of the research subjects of the government-funded "Shadowzone" project, an "extended sleep study" with applications for space travel supervised by the shifty Dr. Van Fleet (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA). Although the research team - including imperious Dr. Erhardt (Louise Fletcher, FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC), pretty Dr. Kidwell (Shawn Weatherly, TV's BAYWATCH), and computer tech Wiley (Miguel A. Núñez Jr., RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD) - insist that the test subject died of a cerebral hemorrhage unrelated to the testing, Hickock has them re-run the fatal simulation. Taking one of the subjects down to a profound level of dreaming sleep allows a being from a parallel dimension (contact with which the brain would normally prevent by waking the sleeper as a self-defense mechanism) nicknamed "John Doe" who overrides the computer system and traps Hickock and the crew - along with comic relief janitor Shivers (Frederick Flynn, Cardone's THE SLAYER) and surly ex-brothel keeper-turned-cook Cutter (Lu Leonard, STARMAN) - underground and begins taking the forms of their nightmares to kill them one by one. Surviving test subject Jenna (Maureen Flaherty, BIKINI SQUAD) - nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty" - may be the only way to send the monster back to its dimension if they can keep her alive long enough.

Cheaply conceived and shot, SHADOWZONE is dead serious in tone and diverting enough; but it could have benefited from better creature effects. Hong's sinister doctor character is no real stretch for his range while Beecroft's hero is even more one dimensional. Fletcher, on the other hand, makes the most out of a somewhat flimsy character and invests it with a measure of humor and "red herring-ness" it might not have otherwise possessed. A fair amount of grisly gore (courtesy of PHANTASM II's Mark Shostrum, and possibly trimmed for an R-rating), a surprising amount of nudity for a Full Moon production, and nary a pint-sized doll character in sight, the film is only really let down by its monster once visualized (well-rendered but poorly designed). The photography by Karen Grossman (who shot episodes of both TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE and MONSTERS) and the score by Richard Band (CASTLE FREAK) are rather undistinguished for a Full Moon production (surprisingly so in the latter case).