Parasomnia (2008)

Horror | 103 minutes

2,59 76 votes

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3 comments

Duration: 103 minuten

Country: United States

Stars: Cherilyn Wilson, Dylan McKnight and Jeffrey Combs

IMDb score: 5,1 (2.659)

Releasedate: 17 October 2008

Parasomnia plot

"Where dreams end and nightmares begin."

Laura Baxter (Cherilyn Wilson) has been diagnosed with the rare disease parasomnia since an accident in her childhood, which causes Laura to sleep almost exclusively and only occasionally wake up. Danny Sloan then falls in love with Laura, unaware that Bryrop Volpe, the person next to Laura in the hospital, has other shady plans. Danny then manages to get Laura out of the hospital so she's safe. But then he discovers that Volpe is about to approach Laura in her dreams.

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Sean Young

Billy

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Trailer Parasomnia

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3 COMMENTS

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Onderhond

87585 messages
12832 votes

5 December 2011 at 13:14

Could have lived longer.

Film is reminiscent of a remnant of the 90s. Parasomnia is a nice cross between horror and romance that does not want to commit itself to one of the subgenres within the horror world. The film goes its own way, has undoubtedly had to sacrifice a lot of budget for this and unfortunately occasionally bears the traces of this.

The acting is pretty bad across the board, the main character in particular is constantly annoying. Combs also still doesn't seem to know what acting is all about. Visually, Malone can go about his business, but he lingers a little too much in filters and effects from the day before yesterday. At times it works, in other scenes the film seems 15 years older than it actually is.

Fortunately, Malone recovers at the end, with a great piece of stop-motion puppet theater and a nice finale. That gives the film some extra points. It's nice to see a "different" horror story, but in terms of finishing, especially the first hour, it's not always great.

3.0*

Translated from Dutch · View original

Insignificance

3220 messages
5586 votes

18 February 2013 at 19:54

Clutter work. Malone does everything to appear interesting and certainly has some nice ideas to play with, but the main result is so clumsy that it is difficult to get through the first hour or so. Not that I expect a host of talented actors here, but how you can cast that colorless Dylan Purcell for the leading role is a mystery to me.

Combs may have a reputation, but here it is three times nothing and that enormous Kilpatrick cannot get away with this unstable scenario. Tick, tick. Well. It must be such a dream world, but it looks very sparse. Malone plots far too much to finally arrive at some horror and the film lulls you into a deep sleep well before the best segment, something with dolls.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Collins

7282 messages
4306 votes

9 October 2023 at 21:40

Danny falls in love with a sleeping girl who is being treated in hospital for her sleeping disorder. In her sleep she lives in a dream world. Danny is in the real world. The film weaves back and forth between dream and reality.

Director and writer William Malone financed the film himself. It shows in the film. Malone focuses heavily on CGI, but it is not always convincing. The dream world is shown frequently and looks quite cheap. The dream world does not exactly stimulate the imagination. The monsters and faces that appear in that world look good.

The story develops rather slowly and does not really flow well. Transitions between scenes don't feel natural. Characters without a clear role or destination appear frequently. Events do not always follow the laws of logic. The story falters. The fact that the story does not take place entirely in reality is intriguing, but it also causes confusion within this unstable constellation.

Both protagonists are full-fledged characters. Sufficient attention is paid to the character development of the characters to sympathize with them. Moreover, their acting is not disastrously bad. The supporting characters are not important. They are simply filled in and are no more than means to force an event and push the story in a certain direction. The villain in the film is also not given the opportunity to extricate himself from his position as the supporting actor. That's too bad. He is a murderer and hypnotist whose performance gives the film a menacing atmosphere. He is an intriguing and dark character with far too little screen time.

Parasomnia is a well-intentioned film with a somewhat amateurish appearance, a slow story and characters with potential. Not a top film. Quite a likeable film.

Translated from Dutch · View original