Dream/Killer

Dream/Killer, stylized onscreen as dream/killer, is a 2015 documentary film about the wrongful conviction of Ryan Ferguson based on the testimony of a classmate who said that he’d dreamt that Ferguson was the killer. The film details the case and Bill Ferguson's journey to free his son. It debuted at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. It aired in August 2016 as a two-hour special on the Investigation Discovery network. The documentary was later released on Netflix in 2019.

Persons featured

Synopsis

dream/killer details the wrongful conviction of Ryan Ferguson who spent ten years in prison before having his conviction overturned. The film focuses on Ryan's father, Bill, as he pursues a campaign to keep public attention on Ryan's case and work with lawyers to appeal Ryan's conviction. The film documents the investigation into claims that Missouri prosecutor Kevin Crane pressured witnesses into implicating Ferguson as well as omitting evidence and using flawed interrogation techniques.

Reception

In The New York Times Ken Jaworowski wrote, "dream/killer remains fast-paced and frightening". Rolling Stone writes that the film "show the corruptive nature of power and brutally slow machinations of the U.S. justice system". Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times was critical of the film however, writing that the film looked only at the chronology of events, not the deeper causes of the problems presented.