Review of Parasomnia (2008) by Bryan S — 16 Sep 2010

Poor Jeffrey Combs. He had quite a good run, between his career in horror films in the 1980s and 90s to his role on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." His appearance in this stinker, though, is a pretty solid sign that it's all over.

Laura Baxter has a disorder that leaves her asleep most of the time. She's warehoused in the psychiatric wing of a hospital where, in the padded room next door, serial killer and hypnotist Byron Volpe is kept hanging from straps. When record shop clerk Danny comes to visit his friend Billy in drug rehab, he wanders into Laura's room, falls in love with her and winds up kidnapping her so she won't be taken away for experiments. For some reason, Volpe is also in love with her and is manipulating her through her dreams. Danny has to take on Volpe while the police pursue him for the kidnapping. When a detective is murdered, his partner (played by Jeffrey Combs) is convinced that Danny killed him and comes after him.

There are some very interesting scenes set inside of Laura's dream world, but the rest of the movie doesn't make a lot of sense. It's never explained why Volpe wants Laura or even why he would be aware of her existence. He rambles on about wanting her purity late in the film, but given the context, it's no explanation at all. Laura herself, who we're told spends no more than a few minutes awake every so often, winds up spending all of her time awake when it becomes convenient for the story... and she's played by such a terrible actress that one wishes she'd lapse back into her coma every time she opens her mouth. Volpe, played by TV regular Patrick Kilpatrick, is almost interesting, but by the end of the movie he's delivering such incredibly BS lines and going to such Rube Goldberg like machinations to do even the smallest things that he seems far too stupid to have accomplished everything he's alleged to have done. Timothy Bottoms also has a small role as Laura's doctor; it's a part that could have been played by anyone, and Bottoms is as wasted here as Combs; both appear to have needed a paycheck, albeit a small one. The whole mess culminates with a scene that's almost too much of a cliche to watch.

Go back to sleep. Your dreams are more interesting, and make more sense, than "Parasomnia." Just hope that Cherilyn Wilson and Dylan Purcell don't show up; they'll ruin everything.