last night:

I'm at a school assembly at the old grade school I attended, about 34 years ago (but I'm the age I am now). It is in the gymnasium and there are chairs set up to watch a play. The play is little more than acrobatic antics by a guy in a tight fitting body suit.

More interaction between myself and others in the audience occur, but I forget now what they were. Members include parents, kids, and other community members including myself.

Everything seems cheerful and a bit chaotic as crowds go, but then the dream takes on a nightmarish quality. This cartoon beast thing that resembles a large blue-green blob comes after people, including the acrobat, with a big ax. People scream. Now it feels like I'm on stage watching this unfold in the audience.

He chops people as cartoon blood splatters everywhere. The people he chops also become cartoon. I wake up horrified and wondering how such a dream ended that way.

Could it be a replay of something you saw on TV or read about earlier that day or sometime in the recent past ? I can't make sense of this one. It's nightmarish, you're right !!!

I've been trying to rack my brain and figure out what sparked this, but no luck yet. It may have been something from the news. I get information about the Iraq war, and also read that a family were all shot to death in a suburban community, so these things probably played a part.