Avis des utilisateurs

Plot

A young woman must save herself and her friends from an ancient evil that stalks its victims through the real-life phenomenon of sleep paralysis.

Cast

Jesse "What happened to his career Bradford and the always delightful Lori Petty star.

Verdict

The very concept of sleep paralysis is horrifying but how does it translate into a horror movie? Well, not very well at all.

You see part of me actually wanted to like it, the execution was actually fairly decent here but what they were executing was lacklustre at best.

Our antagonist looked pretty poor, the sleep sequences used a very oversaturated filter, the characters were rather wooden and as much as I wanted to be engaged I found the movie rather pushing me away.

Dead Awake is not a bad film, it's just a film with no real identity, that failed to impress and perhaps could have used a stronger leading lady.

Rants

The cover features an image with a spider, no spoilers here but that is in fact a scene in the movie and though I have no arachnophobia I have to say that was the one single scene that got any kind of reaction out of me. You ever seen the meme with the guy counting numbers with a sombre looking on his face until he reaches 69 then he has a slight smile then returns to sombre with number 70 and beyond? That was me with this film and that scene, a glimmer, a moment of reaction and then back to the ho-hum.

The Good

Lori Petty A couple of interesting ideas

The Bad

Lead could have been better Predictable Filter/Antagonist were distractingly weak.

Metaphysical horror movie. The film focuses on a metaphysical entity that occurs over the centuries and around the world in many cases of paralysis during sleep. Each different culture has given it a different name like Mora. The film has a very interesting plot, quite well written and with convincing acting, while it had enough suspense and some plot twists. However, it is a bit long in duration and therefore has breaks in the suspense, I would prefer to be shorter and maintain the suspense throughout. Very good overall and above average. Recommended for the fans of the genre.

So first i gotta complement Jocelin Donahue ,, she did well in the beginning of the movie doing the two sisters roles ,, but the movie plot was just bad ,, the script was slow for a Horror/Thriller genre ,, watched it on my laptop "thankfully" so i kept on speeding up to see the good part till i found myself in the credits :D

The cast was okay ,, i watched Jesse Bradford before "in a comedy" :D so this was weird ,, Jesse Borrego "Dr. Hassan" was just not sensible to be a psychiatric , and even Lori Petty "Dr. Sykes" was so obvious and not engaging .

My advice find some other movie to watch ,, Not recommended.

As someone who has experienced sleep paralysis countless times, I can say the ordeal is extremely terrifying. The concept & real life experiences could have made this a very decent movie, but it completely missed the mark. This movie doesn't even deserve one star, but I that's the lowest I could rate it. I wasn't expecting one of the greatest movies ever made, but I at least thought I would have a jump moment, feel tension, anything. I just found myself checking to see how much time was left.

The movie is nothing new, nothing you haven't seen before. I could name about 3 4 just last year.

I am not familiar with the actual "sleep paralyses" problem but it must be terrifying. This film is obviously using it and mixing it up with "The Ring" and the many other similar horror movies.

I honestly got bored and even started to make jokes as some of the things happening were just plain silly. Very Blah movie. Would not recommend it to anyone looking for a good horror film or a good scare. Not going to get any with this one.... Sorry, I did jump once, the first time I saw the "entity" appear. Then it was all fun and giggles.

Watching "Dead Awake" made me sleepy. The acting was so dreadful I honestly wanted to get sleep paralysis myself - I guess experiencing that (horryfying condition nonetheless) would have been more interesting than listening to the wooden dialogues, watching no chemistry between ANY of the characters. The music that was such crap, that I honestly thought it was put on there by accident, the camera work, the lights, the sound in general, those inconsistencies. It was ...........

Nah.... you know what? No. To hell with it - watch it! I could go on and on and tell you why this movie is so appalling but no - watch it and see for yourself.

And when you reach the 50-minute mark and you get to the point where the main lead asks "Where's Linda?" and you get to "experience" the dialogue that follows.... the "ACTING" from both of the female characters pretty much sums up this garbage of a movie.

Yeah, watch it.

I suppose all I can say to the team that made this film is.... "great job" (with sarcastic, Heath Ledger's Joker's clapping).

2/10 because I know that Jocelin CAN act, it just seems to me she forgot how to do it this time.

Curtain!

My God, was that movie terrible.....

Uh oh! A scary ghost is slowly spreading through a group of friends and picking them off one by one! But this time it involves sleep paralysis so this time it's different, right? RIGHT?

It's kind of like a really slow-paced, watered down version of The Ring. The ghost isn't particularly scary once you actually see what she looks like, which happens pretty early on. Death scenes are uninteresting and repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a movie can't be a good horror without buckets of blood, but for that to work there needs to be tension and suspense, and there's none to be seen here. Most of the movie just consists of the characters standing around talking about the ghost and trying to convince various people that it exists.

Sorry to anyone who actually likes this, but basically this is a horror-lite movie for people who don't actually like horror movies. That's the only crowd I can imagine enjoying this. It's not scary, it's not thrilling, and it's not interesting. It's an absolute waste of a great concept that maybe someone better can try again someday.

Well for the characters here, that's not good advice. Still if you are into horror, you want certain things to happen. You expect them to happen. So this does check a lot of boxes. Which makes it likely you will "enjoy" the movie - if you are into horror movies.

