Nightmare, on Shudder

Slam some coffee or Mountain Dew and try to sleep as little as possible. That is the health advice we regularly get from horror movies, so it only seems prudent to follow it. Seriously, sleep paralysis and night terrors will get you every time. Mona definitely suffers from such disorders, but with demonic complications in screenwriter-director Kjersti Helen Rasmussen’s Nightmare, which premieres Friday on Shudder.

Mona and her boyfriend Robby just bought their own apartment, surprisingly cheap. Why yes, somebody died there, but the details are vague. The neighbors are also rather high-strung and it isn’t just the stress of having a new born. Unfortunately, all that distress seems to migrate to Mona after the mother’s suicide.

It is hard for Mona to discuss her nightmares with Robby, partly because he is an insensitive idiot, but also because it is his dark doppelganger who terrorizes her dreams. Sleep specialist Aksel Bruun has seen it before. In fact, he saw it when he tried to treat Mona’s neighbor. His sleep clinic is state of the art, but for a medical man, he is strangely well versed in the lore of Mare, the nightmare demon.

Nightmare distinguishes itself from other sleep paralysis horror movies with its sinister demonic twist. These aren’t just creepy guys in hats. Dennis Storhoi is also terrific as Bruun, playing him in the Peter Cushing tradition of doctors fighting evil supernatural forces, but with more Scandinavian reserve.

Herman Tommeraas also gives off the right bad John-Cassavetes-in-Rosemary’s Baby vibes as Robby. There is something about him that feels off, beyond his being a Millennial. However, Eili Harboe just doesn’t connect as Mona to the extent she did playing the title character in Joachim Trier’s Thelma.

Slumber: Maggie Q Treats Sleep Paralysis

Many people suffering from sleep paralysis report seeing the ominous Freddy Krueger-like “Hat Man.” If your subconscious is more inclined towards old European folklore, you might see the Night Hag (the source of the word “nightmare”) instead. It seems that nocturnal bitty is tormenting a family seeking treatment from, Dr. Alice Arnolds, a sleep disorder specialist. The case hits close to home when the behavior of their young son starts to remind Arnolds of her late little brother in Jonathan Hopkins’ Slumber (trailer here) which releases today on DVD.

Years ago, Arnolds was powerless to prevent her sleepwalking little brother’s fatal defenestration. It was like some sinister force pulled him out. Hence her specialty. She assumes sullen Daniel Morgan is her latest patient, but his sister Emily and parents Charlie and Sarah are also desperate for treatment. The first night of observation does not go well, especially when circumstances lead her colleague Malcolm to suspect the father of abuse. Of course, Arnolds can sense there is something uncanny afoot, starting with her increasingly disturbed dreams. Facing up to the likely existence of the Night Hag, Arnolds seeks answers from Amado, the spooky old world grandfather of the clinic’s janitor.

If nothing else, Slumber should be a future trivia question at Doctor Who conventions, because it co-stars Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) as Amado and Sam Troughton, the grandson of Patrick Troughton (the Second Doctor) as Charlie Morgan. In fact, McCoy is so off-the-hook nutty, he almost single-handedly rescues the film from its doldrums.

Maggie Q gives a decently sensitive performance as the dedicated Dr. Arnolds. However, the rest of the Arnoldses and most of the Morgans are hopelessly bland. Frankly, the film clicks the most when she is doing psychological stuff with the slightly sardonic Malcolm, played by William Hope, who nicely compliments her.

Maggie Q is a telegenic star and the largely British cast gives the film an illusion of classiness (yet, somehow our New York State tax credits still helped finance it). Alas, Hopkins’ execution is rather flat-footed, largely ditching the early hints of ancient folklore in favor of awkward Dreamscape-esque scenes. There has been a mini-boomlet of sleep paralysis horror movies, but Rodney Ascher’s documentary, The Nightmare, the film that started the trend, is still the scariest of the pack. Instructive as a missed opportunity, but not recommended, Slumber releases today on DVD.

