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| Title: | The Nightmare |
| Director: | Rodney Ascher |
| Starring: | Siegfried Peters Stephen Michael Joseph Yatoya Toy Nicole Bosworth Elise Robson |
| Genre: | Documentary |
| Runtime: | 1 Hour 31 mins |
| Music: | Jonathan Snipes |
| Studio: | Campfire |
| Certificate: | UK: 15 |
| Release Date: | US: Jan 01 2015 UK: Oct 09 2015 |
| See If You Like: | Room 237 Paranormal Activity |
Sleep Paralysis is when an individual seemingly awakes from their sleep however they are unable to move. A strange phenomenon that is said to affect roughly 10% of the world’s population during their lifetime. Those who have experienced it often claim it is one of the most terrifying experiences of their life, with some suffering from nightmarish hallucinations in the process.
The Nightmare, the latest documentary from Room 237 director Rodney Ascher explores Sleep Paralysis and the effects it has, talking to sufferers and getting them to give accounts of their most terrifying experiences.
The Nightmare proves an effective, if somewhat underwhelming feature. Ascher’s reenactments of the stories provide for chilling viewing, plunging the audience in at the deep end and capturing a sense of the frozen terror that the experience brings. However Ascher never really explores the issue enough, instead opting to just focus on the sufferers and their tales rather than probing into the issue and consulting any professionals on the matter.
The chosen subjects all prove entertaining story tellers and keep the films head above water for the most part however repetition soon begins to kick in and what starts off as a very unsettling feature soon becomes a bit of a slug, especially in the closing parts of the movie. Ascher clearly has an eye for creating terror on screen but whether he is a natural documentarian remains to be seen.
Like his previous feature Room 237 the film manages to entertain without ever really educating or providing a different outlook on things. Sleep Paralysis in undeniably frightening but Ascher here only manages to scratch the surface, leaving one to wonder whether he would better off directing an out and out horror film as opposed to another documentary.
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Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Buy from Amazon.com |
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