Review of The Nightmare (2015) by Thequietgamer — 06 Oct 2016

The Nightmare is a pretty cool idea. It melds the horror and documentary genres together to talk about a weird and haunting topic. It's about sleep paralysis and ends up being really creepy and interesting. Ultimately it's a better horror movie than a documentary, because it really doesn't dive into any specifics at all. You're just watching some people share their experiences with sleep paralysis, and then seeing the movie play them out all creepy like. You don't really learn anything about the individuals themselves or any potential scientific reasoning behind the events.

Anyways, I'm usually not one to be bothered by horror movies in any way, but this one really freaked me out. Admittedly it might not hit everyone in the same way. There's a very paranormal aspect the people describe their sleep paralysis as having. Without going into too much, there's talk about demons and whatnot. If that already sounds like a turn off to you, then maybe it's not one you should check out. If you don't believe in that kind of stuff, the whole thing might just come off as laughable.

However, even if you don't this could still be worth a watch. It is coming from real people after all so it could give you something to think and theorize about. Personally, my imagination is running wild. And ultimately you can't discredit the people too much. Who are we to tell them how to interpret their experiences? Just to be clear, not all of them assume a spiritual or otherworldly cause. They're just telling their stories. It's up to the viewer to interpret the cause.

So like I said, it's a better horror movie. Why? Because the events described and reenacted here and just so weird and freaky. The shared elements, the sense of helplessness, the already pretty scary aspects of dreams in the first place all come together to create something horrifying to hear about. Actually seeing what these people are talking about be played out onscreen with the director's oh so playfully sadistic approach to horror is just unnerving.

So yeah, the documentary angle falls short. Director Rodney Ascher's focus is definitely on the horror. He's using these people's stories to scare the audience. That might sound exploitive, but Ascher himself has experienced this. He's not just trying to use the scares to cash in on other people's real life terror. He's using them to allow other people to have as close an experience as they can to what these people go through in real life. Some experience it every night. The ultimate goal feels like it's to draw more attention to the subject. Hopefully establishing an increased awareness.

However, even if it was just meant to cash in, at least there are some good thrills for the viewers in it. That may sound heartless, but I don't mean it to. I do take the subject seriously and hope that those who experience it can find some sort of relief or "cure." This is part horror movie though, so I have to view it like that as well. Personally, I found it to be one freaky experience that will make it hard to sleep for a while.

8.