Most
people think butterflies are pretty and completely harmless, but
Lepidopterophobia, the fear of butterflies really is a thing. It sort of makes
sense when you consider the traditional association between butterflies and the
souls of the dead. Technically, it is a death’s head hawkmoth in Silence of the Lambs, but we’ll still
give them that one. Young Cody Morgan is a butterfly lover, but he will turn
his foster parents Lepidopterophobic in Mike Flanagan’s Before I Wake (trailer here), which finally gets
an American release via Netflix, starting today.
Mark
and Jessie Hobson are still grieving the loss of their little boy Sean, but
they believe they are ready to be foster parents. On paper, Morgan would be a perfect
fit for them, because they all know tragedy. His single-mother died at an early
age and he experienced mysterious mishaps in his subsequent foster homes.
Unfortunately, what happened to his previous fosters will soon start happening
to the Hobsons.
It
begins with the strange but ostensibly beautiful manifestations of butterflies
while Morgan is asleep. However, as he becomes interested in his late
pseudo-predecessor, Sean starts to appear before his stunned parents. Somehow,
Morgan has the power to project his dreams into the waking world. Jessie Hobson
finds it a solace, but her husband suspects it is deeply unhealthy. Regardless,
Morgan always struggles to stay awake, because he knows something sinister and
Slender Man-ish also haunts his dreams.
It
is a shame Wake was caught up in the
bankruptcy Hell of its original distributor, because it is a mature and deeply
resonant film, especially by horror genre standards. Fortunately, Flanagan is
still well on his way to being a genre brand-name, thanks to his terrific
Stephen King adaptation, Gerald’s Game and
the expectation-exceeding Ouija prequel,
Origin of Evil. However, Kate
Bosworth and Thomas Jane do some of their best work as the Hobsons, so they
really missed out not getting a wide theatrical release.
There
are plenty of horror movies that use the death of a child as its catalyst, but
Flanagan & Jeff Howard’s screenplay addresses it with uncompromising
honesty. You can see in the performances of Jane and Bosworth that this couple
is still hurting. In a small but memorable role, Jay Karnes adds an
authoritative but compassionate tone to the film, as Jessie Hobson’s support
group leader.
There
are definitely some scary moments in Wake,
but there are also strong elements of psychological mystery. If you like
horror, but your family or roommates don’t, this might be one you could sneak
past the gatekeeper. It is a quality film, so it is nice to finally have it
available for consumption in the U.S. market. Enthusiastically recommended for
horror and dark thriller fans, Before I
Wake starts streaming today (1/5) on Netflix.
