Sleep No More

Yet another horror movie that I had never heard about prior to stumbling upon it here in 2024. And given my life-long romance with the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch the movie. I had read the movie's synopsis, but have to admit that I had no expectations to the movie. So I suppose that writer Jason Murphy and director Phillip Guzman had every opportunity to impress and entertain me.

The storyline was fairly adequate. I mean, it was somewhat of slow paced narrative, but the contents of the storyline were certainly interesting enough to maintain my interest in watching the movie. So while writer Jason Murphy didn't exactly put together the most scary of horror stories, there was just something entertaining about the movie, something sort of surreal in a sense, that actually played well in favor of the overall impression of the movie.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "Sleep No More", aside from actor Keli Price. And believe it or not, but that is actually something I do enjoy. I like seeing new and unfamiliar talents on the screen. And I will say that the cast ensemble they had put together for this movie put on good performances.

Visually then I will say that the effects in the movie were good. It wasn't a movie that relied heavily on special effects to carry the narrative. But whatever special effects were in the movie actually served their purpose well enough.

The music in the movie was good, because it definitely helped to set the 1980s vibe and mood, which was the era the movie's story was set to take place.

However, I have to say that this is not a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.

My rating of director Phillip Guzman's 2017 movie "Sleep No More" lands on a five out of ten stars.

A group of some students did an experiment that if a man is not sleeping till 200 hours then he will get extra power and abilities to overcome his weakness. But results are going wrong and a fearful situation will come out. If you do not sleep then where do go your dreams? They need your sleep to survive. And lack of sleep they will consume you. What is the end of such experienment? The answer is to be seeing this title. A good and new type of story plot, but some bad actors and actresses make loose our interest. I do not understand why some students wearing round glasses? (to look like a scholar ?). Where are their lectures, teachers and superiors? Are they not aware about this? No answers. Only see movie for entertainment. No acting is mentionable here. You can see just for a new story plot with average presentation.

This was close to a 5 but, had to knock it to 4 because of some of the over the top visuals and the occasional poor acting and writing. Overall though, the idea was unique, solid and thought out. I absolutely loved the 80's vibe from this movie and wonder if that played a bigger role in why I enjoyed it as I did. I asked myself, would I have liked this without the 80's feel? The answer is, probably not. That being said, the vibe lends itself well to this particular theme. It felt like a much more feasible experiment to be done in 80's, so bravo to that! The overall look of the movie was great, well produced and solid cinematography. I look forward to seeing what Guzman does next!

Takes a stab (pun intended) at both period authenticity and an original concept for a horror film... not bad! You'll enjoy this at a late night feature, and probably want to give it another spin. Just remember, it's not in the upper tier of horror features. Still, nice job.

What I liked: 80's music and vibe. The disturbing visions that they encounter are very reminiscent of Stranger Things from Netflix. What I didn't like: Predictability. A lot of yelling and chaotic stuff that didn't really help the story. They touched on many different paths that the story could have taken but didn't really fully commit to any. The ending was a bit ambiguous. Overall: Wait for it to come out on Redbox and spend a few dollars. Anything more than that and your throwing your money away.