ALL LIGHT WILL END (2018)

Originally, I planned to open this with some joke about how there's yet to be a fictional horror author with a pleasant, normal childhood. But on second thought, I genuinely can't think of any real horror authors with a nice, normal life. Stephen King? Hell no. Shirley Jackson? Try again. Dean Koontz? I generally try not to think about him as much as possible, but he certainly doesn't qualify either. So I suppose that's one horror trope I can't poke at too much, as I'm not sure it counts as a trope if there's such a solid grounding in reality. This also leads one to wonder how many more horror authors might exist if not for advancements in therapy... but that's another subject.

Basic horror setups don't get much more classic than "troubled author returns home" - in fact I'm pretty sure that plot single-handedly paid for Stephen King's mansion - but there's nothing wrong with a classic, given it's done well. A young horror author spends a weekend at her childhood home with friends, intermixed with flashbacks of a horrible monster she feared as a child in the same home and the complicated relationship with her author mother. There's also some side story about her father, the local sheriff, investigating a series of gruesome murders with the help of the world's worst two deputies that seem to have wandered off the set of SUPER TROOPERS. Inexplicably, these two plotlines don't really ever come together. Much like this film as a whole.

C'mon boys, the plot's got to be around here somewhere.

I'm not even sure where to begin with this thing. The plot is a mess, the writing is a mess, the acting varies from "decent" to "did you find this guy in a Taco Bell parking lot", and the scares are more or less non-existent. The best thing I can say for this is that there's some neat gore, and visually it's shot competently. Not well, mind you. But fine enough. There's an ongoing attempt to build up an atmosphere of dread and sexual tension that's more or less laughable. The pacing is not helped at all by being constantly broken up by the slightly better portions following the sheriff and his deputies, evidently investigating where the movie they were meant to be in has disappeared to.

Like any random shitty piece of horror, this has to try and throw a series of twists in to keep the audience awake, but without remembering to actually get us even slightly invested in these boring and vaguely unpleasant people. We're talking late-career M. Night Shymalalalala level bad twists. The grand finale not only wasn't much of a shock if you'd been paying even a slight amount of attention to the movie, but it also made me want to roll my eyes so hard they burst in their sockets Fulci-style. Repeat after me, kids: twists do not make a movie good. They can be a good part of a film - assuming the rest is also, y'know, good - but single-handedly they don't make a movie better. Post this over the urinals at every film festival.

Speaking of that grand finale, I haven't laughed this hard at a sequence since THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM. There's an attempt at an eerie music montage at the very end, but after the slow-motion train wreck that the rest of the movie is, it comes off more like the YouTube music video for a shitty metal band. But with worse music, somehow. I desperately want to know how this went over with audiences at the film festivals where it inexplicably came home with an award for Best Original Screenplay (???) and Best Feature Film (?!?!).

For all that, it's far from the worst thing out there, and I could see it being fun to sit around and joke about with friends. It's not awful to look at, and the design for the childhood boogeyman character is neat, as are a few of the kills. It's always a nice change of pace to see an interesting dynamic between mothers and daughters, particularly feeling in her shadow - if only it was better acted.
In all honesty, I'd likely have given it a far worse review if THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM wasn't still so fresh in my mind. It's going to be a while before anything fills me with that level of frothing, eye-twitch inducing rage.

This film does pass the Bechdel test, but that's not much of a credit to it.

2 out of 5

This movie is available for streaming on Netflix.

THE LODGERS (2017)

Of all the areas of the world I possibly would have expected to be up and coming for foreign horror, I can safely say Ireland was not one I would have predicted. Asian horror made big waves in the early 2000s (and was instrumental in making me the little creep I am today), while Spanish and South American films have been steadily on the rise, like the internet collectively losing it's cat-addled mind over VERONICA last year. But Ireland? No insult to LEPRECHAUN: BACK 2 THA HOOD, but it's not the first place one associates with horror. My opinion on this took a sharp 180 after seeing THE HALLOW last year, an absolutely fantastic combination of body horror and Irish folklore that left me curious to see more.

