Nyctophobia

Nyctophobia looks stunning but doesn't have much narrative outside of the protagonist's struggle to break free from her nightmares and anxiety. By nature, experimental filmmaking doesn't require a narrative, but 90 minutes is quite a long time to not have a plot or character fleshed out beyond suffering from nyctophobia; casual viewers might find their attention waning after the first 30 minutes. Having said that, as an informative art piece, Nyctophobia succeeds at both representing symptoms of the disorder beyond just a fear of the dark and the general surreal nature of dreams and nightmares. The woman struggling to sleep peacefully, credited as Liz (Olivia Clari Nice), is dropped into many strange scenarios without much of a blink, rolling along with the dream "logic" even though it always roughly ends with masked figures blocking her path and even causing her harm. There's a recognizable pattern to her behavior and her dreams; there's even a sequence where she's taking a school exam, a common anxiety dream even for people without an anxiety disorder. All of this strangeness is sold through not only Nice's excellent physicality (there isn't much dialogue, so her body language takes center stage) but also through the overall look and sound of the film. The bursts of color throughout the otherwise black-and-white film are carefully measured, never feeling like too much, and the sound design is hypnotic, especially towards the end when Liz's sleep becomes more restful. While I do think it might have worked better as either a much shorter film or as the same length but with a more realized character, Nyctophobia is still a visually and aurally arresting piece for those into more arthouse films.

Nyctophobia is less a conventional horror film than a slow, surreal dive into the subconscious-a cinematic anxiety spiral wrapped in dream logic and drenched in atmosphere. Written and directed by Seayoon Jeong, the film follows Liz (Olivia Clari Nice), a young woman struggling with the titular fear of the dark. As insomnia eats away at her sanity, Liz slips into a dream world where childhood memories and nightmares blur, and nothing-especially not time or space-feels safe or linear.

What distinguishes Nyctophobia is its commitment to mood over plot. There's a confidence in how it lets its images and silences speak. Olivia Clari Nice gives a mostly wordless performance, grounded in physicality and expression. Her portrayal of Liz is both fragile and haunted, anchoring the film's more abstract elements in something deeply human.

The visual design is where Nyctophobia excels. From mannequin-filled classrooms to clown-faced authority figures, the film embraces a nightmarish surrealism that recalls Lynch or early Aronofsky, albeit with more heart and less edge. A carousel tunnel becomes a warping dream-puzzle, old televisions glitch with unsettling nostalgia, and color is used sparingly but pointedly-especially the saturated reds against grayscale backdrops. These touches give the film a lo-fi, arthouse texture that leans into the theatricality of dreams.

That said, not everything works equally well. The clown motif, while tied to childhood trauma, feels tired in the horror landscape-even if this isn't strictly a horror film. Some sequences, like the disco room or the exaggerated vintage costuming, can feel more style than substance. The symbolic layering-though rich in suggestion-never quite coalesces into a thematically deep interrogation of fear, memory, or trauma. You get a mood, a feeling, a sense-but not necessarily a revelation.

Still, Jeong's refusal to spoon-feed meaning is admirable. Nyctophobia trusts its viewers to sit with ambiguity, and while the pacing is slow and intentionally disorienting, the film remains visually engaging throughout. It's the kind of work that prioritizes sensation over narrative clarity, and for those receptive to its dreamlike rhythm, it offers something rare in indie psychological horror: an aesthetic and emotional experience over easy resolution.

In short, Nyctophobia is flawed, but fascinating. It won't be for everyone, but if you're drawn to introspective, visually expressive films that explore mental states through experimental storytelling, this one might just get under your skin. It's not just about fear of the dark-it's about understanding what that darkness contains.

I'm honestly blown away by this masterpiece. From the first scene to the last, it kept me hooked - and I wouldn't be surprised if this film reaches a huge audience and becomes a big success. It has everything a great movie needs, without relying on a massive budget. That's what makes it even more impressive.

We've seen many films based on diseases or even fictional ones like zombie outbreaks, but Nyctophobia stands in a class of its own. It takes a real psychological fear - the fear of darkness - and turns it into a deeply moving and haunting experience. The story doesn't just scare you, it makes you think. That's rare.