Be Afraid: Sleep Paralysis Strikes Again

Dr. John Chambers’ medical training would come in handy if a group of Leatherface slashers were stalking his family. Unfortunately (in many respects), it is the Hat Man and the Shadow People who are terrorizing his young son. He can see them too, which never bodes well for characters in Drew Gabreski’s Be Afraid (trailer here), now available on VOD.

Chambers relocated his family to rural Pennsylvania, assuming it would be a relief from the stress of his former emergency room gig. At first, it is just him, his second wife Heather, and their son Nathan, but they are soon joined by Ben, his son from his late first wife, who has just dropped/flunked/been kicked out of college. The nocturnal bogeymen who were the subject of Rodney Ascher’s terrifying documentary The Nightmare immediately target Nathan, but Dr. Chambers isn’t sleeping so great either.

In addition to the dream realm, these shadowy figures also seem to hold some sort of dominion over a profoundly unsafe-looking tunnel in the woods. Being sinister entities, they assume the guise of their previous victim to lure Nathan into the ominous aperture. You would think the local authorities would seal that up, but they don’t seem to be so hot, judging from Martin Collins, the squirrely police chief.

Frankly, Ascher’s Nightmare so thoroughly owns the sleep paralysis phenomenon, any subsequent film featuring the Hat Man and his cohorts (including prospective Nightmare on Elm Street reboots) will suffer by comparison. In fact, Gerald Nott’s screenplay cheats a little. Mostly, they are creatures of dreams but sometimes they also seem to assume physical corporality.

On the plus side, the characters and their relationships are unusually well defined for a straight forward horror flick. This is especially true of Ben, nicely played by Jared Abrahamson, who is not at all the resentful problem child cliché he would probably be in a lazier film. In fact, his affection for Nathan and friendly acceptance of Heather is rather appealing. Brian Krause (who was rock solid in the shockingly good Plan 9 remake) also has reassuring everyman vibe that suits Dr. Chambers. As a bonus, Kevin Grevioux contributes a terrific horror movie voice as Dean Booth, the unstable, grieving father of Nathan’s new playmate.

Gabreskie (who has previously specialized in behind-the-scenes MMA documentaries) maintains a creepy atmosphere, while keeping the human element front-and-center. Viewers will be surprised how much they invest in the Chambers family, because the horror business is really nothing special. Recommended for genre fans who can appreciate a modest release that exceeds expectations, Be Afraid launches today (6/1) on VOD platforms, including iTunes.

DWF ’15: The Man in the Shadows

There must be something stirring in our collective subconscious. For some reason, sleep paralysis and the malevolent figures sometimes reported by those suffering from the condition have recently popped in the popular culture, under at least two very different guises. After blowing the doors off this year’s Sundance, Rodney Ascher’s The Nightmare, perhaps the scariest documentary maybe ever, opens in theaters this Friday. The phenomenon that likely inspired Freddy Kruger also gets another fictional scare treatment in Joshua Fraiman’s The Man in the Shadows (trailer here), which screens during the eighteenth Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

Whether it is happening in an ostensibly true sense or not hardly matter for those who experience sleep paralysis. Those even more unfortunate often find themselves trapped between dreams and waking life, while being menaced by the so-called “Hat Man” and the shadow men. Rachel Darwin is one such terrorized soul. Weary from her nightmares, Darwin has been self-medicating with dope and withdrawing from her alarmed husband Scott. Of course, his recent infidelity hasn’t helped their marriage much either. In fact, he rather assumes her dreams are rooted in her sense of injured betrayal. How like a trial attorney to assume it is all about him.

Sadly, she really is seeing the creepy figures. Worse still, they are aware of her awareness and are keeping close tabs on her. As Darwin clings to her last shreds of sanity, her husband hatches a brilliant plan to rekindle their romance in an old, poorly lit cabin somewhere far from town. Remember, he is a trial attorney.