THE LODGERS was a completely random pick, and quite honestly may be my new favorite for random streaming offerings. Films like this remind me why I suffer through a lot of garbage. A classic Victorian Gothic in every sense, the film is lush and eerie, filled with crumbling mansion walls, moss-eaten tombstones in the yard, weed-choked lakes to hide the bodies, and a constant certainty that someone is always lurking nearby, just out of sight. The film follows a pair of teenage twins, apparently living alone in a decaying mansion in the woods since their parents' suicide years earlier - alone, except for the Lodgers who come out from the cellar in a flood of dark water every night while the children are abed. As long as brother and sister follow their rules, they will be safe. Or so they've been told.

This may not be for everyone, but it's exactly my jam - a well-written period piece that's atmospheric, moody, and genuinely creepy. It's not exactly fast-paced, but it carries on at a good clip and even the quieter scenes usually have something eerie and captivating. There are few if any jump scares, but what little we see of the mysterious Lodgers is distinct and terrifying. This movie should honestly be used as an example of just the right line between showing absolutely nothing and showing too much. It's also a great illustration of having unique effects that are neither hokey or overly CGI. The recurring image of water droplets flowing upward into the air is fairly simple to do, but it's unnerving and beautiful at the same time.

Pictured: My dream home

The acting is impressive as well for a relatively indie feature. Both brother and sister have a fascinating and occasionally uncomfortable dynamic that never feels forced. The script is solid, staying with the period piece vibe without ever sounding hokey. As a bit of a history nerd, I was impressed how well they managed to place the costumes and vaguely-referenced world events to give you the World War I era without dumping exposition on top. The sets are just as lush and lovingly made, with deep forests and possibly one of the most gorgeous crumbling gothic mansions ever filmed. A great deal of this reminded me quite a bit of Guillermo Del Toro's gorgeous CRIMSON PEAK, although much as I loved that movie, I'd say this one is over all a better piece of work. Even with a painful lack of Javier Botet.

The plot is one that may lose people, as it assumes you're both A) fully invested in watching and B) at least somewhat familiar with some of the tropes. It doesn't fully explain everything, but it doesn't really need to in my opinion, as long as you're aware that you're watching a classic gothic tale. There's also an odd undercurrent of sexuality running through the whole film, which may unnerve people but again, was a staple of the Victorian Gothic - which is what made them extremely racy for the era. It remains PG-13 more or less, but some of the implications are extremely disturbing. Similar to the director Brian O'Malley's first film, LET US PREY, this requires you to pay attention and also go into it willing to come along for the ride.

This review's somehow ended up short, because there's only so much I can say without spoiling it and eagerly trying to cram it down everyone's throat. It's not for everyone, but in the crowded ranks of indie horror that went under the radar, this stands out as a beautiful, atmospheric, and eerie entry.

This movie passes the Bechdel Test by the skin of it's teeth, but given that there's maybe five whole characters with speaking roles in the film, that's not shocking.

5 out of 5


This movie is available for streaming on Netflix.

DEADLY DETENTION (2017)

For whatever reason, blame being snowbound (or my own poor choices), it's been an ongoing marathon of haunted house flicks over here at ye old Scary Manse. Assuming you can call a creaky old house full of pet hair and beer bottles a manse. So, being the noble and giving soul that I totally am, I decided to try something else. Teen slashers are always fun, right? How can that go wrong?
Well... that's a loaded question.

To be fair, this movie is plenty of fun, I'll give it that. The basic premise is terribly clever and one I'm a little surprised I've never seen before. If you ever wondered what would happen if I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and THE BREAKFAST CLUB hooked up in a closet at a party, this is pretty close to what would pop out nine months later. A mismatched group of five teens spend a Saturday in detention, under the watchful eye of their principal. Due to a possum infestation being fumigated at their highschool, they are instead at an old, unused prison nearby. As the bodies start to pile up, they find themselves trying to escape through a series of locked doors and traps being controlled by a mysterious voice over the PA.

