The Nightmare

this is a documentary about sleep paralysis, not an educational film on the medical science and history of the phenomenon, but a series of narratives by people who have experienced it firsthand and their interpretations of their experiences

the documentary is intended to scare, with an accompaniment to the interviews and short re-enactments of primarily minimalist, suspenseful synth and droning/pulsating percussive noise by composer Jonathan Snipes. the interviewees are all fairly articulate, the film is well-edited and the monster/(dream) entity designs and costumes for the re-enactments are artfully haunting

the film is very effective at what it sets out to do, namely exploring a phenomena people throughout the world, including the director, have experienced and its effects on their beliefs and personalities it inspires a large enough fraction of the fear and contemplation in the viewer that the phenomena itself must inspire in those who experience it firsthand to make it well worth watching and recommending

This (horror-)documentary is about sleep paralysis, a phenomenon in which a person either during falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experiences an inability to move, speak, or react. A transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by muscle weakness, often accompanied by terrifying hallucinations and physical experiences. It's been a recognized part of human experience for centuries, but sleep scientists are only just beginning to understand the condition.

'Room 237' director Rodney Ascher's documentary largely eschews hard science to focus on the emotional and psychological toll. He interviews eight sufferers whose lives have been upended by repeated bouts of nocturnal panic and vivid, inescapable hallucinations.

'The Nightmare' wants to be the first properly scary documentary, employing time-honored horror movie techniques in a concerted effort to spook the viewer. But it's here that Ascher slightly oversteps himself. While there is a well-maintained sense of lurking discomfort, the gotcha scenes feel a little cheap. In the end, a straight doc might have been more rewarding, but it entertained nevertheless.

The Nightmare (2015)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Interesting documentary that caused quit the stir at the Sundance Film Festival. This documentary interviews eight different people from around the globe who all suffer from the same thing: sleep paralysis. Through their spoken words and re-enactments, we see their haunting visions as they go to sleep and find themselves unable to move and possibly be visited by demons.

THE NIGHTMARE is yet another horror movie that has come along and has many calling it the scariest movie since (fill in the horror movie name). Director Rodney Ascher, who previously made the bizarre THE SHINING documentary ROOM 237, manages to bring his rather unique and original vision to this tale, which is part documentary and part horror movie.

There's no question that the subject matter makes for a very interesting documentary and I found a lot of the stories to be fascinating. I mean, most people go to sleep to rest and find some sort of peace so just imagine if you dreaded going to sleep knowing that something terrifying and evil was about to visit you. Some of the stories told are pretty effective including one man who remembers as far back as being in a crib and seeing two figures standing over him.

Shadow people are mentioned throughout the documentary as several of the people claim to have encountered them. They talk about these dark, shadow figures who approach them and of course the people are pretty much unable to move so there's nothing they can do to stop it. I think one of the flaws with the film is that we're really given no information on what this could be. There's a lot of speculation on what it exactly is but perhaps a sleep expert being interviewed would have helped.

Another problem I had with the film is that the best stories are told right at the front when we're introduced to the character. After hearing their initial stories, what follows isn't nearly as effective and this is a 100-minute movie. Without any "outside" interviews, the stories become somewhat boring after a while so as a documentary it would have been nice throwing something else into the mix.

With that said, THE NIGHTMARE is certainly worth watching once as there are some effective moments.

Sleep paralysis is a variety of dream which can seize a person prisoner in a ghoulish and tactile hallucination. "The Nightmare" profiles a dozen such severely afflicted individuals and invites you into their brains.

The recorded medical history of the disorder is touched upon in brief, only long enough to establish the subject's credibility. It's not a phenomenon that's been approached with much clinical discipline, and medical history is ostensibly not what this is a film about. It is instead fascinated with the experience itself, and the life these people lead.

Mostly the movie plays out through vivid dramatizations of dreams recounted in voice-over. It gets hella scary as the volume of awful steadily rises. A common vocabulary of bad things runs through it all, which amounts to elemental nightmare fuel.

This builds to the question of how his interviewees deal with their worsening condition. This film takes folks on an extreme of human experience and examines how they and then perceive their reality. What if sleeping meant you were attacked by demons? Would you explain it with cognitive science? Christianity? New age spiritualism? The film is patient enough to listen with interest and a sort of apathy to concrete answers.

It isn't perfect. Particularly there's some intentional fourth wall breaking-behind the scenes that's labored and distracting. And there's one dream recreation technique of photo slide show that isn't as hot as the rest.

But a unique experience of a documentary. Just watch it at night in the dark, don't be a chicken ;)

Here is the thing. I will tell a little story. You can choose to believe me or not. But it will explain why I gave this movie a perfect rating.

The movie is a documentary about different people who experience sleep paralysis. Basically, you are so called "dreaming" but you cannot move anything or say anything. You are frozen and things happen around you. There are different forms. Some just can't move certain parts. Others, cannot move anything.

My story. When I was little I had sleep paralysis for years. It wouldn't be every night, but a few times a week. It was the same every time. I was frozen and I would hear someone enter my room and taunt me. Breath in my ear, touch my body and then finally grabbing me. Which then I would "wake up" screaming in cold sweat. My body would be tingling all over and I felt drained and sick. One night before I went to bed, I decided to fight. So I laid on my back and waited. I kept repeating to myself over and over "I will not be frozen tonight".

So I closed my eyes and then instantly reopened them. Everything was silent. I couldn't move, I was frozen. The so called entity was in my doorway, but I was frozen with my eyes at the ceiling. It got closer and closer and I started realizing I couldn't breath, but then I remembered what I said, "I will not be frozen tonight". After that I was able to move my hands. Then I realized I wasn't frozen anymore. So I sat up as fast as I could screaming "I AM NOT FROZEN!" In my doorway was a dark silhouette of a man in a black coat and hat; like from the 1950's. After I saw him he ran out of the room. Right after, my mom ran in my room. She heard me yellow "I am not frozen" and came to see if I was ok. Pretty crazy huh?

So fast forward 15 years later since I had this happen. I am sitting down to watch this movie with my love Alyssa. We get part way in and they start asking people, who was the man they saw. Most of them said.....the man in a black coat and hat. Just then Alyssa looked at me and my eyes teared up. She tried to snap me out of it, but I was so scared I couldn't even talk. How could this be real? When that happened to me, the internet wasn't even a thing yet. So I couldn't of even heard about it. Plus I was just a little kid and no one else had it happening to them. After that, I wasn't myself for a week and I couldn't even sleep that night.

Pretty crazy huh? What do you believe? Has this happened to you? Also I have not been able to watch this film again and probably never will for it may bring it all back to me and the man in the black coat and hat would visit again.