What really makes this film work is how everyone involved gave it their best. The actors were brilliant - you could feel every emotion on their faces. The music, subtle but powerful, added the perfect tension in the right places. And the cinematography? Just stunning. Every shot was thoughtful, capturing fear in a way that felt personal and real.

Even though it's clear the film wasn't made with a huge budget, it never felt lacking. In fact, it felt complete - like the team behind it knew exactly what they wanted to say and how to say it. The writing and direction were smart, focused, and creative.

I truly think this film has what it takes to succeed on a big scale. It's scary, yes - but it also tells an important story with style, care, and emotion. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out on something special.

Nyctophobia, in scientific terms, is a crippling fear of the dark and what it might be hiding. People with this condition have extreme anxiety when they're in the dark or think about darkness. Such people also have difficulty getting sleep and thus, their lives are in a perpetual state of fear and unease.

Written and directed by Seayoon Jeong, Nyctophobia is a 2024 horror feature that stars Olivia Clari Nice, Sophia Biscotti and David Rannan Ellner. The film is a story of a young woman Liz who struggles with nyctophobia. Tired, anxious and unable to sleep, Liz will find her worst fears realized as her condition slowly takes a turn for the worse. She desperately tries to fall asleep by entering her inner world where she can access her happy childhood memories. However, she ultimately becomes trapped in her lucid dream world and encounters her worst nightmare.

I never expected Nyctophobia to be as hard hitting as it turned out to be. Anchored by fantastic makeup and creature design, the film is genuinely haunting. I can only imagine how people with such a disorder manage to get sleep but what Nyctophobia does is that it manages to apprise general audiences that such a condition indeed exists and it is nothing short of hell.

Olivia Clari Nice as Liz Whitman is a revelation. Not only does her measured performance anchor the film, Whitman's journey of survival finds us rooting for her wholeheartedly. On the other hand, there are equally great turns by the bad guys. From the clown cops to the eerie dancing ladies, all monsters are terrifying and disturbing.

The 90 minute feature whizzes by in a flash, courtesy of brisk editing that keeps us on our toes. Jeong knows how to craft a potent horror thriller as the pacing switches back and forth allowing the audience to have a false sense of comfort before plunging them into chaos once again. Technically, the film manages to knock it out of the park. The black and white cinematography works well to illustrate the visual aspect of the fear. However, what works best is how color frequently manages to break through this monotonous palette. Each such instance signifies something important and this is one of the few visual tools that Jeong employs to make her story that much more engaging.

Thus, Seayoon Jeong's Nyctophobia is a potent film, one that successfully immortalizes a particular fear that is all too real. With haunting visuals and great performances, this one is a winner. Five out of five stars from me.

Out of the MANY movies I've rated this is only the 6th to get a 1/10, and it's WELL deserved. Most movies have some kind of redeeming quality, something that they do well. This doesn't. It's pretentious (black-and-white and all). It's agonizingly slow. It's surrealist with no real plot to give it direction. It's the kind of thing that's produced when a writer thinks far too highly of themself. It's as if the writer/director absolutely despises every single human being and wants to punish them.

This is supposed to be the various stages of falling asleep, but it's really just an excuse for surrealist slop. Every stage (and really, every scene) goes on FAR longer than it should. As in, five minutes for something that should have been 15 seconds. There are also numerous times when entire sequences are replayed with no variation whatsoever. I wound up skipping past her singing a boring song for at least five minutes. During the next stage I left the room to go do something, came back and the same thing was on the screen. It's not just that these scenes are boring and overly long, they serve no purpose because there's no plot to begin with.

There are more than a few elements that are reminiscent of Eraserhead (the writer/director is clearly a fan), but without the necessary talent none of the imagery has any impact. Things that are clearly meant to be creepy just come off as painfully dumb.

The only reason I even made it through this was a sort of fascination that a movie could be so bad and actually get released. It's like when your friend is proud of something and you don't have the heart to tell them that it's terrible. The movie is excruciating, and the only people that will like it are critics that want to feel intelligent.