The premise is, as I said, very clever. The kids themselves are nicely updated stereotypes for a new age of teen life, and the actors playing them are all decent. No one's a particular standout hit, but no one was making me cringe when they opened their mouth either. The script is decent, and I appreciated that they didn't try too hard to shovel in as much "cool" teen slang as possible in a desperate bid for that sweet, sweet street cred. There's a few bits here and there that come off awkward, but there's also a few genuine chuckles to balance them out. In addition to being a clever basic premise, keeping the whole film confined to the prison is extremely clever and manages not to feel cheap or claustrophobic as they move through different parts. The prison almost feels like a character all it's own, which I guess brings the entire cast count up to... six or seven.

That is, incidentally, one of my problems with the movie. The entire premise of them trying to figure out who or what is after them would be more effective if we had a sliiightly bigger pool of suspects. I'll hazard a guess I'm not the only horror hound who will call it pretty quickly. The kills aren't even all that interesting, and the choice of which characters conveniently die off-camera bothers me just as much watching it then as it does now. Similarly, the order in which various characters are offed - and who makes it out the other side - is pretty easy to predict. This doesn't make or break a movie for me, but it's always a little disappointing. Like getting diet when you ordered a Coke, or checking your bank account after you thought you were saving money.

Looks like someone needs a nice, sharp intro to gender theory.

Unfortunately, this is partially the movie's own fault for some laziness. I understand that in a film playing off a classic teen flick, there's going to be some dependence on stereotypes. That's fine. The jokes inspired by THE BREAKFAST CLUB are worth a chuckle. The problem comes in when you cross that with certain horror tropes, such as who generally dies first in these movies. There does seem to be some conscious attempt to subvert this, ie. making the "slutty" character interesting and fairly likeable, making the jock bro aware and unhappy about how he treats people. But at the end of the day it still chooses to get lazy with it, completely undercutting any tension that occasionally tries to surface for air as it drowns in mediocrity.

Here be spoilers. Read at your own risk, or skip the italics to the end of my review. 

This movie falls into some pretty garbage tropes in terms of who they kill off first. The second I saw the group was three white, cis, straight kids, one black kid, and one queer kid, it couldn't have been any more clear who gets offed first. And, of course, they're also the only two that die offscreen, because who cares I guess? Even worse, they have a black kid get killed literally because he's injured and sacrifices himself to save the beautiful young white girl. This is what happens when you try to use stereotypes without thinking them through, or actually examining them critically. 

Here endeth the spoiling. 

This is related to another major issue that helped kill this one for me; it can't figure out what it wants to be. It alternates between aiming for extremely dark, gruesome comedy but also seems to want to be taken seriously as a slasher. The movie doesn't know whether it wants to make fun of teen tropes or embrace them fully, and the script just isn't good enough to pull it off. This is the general vibe of the whole thing from the final resolution to even the score - it's a weird, vaguely synth-esque soundtrack, as if they want to flirt with that 80s vibe the whole production has, but they're not willing to commit. There's a lot of hints of a cool, wickedly funny, stylish film lurking in here starting with the opening scene where the characters are introduced by a snapshot of their school records, but it's just not fully realized.

That said, for all my complaints, I enjoyed myself watching it. This is one I could see being fun to watch with a group, and also one that easily could find a niche as a gateway movie for teens just finding horror. It's also one where I could see the creative team going on to do bigger and better things, if they cut their teeth on a few more projects and learn to fully embrace the weird. This is horror, folks - we don't give out points for normalcy.

This movie does pass the Bechdel Test quite well, and I enjoyed the surprisingly broad range of female characters for being such a small cast.


3 out of 5

This movie is available for streaming on Netflix.

