Sleep Tight

¨Sleep Tight¨ is both an intense , intriguing and an exciting portrait of subdued madness . ¨Mientras Duermes¨ (the official English title is Sleep tight , but the correct translation is "while you sleep", which to me is far more creepy) lives up to Jaume Balaguero's reputation . This interesting film deals with Cesar (Luis Tosar) , a lone man being incapable of happiness . The residents of the building where Cesar works as a concierge are not aware of the overtime he has been putting in . Apparently, he is at their service both day and night . Before the sun even has a chance to get its morning coffee , César is climbing out of bed , the sympathetic Clara (Marta Etura) still sleeping deeply beside him . When we meet César, he is lying in bed next to the gorgeous girl . He says as much in Sleep's opening voice-over as he stands at a rooftop's edge . He's a sad doorman at an upper crust apartment complex , but , despite he cannot be happy , Cesar goes about his work with dignified class . The adorable Clara is César's polar opposite , she is full of happiness . She is a likable tenant in the apartment building and her gladness is insistent and contagious . But when her boyfriend (Alberto San Juan) arrives in the building the events go wrong .

While Balaguero earlier films focused more on family , social situations , religion and weird creatures , his latest introduces the audience to the worst monster : the human being . This suspenseful movie was produced by the successful Catalan producers Julio and Carlos Fernandez from Fantastic factory ; it displays relentless thriller , intrigue , shocks , hard-edged drama , plot twists , creepy images and some gore when crime takes place . Director Jaume Balagueró (Rec, Rec 2, Fragiles , Darkness , The nameless) uses that uneasy non-knowledge for both horror and introducing brief touches of black humor . ¨Sleep Tight¨ is a motion picture that balances precariously over the dark comedy , ¨Psycho¨' Hitchockian intrigue , Michael Haneke's ¨Funny games¨ invasion genre bins and Michael Powell's ¨Peeping Tom¨ style . The overall result is chilling proof that Balagueró can take us back into an apartment building while delivering a completely different scare . Extraordinary performance by Luis Tosar , he plays a real tour-de-force in one of his best acting of his important career as a solitary and unhappy psychopath and an attractive , enjoyable Marta Etura , both of whom are a happy couple in real life . The picture packs a thrilling and intriguing musical score by Lucas Vidal . Furthermore , a colorful and appropriate cinematography by Pablo Rosso , Balaguero's usual .

'Sleep Tight' demonstrates director Balagueró's versatility , resulting to be a sublime thriller that every genre buff should be excited for . Rating : Good , better than average . The movie will appeal to thriller and suspense fans .

Without the use of gratuitous violence and gore, this movie manages to find it's place at the top of it's genre.

It is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, and part of me wanted to stop watching at several points. It is truly amazing how the movie manages to evoke such a feeling of suspense and, well, awkwardness from the audience.

Movies like 'Funny Games' and 'The Strangers' attempt to provoke the audience in similar ways but fall short, while other films like 'Martyrs' use over-the-top gore to aid their attempts.

Despite the disturbing content of the film, the difficulty I had in viewing it, and many of the characters' actions being difficult to relate to, I recommend it highly and consider this movie a great success as it accomplished what it set out to do - impact the viewers psychologically.

This is a must-watch for any fan of psychological thrillers/horrors.

I had no idea what this film was about before I saw it, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. From the same director as REC and also set in an apartment block. This Spanish gem has a great cast, especially the lead 'Luis Tosar' who plays his part superbly, filling you with an ever increasing sense of unease and shock at what you're witnessing. It's very beautifully shot too, making the most of it's apartment block setting. By the end of the film I was left thinking "this could actually happen".

It's by far one of the creepiest, most twisted tales I've had the pleasure of watching in a long time.

Highly recommended!

This movie is wicked. Really wicked in an awesome way. One of the guys responsible for REC is also responsible for this one. It's the one who also did Nameless and Darkness. And this is closer to those movies. In that it is more of a thriller than a straight horror movie that is. Awesome acting on hand, terrific story (literally) and overall a great movie to watch.

I won't tell you anything about the movie, because it works wonders when you watch it without any previous knowledge of the story. And while I knew where some scenes were heading (like the "wake-up" scene at the beginning), I had to guess quite a few things. Don't forget though: This is evil and will put you into a position you might not like. And that's the point of it all ... Brilliant!

I 've seen "REC" some months ago and I just wasn't sure... I mean, how can you tell if there is a visionary director or some random guy who just got lucky? "REC" wasn't so demanding by concept and it all worked out fine.

So I had to check another one and this time I was sure that Jaume Balagueró really is a visionary director plus ...I got lucky! Because Sleep Tight was a real treat for this messed up part of my mind (we all have this, aren't we?).

Yes, it is a thriller all right, but not the horror-jump scare kind of thriller. The horror element here is actually a poison more than just a scare. It will slowly get into you and when this film is done it will extract a portion of happiness out of your soul for the pleasure of César.

César is the main character and he is suffering from pathological unhappiness. He have an urge to kill himself every single day but his survival instinct driving him to find a reason not to. But what can you do to feel better in this absolute sadness especially since you realise that you are just not capable of happiness? Well, misery loves company. And the only way is to make the others unhappy too.

That's the whole story actually, but the way this story unfolds itself before our unsuspected eyes is masterful. I was watching the film alone and I was so into it in the first twenty minutes that at some point I was yelling to the TV. I was on the edge ever after and before the very end I was filled with sympathy AND repulsion for the same character, soaked into despair of what a man can do.