Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest [1992]
“Dream Deceivers” is a documentary by David Van Taylor, which came out in 1992. It talks about the tragic story of James Vance and Raymond Belknap, two young people that shot themselves on the evening of December 23rd, 1985. Raymond died, while James somehow survived, though he was permanently disfigured.
The subject of the documentary is very heavy, and for many people, it may be hard to watch. James was interviewed through the film, before his death.
On the evening of the “shootings” as their family called it, Raymond, 18, and James, 20, had made a suicide pact. The two went to a church playground and while under the influence of various substances, they committed, and attempted suicide. Raymond shot himself first, then James, scared, took the gun second.
Not much is really talked about how James was found, or the reconstructive surgeries that he went through. From what you see in the footage, you can see that the doctors did the best they could. In many ways, it is shocking that James survived.
From the opening scenes, we see home life with James and his mother. At first, it appears that he has a loving mother, who seems sweet and nice. She cooks for him, and brings him plates of food. She seemed to understand what he was saying, helping the viewer better hear him, as his disfigurement left him seemingly unable to completely close his mouth. From early in the film, we see that James’ mother, Phyllis, was religious.
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To preface, decades ago, I had heard of the case against Judas Priest, and the idea of backmasking in music. This was way before we had the access to news articles and freely seeing documentaries like this one, so I never got to know the full story. I didn’t know that it went like this, and in reality, that it was so brutal.
To quickly sum up, after the shootings, and Raymond’s suicide, their families filed a civil suit against the band Judas Priest. Their claim was that the band’s music had subliminal messages in it, the main one being “Do it”, which was purported to be the reason why the two tried to take their lives.
I always knew that the case was dismissed, though I didn’t know many of the inner workings of it. When I was in high school, I had to write a paper making a persuasive argument, and this case was among the ones I used as an example. The idea was that backmasking is a flawed concept, because many times a person is told what they’ll hear when something is played backwards. Once you tell someone what they’re supposed to hear, that’s what they hear; if you play the same thing but not tell them what the potential message is, many times people don’t hear anything of significance.
You see a scene in the film that seems to touch on this, as Rob Halford, the singer to the band, is seen saying in the courtroom something about “wanting a peppermint” or asking for one, then playing a song backwards. Of course, when you hear Halford play this, it sounds exactly like what he said.
The majority of the court details aren’t really talked about in the film, though that might have been due to time restraints. The documentary is about an hour. I do wish they could have talked about this section more, but I understand why they didn’t, and likely couldn’t do so. At the end of the film, the families were reportedly trying to appeal the case’s dismissal, though of course in the decades since we know this didn’t work.
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Even though Raymond’s mother was interviewed and seen in the film, you see a lot more about James Vance’s mother Phyllis, and the life that James had. I will say though, it hurt in a way, when Raymond’s mother stated that it took her a long time before she really understood that he was never coming home.
The focus on James’ family really showed a dysfunctional and abusive household. The dynamic was incredibly toxic, where his mother seemed to focus so much on religion, and was putting down her son’s interests, she called Judas Priest “garbage music”, with a big smile on her face. By this time, James Vance had been saying that Judas Priest was one of the reasons why he attempted suicide. They even show a note that James wrote, as proof. I know how this is going to sound, but I question if his mother forced him to write that, and say those things after he survived his suicide attempt.
I question if many of the things that happened with this case, is because James was a tortured soul, and just wanted some kind of relief.
It’s very clear that James was suffering. His father/step father (this is rather unclear, one scene shows his mother saying that he had a different father than the man who raised him) is seen on camera smiling at the fact that he punched James with his fists in the past, when James was caught having smoked marijuana. It was revealed that he also beat on James’ mother, early in their relationship; shockingly, she minimizes this saying it was only “the first year or 2”. The man was also an alcoholic, and once again, Phyllis is seen saying “Who doesn’t have a drinking problem?”.
There are multiple instances where the mask drops off for Phyllis, and the viewer begins to understand why James wanted to end his life.