HEREDITARY (2018)

The eternal refrain of my life is how many movies I make a mental note to see in theaters months before they actually come out. Inevitably, I enter some kind of time warp and always end up shocked that I somehow didn't catch them in theaters over a year later. I need some kind of planner for this shit. Though likely as not, I'd forget I had that as well. This is why it's probably for the best I don't have kids. Where's little Timmy? Who is Timmy?

Parenting is always scary on some level, which HEREDITARY taps into quite well. I was interested in this one before it's release, but somehow missed out until it went up on Amazon Prime in January. Toni Collette's one of those actors I don't consciously follow, but I'm always pleasantly surprised to find her in a movie. It's the equivalent of picking up what you think is a penny and it turns out to be a dime, or taking a sip of water and discovering it's gin. She stars alongside Gabriel Byrne, presumably dragged out from whatever bridge he's been living under since the money from VIKINGS dried up, as a couple raising two kids and coping with the death of Collette's mother.

Attempts to write convincing family dynamics in horror are always a hit and miss, with more misses than not. Everyone wants to think they're the next POLTERGEIST, without giving the script the complexity and chemistry it needs to be convincing, to make us genuinely care about this family. HEREDITARY is certainly a hit in this sense. All of the family, parents and children, are thoughtfully written and it does a wonderful job of actually showing the dynamic rather than just narrating it. The tension between different family members rings true, but somehow never makes you genuinely question whether they love eachother - hard as loss and the increasingly bizarre occurrences around their home may be.

The horror is a slow burn in the very best way. I haven't been this impressed by a first film from a (relatively) new director since GET OUT, and there is a similar level of unease and tension running throughout the film even in the more quiet moments. The scares start out slow and subtle, but from the first scene there's an eerie aspect to everything. Part of this is due to some fantastic visual work - the cinematography, lighting, and oddly muted colors are all well done. The acting is all marvelous, maintaining a level of drama that's painful to watch at times, but all too realistic. Collette and her son (played by Alex Wolff) are the standouts for me - aside from the fact that Wolff looks, uh, absolutely nothing like the rest of the family.

Female roles in horror movies are a complicated subject at best, all too frequently being resigned to what role they play in someone else's story - the sexy love interest, the overbearing mother, the mysterious creepy kid, etc. HEREDITARY is a stellar example of using those old tired roles in a new, clever way simply by giving them real agency and a real story. Toni Collette as a terrified, grief-stricken mother caught up in something sinister is nothing new; the complexity of her trying to deal with it, of her relationship with her own mother, even with her children is what really sells it. The young daughter Charlie could have been yet another generic creepy kid - a trope which all too-often seems to rely on some extremely ableist assumptions - but despite being very strange, she's also shown compassionately. Her family may not understand her, but they love her genuinely. None of this is new, but it's all done very tastefully.

Pictured: My face for the last ten minutes of the film

The scares are, well, yeah. I've watched this movie three times now, and it continues to be effective. This is one slow burn where the final act pays off for the buildup, and dear god does it ever pay off. I've seldom seen such a complete and horrifying resolution. The finale left me sitting with my jaw dropped long enough I'm lucky nothing nested in there, as the film consistently did things I never saw coming. Yet also, I can't imagine it ending any other way. It's horrifying, and uses gore in precisely the best way it should be done - unflinching, realistically gruesome, and used sparingly to great effect. It's also one that I highly recommend rewatching. I was so stunned the first time that I missed just how many details from earlier in the film are important for the finale, and it seems each time I notice more. This script is packed tighter than a mall on Black Friday, and I loved every bit of it.

The one complaint I've heard, aside from a slow pace which is purely a matter of taste, is that the plot is hard to follow. That's a bit of a yes and no for me, but I think it really boils down to how much attention you pay. This is not a good movie for working on other tasks as you watch, or chatting with friends, because you're likely to miss half the explanations for why it happened. There are no throwaway details, period.