The theme has been done before, you may feel it has been done better than this. But while this isn't the best movie ever made, this is quite well made. The actors give it their best, for a small budget movie. Characters are cliche of course and this is overall predictable, with a scare at the end (or twist?) you won't be surprised by. It may be satisfying for most viewers though ...

It's predictable. It's full of clichés, and you'll see every death coming in advance. Still, the concept is pretty good. The thought of some evil force attacking you as you sleep, sounds like another famous, far better, horror movie. The monster was more subtle in appearance than Freddy Krueger. She was basically a much older version of The Ring girl. The director clearly drew inspiration from The Ring and told the actress, "You remember The Ring? Yeah, Crawl on the floor toward the camera like that!"

Most horror fans will have seen it all before and this one, written by Jeffry Reddick, who was part of the Final Destination series was the main reason I looked at it.

Jesse Bradford and Jocelin Donahue are very solid as Evan and Kate, the lead characters and they hold the movie together well.

That's all I am going to say about the movie, I'm not into giving the plot away and going into detail about a movie like some reviewers, you will have to check it out yourself.

Word of warning. Use careful timing if you are eating and drinking during it. I nearly wore my drink and could have choked on my food in a few scare moments that genuinely gave me a fright even though I was expecting them. Kudos to the makers, they did a good job there. Few movies make me jump the way this one did.

While I am not a huge fan of horror movies, I would recommend this one to any horror aficionado.

6/10

Surprised to see Lori Petty in anything anymore. Remember back in the day when she used to be in more mainstream movies? Well she's gotten a lot older since then!!!

So this movie...seems to fail on most levels, but not quite all.

'If someone had defeated it I would have found them. I've studied thousands of medical records, researched supposed cures from all over the world.'

'Did you Try the Online Message Boards?'

'I didn't think of that.'

-1 Star for Terribly incompetent scientist!!!

-1 Star because I predicted the ending almost down to exact specifics. Haha

Nightmare on Elm Street where Freddy is replaced with a retired Samara and the audience is constantly triggered to do what it's not supposed to do : fall asleep.

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which a sleeping person experiences movement inability. This even happens in many people. Clinically, it doesn't hurt but psychologically is terrifying. Of course the reason is not demon/evil but whatever it is, it makes you uncomfortable. I have had such experiences while napping in the afternoon (and not nights!). I have felt that I want to awake but not able to do so. Something strange. At that point, I feel going deeply sleep (or die!) and then attempting to wake up but it is very difficult. Well, no body dies because of sleep paralysis. Now let us to be focused on the movie.

Accepting the fact that sleep paralysis doesn't lead to death, the movie tried to show us it might takes a life which is fantasy than reality. DEAD AWAKE is a little be chilling but not for me because I am rarely terrified by a horror/thriller movie. If you are an easy terrifying person, then there you go. Watch it! It is just a ghost/evil with funny make up! (I don't like that kind of masks!). This is the first Guzman's work I have ever seen honestly. It was directed well. The story could be more close to reality. Camera setting was good. Designs and decorators were good. Actions/plays were not super duper and fascinating but acceptable. I liked Jocelin Donahue's role. All together, I think this movie had much much more potential to be made in better ways. Don't be afraid. It is a supernatural movie without any gore or slashing scene. I was not disappointed but I will definitely not see it again.

A film about sleep paralysis, the only theme I've been more scared of going in to a film (see: "The Nightmare") than I have waking up the next day (as in, I thought I was going to have nightmares and wake up paralyzed but then woke up the next day having forgotten all about it).

Well here's the fiction take, including the woefully underutilized since "The House of the Devil" actress Jocelin Donahue. It's too bad the the film itself is a tepid, creaky tale of a sleepytime boogeyman that strangles you while you lay there paralyzed. That's not exactly scary. The plot is just pure nonsense and the film has literally no tension nor atmosphere to speak of.

Scary moments and sleep paralysis is real. I've had it a few times and it's terrifying. The ending got cheesy otherwise I would have given it a 7. Great idea to make this sleep phenomenon into a horror film.

This is not a poorly acted or poorly directed movie.

What it is, however, is an enterprising and unrepresentative portrayal of a very real, very terrifying portrayal of a sleep phenomenon which occurs to most of us more than others realize.

I encourage you to search "sleep paralyses" online. If you're too lazy, it typically occurs within the walls between beta sleep and delta sleep. i.e., between lying in your bed and feeling sleepy and actually falling into a deep sleep.

No demons No death No sleepwalking

This wouldn't happen in a bathtub, or sitting against a wall. Typically, you would experience paralysis when imagining someone breaking into your home, while lying in bed - in the same position you remember lying-down in.

Cheers - I suffer from this 2 or 3 times a year. I hope this is helpful. Don't be afraid - It's natural.

For those of you thinking this movie is a rip off of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" , you have no idea what you're talking about! It's the same concept, sure, but taken in a completely different direction! Remember those Hmong teenagers that Hassan was talking about? That actually happened! That's where Wes Craven got the idea for "NES" from! And they really did their research about the Old hag, because I've read similar stories in collections of African-American folklore, only she was called "the boo-hag"!

Honestly, I've seen it all before, and done better... but that's not to say this didn't have a good cast, and wasn't written written well though! It's an alright movie for Netflix, but I wouldn't pay for it!

i don't usually wright a review, let alone a bad one, and i think if they had more money they could have done a good job but the film doesn't exceed the level of a youtube fan film!!! no need to go in detail about the dad plot, acting, general quality etc.etc. but one thing is for sure, that it doesn't worth you time.