Review of Parasomnia (2008) by Tutto F — 01 Dec 2011

Looking at this simply as a film, this is really pretty awful. Contrived, slow moving, and absolutely full of WTF moments. However its visual style is really pretty cool, and probably added at least a star onto my rating.

The acting is truely awful. Dylan Purcell may have inserted himself into the 'Worst Actor of the Decade' race, because he is beyond horrific. His facial expressions are hillarious. Cherilyn Wilson's role wasn't too hard: pretend to be asleep, wake up a couple times, then bounce her boobies around. Somehow however this was a little too much for her, but at least she looks damn cute while doing it. Whoever it was that played the villian was the only actor in the movie was even remotely passable.

The storyline is simply ludicrious, and it becomes more and more ludicrious with each passing scene. It really makes very little sense, and isn't helped by stiff dialouge and plenty of headscratching moments. Its a shame, because it does offer up some intriguing ideas and concepts. Unfortunately, any tact or subtlety that might have elevated the film is unappologeticly bludgened to death with a hammer. In addition to all this, it is just not at all scary.

The direction of the film is very strange. Choppy, uneven, and makes it very difficult to follow. As I said, its visual style is its strongest selling point. Extremely surrealistic and offers some pretty darn cool and artistic imagery. Very Tim Burton-ey, but much darker. The opening credit sequence is one of the highlights of the entire film.

In the end, this is a textbook example of a bad movie from nearly every film standpoint. Fortunately it is elevated to mediocre at best status by its artistic vision. Still a pretty weak film that I would have a hard time recommending to anyone.