At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I would easily consider HEREDITARY one of the finest horror films in recent years years, and second only to GET OUT in how shocked I am to see this level of quality from a new director. Even if slow buildups and family drama aren't your usual cup of tea, I'd recommend giving this a try just to see what all the fuss is about - because this is a fuss well-deserved.

This movie passes the Bechdel Test within the first five minutes, which is a rare sight in horror films and one I'd love to see more of.

5 out of 5

This movie is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM (2016)

When dredging the depths of random Netflix movies, I try to go in blind as much as possible. Partially it saves me some of the suspense, whether good or bad, and partially it's just that for niche genres, I just don't trust most mainstream critics. But, with THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM, I was surprised I had never heard a peep about it, with a solid B-list actor like Kate Beckinsale headlining. Lo and behold, this movie bears a resounding 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. "But I'm  solid twenty minutes in," I say to myself. "It's not great but it's not THAT awful."
I was wrong, kids. I was so wrong.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM, aside from being a solid nickname for my ex-girlfriend's bedroom, starts out as a pretty by-the-numbers ghost story. Family reeling from the loss of a child relocates to a fixer-upper Old Creepy House(tm), see strange things and find a mysterious locked room in the attic.
On finally getting it open, they discover it was where a wealthy family kept their deformed child locked away, much like everyone involved in this film should hide all evidence of it's existence.

The movie's not scary in the slightest, the writing is shaky at it's very best, and this is quite easily one of the most laughable scores I've ever encountered. The movie relies on having extremely loud, melodramatic music swells for the most random damn things. Montage of someone cooking? BRASS SECTION! Someone looking over blueprints? SHRIEKING VIOLIN. There were a few parts where it was so bizarre and out-of-place I started cracking up just from how absurd it all was. The afore-mentioned montage led to me having to pause the movie because I was laughing so hard at the combination of cooking, someone drinking a glass of vodka, and someone digging up a grave. All shot for maximum drama, all inexplicably set to dollar store John Williams.

Shut up, Bird.

There's nothing wrong with the setup, really, or the main cast. Beckinsale is definitely the weakest link, but to be fair I can't say I was watching UNDERWORLD for her amazing acting skills. For whatever godforsaken reason, they opted to give her the same blonde, wavy hairdo that afflicted 75% of all female leads in 2000s horror, and also unfortunately makes her look exactly like Dee Reynolds from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Her character could have been very interesting with better writing and acting, exploring more of the horror of someone who's fighting mental illness following the death of a child. Except this is THE DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM, and hoooooo boy does it deliver on the disappointment.

But the real cherry on top of this shit-sundae? That ending. Oh, that fucking ending. I see this trainwreck when I close my eyes. This thing will require years of alcohol and suppression, just so I can push it down into my own mental disappoints room. The ending that accomplishes nothing, clarifies nothing, and somehow tries to wrap up the movie in ten, woefully unsatisfying minutes. The pacing on this film is roughly equivalent to a rusty, decrepit train crashing headfirst into a concrete wall.

It's not just badly written, it's dumber than a bag of rocks, and simply just dumps exposition over everything like a champagne baptism for this shitshow. I don't often yell at the TV, but when the credits started rolling I couldn't help myself. "Are you fucking kidding me?" No. No, it's not. It's not even bad in a way where you can readily laugh and make fun of it with friends. Oh no. That would be too much for this trash compactor.

Spare yourself and use the evening for something more constructive and pleasant, like sticking pennies in outlets or practicing self-trepanation.

Technically this passes the Bechdel test. I guess that's something.

1 out of 5

This movie is available for streaming on Netflix.

THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE (2016)

One of these days when I get my life together (she said, knowing damn well that day was not coming), I'm going to figure out a system for remembering what movies I meant to see. Because every time a gem like this slips through my fingers until it pops up in the bowels of Netflix, I'm left kicking myself that I missed out for years. Because if you haven't seen this one, you really are missing out.