Frankly, sleep paralysis and the nightmarish visions that often accompany it are so creepy, it is almost impossible to make a film about it that is not scary, at least to some extent. Frustratingly, Fraiman also mixes in some violent nightmare imagery that essentially qualify as torture porn. Be warned, the opening credits are tough sledding to get through. Nevertheless, some of the speculations offered by William, a fellow sufferer at Darwin’s group therapy, are rather unsettling and differ significantly from Ascher’s film.

Throughout the film, Sarah Jurgens’s Darwin looks convincingly terrified and sleep-deprived. Conversely, Nick Baillie never finds the right key for the problematically annoying and strangely arrogant husband. However, as wacko William, Adam Tomlinson is appropriately twitchy and skittish, in a horror movie kind of way.

By their very nature, if that is the best term, shadow people are perfectly suited for horror films. It is not simply due to their explicitly threatening behavior. That which is unseen is always far scarier than any bogeyman we can clearly see in all its supposed ferocity. Likewise, Fraiman falters when he shows too much, especially during the hostel-like dreams sequences. What’s the point of having shadow men, when you are forcing the dreaming Darwin to undergo a Hostel-style abortion? Its just unnecessarily ugly stuff. Regardless, Ascher’s The Nightmare is very highly recommended when it opens this Friday, whereas Fraiman’s The Man in the Shadows is best saved for genre junkies in dire need of a fix when it screens tomorrow (6/1) as part of DWF18.

Sundance ’15: The Nightmare

It is not a good idea to nod off during this film. You might encounter one of the subjects. Fortunately, it will be very difficult to drift off during one of the scariest documentaries you will ever see that isn’t about Scientology. Shaking it off at bed time will be a different matter. Filmmaker Rodney Ascher documents the very real phenomenon of sleep paralysis and the terrifying figures often seen by those who suffer from it in The Nightmare, which screens tonight during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Like his interview subjects who agreed to appear on camera, Ascher (the co-director of Room 237) has personally experienced sleep paralysis. Medical professionals generally acknowledge it involves the conscious sensation of rigid immobility, until the afflicted sleeper manages to rouse themselves out of it. Of course, there is more to the story. Those who have endured persistent sleep paralysis often report seeing and sometimes hearing dark, menacing figures. Typically, these are the “Shadow Men,” often observed acting under the direction of the “Hat Man.”

This might sound fantastical, but Ascher has multiple sources attesting to these demonic dream stalkers. Indeed, there is something deeply archetypal about them, especially Hat Man, who can be seen as a forerunner to Freddy Kruger buried deep within our collective subconscious.

While Nightmare adheres to the standard accepted form of documentary films, Ascher’s dramatic recreations of participants’ nightmare encounters are genuinely frightening. Everything about them represents superior horror film mechanics, from the eerie lighting to the evocative set design. This film will scare you in the moment, but it will also challenge your safe assumptions regarding the nature of reality. Clearly, Hat Man is real enough for a considerable number of people out there, so what does that mean for our world view?

Yet, Ascher does not leave us bereft of hope and deprived of sleep. Surprisingly, Nightmare will hold considerable interest for Evangelical audiences, who are not likely to be amongst the film’s target demographic. Nonetheless, one subsequently empowered Christian discovered she could vanquish her sleep demons by invoking a name. No spoilers, but his initials are “J.C.”

This is the rare sort of film that really gets under your skin and stays there. Ascher takes familiar New Age tropes and transforms them into something profoundly dark and threatening. The suggestion that sleep paralysis can be transmitted from person to person, essentially through the telling, is particularly disturbing for obvious reasons. Conveniently, nobody has time to sleep at Sundance. Presumably, Nightmare harbors no long-term ill effects, but it is exceptionally creepy. Very highly recommended for brave genre fans, The Nightmare screens again tonight (1/30) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.