The defense lawyer did a great job in my opinion, from the shots that they showed in the film. She brought up psychiatric evaluations, and these were probably the biggest contentions against the prosecution’s argument that Judas Priest induced these shootings and suicide. It was revealed in the times before James shot himself, that he was severely depressed, and wished to end his life.
What was surprising, was how James’ mother did not like how this was brought out in court, and was seen saying that the defense lawyer would have to “answer to God” for that one. That really showed the mentality Phyllis had. She couldn’t take accountability at all.
There were examples that both of the guys were suffering, to put it simply. As a viewer, it was clear that the examples of dropping out of school, not keeping a job, doing drugs, shooting animals, and things of the like, were indications of something much more going on in their lives; not the music they listened to.
Through the film, there are clips of metalheads unrelated to the case interviewed. Everyone knew that the court case was bullshit, and they didn’t have a leg to stand on. I think it was very important that the director showed how music, even Heavy Metal, can connect with people, and bring them together. Despite James and Raymond’s families trying to blame the music on their actions, the two guys were initially fans before they hurt themselves.
In many ways, it was clear to me that James had little relief in life, and what he did find, was through music.
It was sad to me, that his mother refused to take his interests seriously, and just cast them aside as evil and bad. When Phyllis was asked what type of music she listened to, of course she smiled and talked about religious music, and Western music. I found this interesting, because it was like a way to “prove” that Heavy Metal was bad, and her music was “good”. There were no specific artists mentioned that she listened to.
I bring this up, because there was so much emphasis placed on how Metal bands were the cause of these suicides. Ironically, if you listen to Hank Williams Sr., a famous Country artist, a lot of his music was depressing. Hank talked about killing himself quite a lot, as seen in songs like “Long Gone Lonesome Blues”. To quote some of the lyrics to that song:
“I'm gonna find me a river, one that's cold as ice
And when I find me that river, Lord I'm gonna pay the price, oh Lord
I'm goin' down in it three times, but Lord I'm only comin' up twice”
I wonder if Phyllis ever listened to that song. Or Hank’s similar ones like “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”. Once you start looking at other artists, especially out of the Metal genre, the idea of Metal being the culprit to suicide falls apart.
This seems to be brought up where one of the family members are brought on the stand, I believe a sister to Raymond, as James stated that he was an only child. The sister had attempted suicide in the past, and she admitted that she wasn’t a fan of Heavy Metal. It made me question what was going on at home for multiple siblings to the same family to attempt suicide.
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At the end of the film, James Vance passed away, and we see a part of his funeral. What is really disturbing, is that Phyllis, his own mother, did not cry. In fact, it looked like she was smirking. Right beside her was her husband, James’ father. The man who admitted to beating James with his fists, was the one crying and wiping his eyes.
At the time of his death, James’ death wasn’t considered a suicide, though in the years since it seems like people believe it was. James slipped into a coma after overdosing on drugs, what was likely methadone. James apparently had been admitted to the hospital on November 15th, 1988 for depression. He had slipped into a coma the day he was supposed to be released.
In an article from the LA Times, doctors told James’ mother that he was 99.9% brain dead. [ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-01-mn-828-story.html ]
According to Find a Grave, James passed away on November 29th, 1988 in Reno, Nevada. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Reno. He was 23 years old. At the time of his death, he had a 1 year old daughter.
[ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/198431155/james-matthew-vance ]
James’ father passed away in 2005 and he was buried in the same cemetery as him; his mother, Phyllis, died in 2015, and was cremated.
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Overall, I really enjoyed this film. It’s not perfect, it’s rather low quality in production and the audio could be better, but I think it’s an important piece of history. I think that it is great, in the sense that it shows the not so perfect sides to this story. The director could have easily just left out the footage that shows how Phyllis was not a good person, but they left it in. They showed all of the things that made the court case flawed. For that, I think it’s a great film.
I give this a 5/5, though I have to warn, this is a very heavy film to watch.
My video: https://youtu.be/V0EuSLEB-zU