The other night, while trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life, I had to choose between this one and MARA. I picked MARA, and while I don't precisely regret that decision, this movie is so much better on... basically every level. Except the lack of Javier Botet, I guess, but that's a condition most movies suffer from. It does make up for this with the main cast - the two leads are, basically, the only characters in the movie for more than five minutes, corpses notwithstanding.

The iconic Brian Cox and the vaguely familiar Emile Hirsch play a father and son tag team of coroners, because I guess the family that autopsies together stays together. The police bring in a mysterious body found buried under the scene of a horrific murder, and their need for quick answers means that the pair end up staying overnight to finish the autopsy. I guess family bonding takes all forms, so I'm not here to judge. The more they examine the body, the more bizarre details they find as a storm rages outside, isolating them in the morgue.

This one is definitely a slow burn, which is exactly my jam, but its pacing is golden for most of the movie. The scares start out slowly, and the horror takes some time to wine and dine you before violently cracking your ribs open. It's also impressive that, while few of the scares were terribly unique, they were so well done that they remained extremely effective. The subtle details such as mentioning bells that were once attached to dead bodies, in case someone was comatose and woke up, are brought back to great effect. It might mean you need to watch it more than once to get the full impact, but that's no hardship - everything is remarkably well-filmed and it's just shy of an hour and a half.

Pictured: Award-Winning Veteran Actor

The chemistry between the two actors really sells the movie. While some of their dialogue feels a little off, their interactions always seem heartfelt and believable. Hirsch's character is a bit generic as (insert mildly rebellious but complicated and loving child here), but he plays it well. Brian Cox is fantastic, as ever. Much to my shame, this movie made me realize that despite him being an award-winning actor with a career spanning nearly fifty years, he'll always be the Captain from Super Troopers. He's played Winston Churchill, Hannibal Lector, Leon Trotsky, but nope. Just Captain O'Hagan, piss drunk and screaming "I'm naked!".

... moving on.

One thing I found interesting about this movie was how much of a character the body of Jane Doe manages to be, but also filmed in a way that never seems titillating or sexualized. Sexy dead girls is a popular horror trope I could really do without (undead don't count, don't you come after my sexy vampires), and this one neatly sidesteps it with clever filming and lighting. The actress is gorgeous, but this serves to make her somehow more unnerving when the autopsy is shown in full gory, intimate detail. Evidently the director insisted on using a real actress instead of prosthetics so the audience could feel more of a connection to her, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Speaking of the director, I thought the name sounded familiar when I was picking this, but didn't figure it out until later - this is the english-language debut of André Øvredal, creator of TROLLHUNTER. He's apparently also involved with the upcoming SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, and after seeing this I'm even more stoked for that. It's nice to see that Norway can produce things for the American market besides vaguely racist black metal.

The closest thing I have to a complaint with this movie is that, after the wonderful pacing for the first half or so, the ending seems oddly slapped together and tossed on. It's not bad, but the build up is so great and organic, while the resolution feels kind of forced. I wouldn't say it ruins the movie by a long shot, and I'd still recommend it to anyone with a taste for slow-burn horror, but I did literally say "That's it?" to the ending. In a movie that's damn near perfect otherwise, it's all the more jolting.

As a side note, one of my biggest pet peeves in recent years of horror returns to haunt this one - can we stop having every damn movie bring up the Salem witch trials some how? There were plenty of other witch panics and trials throughout history, across the country. A lot of them are far more interesting than Salem, and literally none of them get any use in horror. Read a book, for fuck's sake. I promise it won't hurt.


This one doesn't pass the Bechdel test by any stretch of the imagination. Given that it's such a closed space and limited cast, I'm not going to chafe at that too much, personally.

4 out of 5

This movie is available for streaming on Netflix.

MARA (2018)

There are few moral debates as difficult as picking exactly which dubious-quality movie to put on Netflix around midnight. Sometimes you'll get lucky and one has a particularly god-awful poster, or tantalizing description, but most nights I waste as much time trying to make up my mind as I do actually watching. And yes, I'm aware this is the pinnacle of first world problems.

In the case of MARA, a movie I'd never heard so much as a peep about before yesterday, my mind was made up by the presence of Javier Botet. The Spanish actor broke through with the REC trilogy, but these days he seems to pop up everywhere, which is fine by me as every single one of his performances manages to scare the piss out of me. Even otherwise mediocre films are guaranteed to at least be a notch better with his presence instead of cheap CGI.

The movie follows a criminal psychologist, trying to figure out exactly what the everloving shit happened when a man is murdered and both the wife and kid insist a sleep demon did it. This takes her on a weird journey involving sleep paralysis, sleep paralysis support groups, and how to be an impossible skeptic in the face of overwhelming evidence, like any good cop in a horror flick. The entire industry might collapse in on itself if, just once, the token cop was open-minded and compassionate. Too far-fetched, I guess.

This one was an interesting watch for me personally, as I've had sleep disturbances of varying types ever since I was a kid - which, incidentally, may be to blame for some of my horror obsession. Sleep paralysis is significantly more common in men than women, though I've suffered from it a few times, but no matter how many times you endure it, it really doesn't stop being terrifying. For those unfamiliar, your mind is partially awake while your body is still locked down for sleep - frequently including panic and hallucinations, often of shadowy, menacing figures. The fact there aren't more horror movies about it is, frankly, baffling to me.

The use of sleep paralysis as a way for an eerie shadow-figure (portrayed by Botet, bless his creepy heart) to claim victims is very clever, as is the support group that introduces the various "stages" of Mara influencing people. It feels a little too convenient for me, but I guess sometimes you just gotta take a big steaming infodump.

LET'S SMOKE SOME CRYSTAL AND JOIN A CULT

The side-character of Dougie, one of the fellow sleep paralysis sufferers who was friends with the murdered father, is easily the most entertaining. He's adapted to Mara and the sleep paralysis by sleeping in twenty minute intervals, complete with loud music and alarms. This endless lack of sleep gives him roughly the appearance and mannerisms of a rural Idaho meth head, which is kinda fitting.


It's hard to do any horror where people are trying not to sleep without mentioning NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. I mean, c'mon. But a few dumb jokes on my part aside, they definitely didn't seem to be trying to leech off it consciously. It's 2019 in horror, kids, completely original ideas are rarer than a good torture porn flick. Let's all accept this and move on with our lives.

As far as acting goes, aside from Botet the movie is decidedly "fine". Not amazing, but no one stands out as terrible - though the main character's
untraceable accent bothered me at times, as it seemed to noticeably fade in and out. Given that everyone else sounds completely whitebread american, it stands out. The character of the daughter is one of the better examples of the token Traumatized Child(tm) in horror who don't make you want to beat your head against a wall until they stop talking, and the young actor does well. Other than that - and, I suppose, the authentically cracked-out Dougie - no one is particularly noteworthy.

That's a good description of this movie as a whole, really. It's good. It's not great. There were some nice creepy parts. The design of the Mara demon is simple but effective. I love the concept. Didn't feel like I was wasting my time watching it. I have basically zero desire to rewatch it, except maybe to show to a fellow sleep-paralysis sufferer, but I genuinely hope there's a sequel - the Mara demon is creepy, and it's a simple concept that could be reused infinitely. Evidently the director has mentioned wanting to make this into an INSIDIOUS style franchise, which I'd be 100% onboard with. (no, not just because even mentioning INSIDIOUS gives me a raging lady-boner... though that doesn't hurt)
It's not perfect, but you could do way worse on a quiet night prowling Netflix.

This movie does, in fact, pass the Bechdel test with flying colors, with multiple well-realized, interesting female leads. See, kids? It's really not that hard.

3 out of 5

This movie is available for streaming on Netflix.