Saturday, December 9, 2017

Review of SLUMBER: Hypnagogic Hallucinations

December 8, 2017



July last year, there was "Before I Wake" (MY REVIEW), a horror film about children and dreams. July this year, there was "Dead Awake" (MY REVIEW), a horror movie about sleep paralysis. Now, there's "Slumber" which turned out to be another horror movie about children, dreams and sleep paralysis. Frankly, I was not too optimistic about it from the get-go, but I just had to see how director and co-writer Jonathan Hopkins will give his own spin to this recently used plot device.

Dr. Alice Arnold is a sleep specialist who specialized in patients dealing with parasomnias like sleepwalking, sleep terrors and sleep paralysis. One day, all four members of Morgan family, went to see her for help because of their terrifying nightmares. Father Charlie's dream was about a dead baby, mother Sarah's about her teeth, and daughter Emily's about garden shears. Son Daniel had it the worst as he felt someone sitting on his chest so he cannot move nor breathe.

Maggie Q was the only actress I knew in the cast. She was an interesting choice to play Dr. Arnold. Her being Asian was totally a non-issue, which was good. She looked very professional and believable as a medical specialist. More importantly, I felt the passion of her character for her work, as well as her compassion for her patients. It was just bad though that she was made to refer to Wikipedia (gasp!) for information she should already know as a sleep specialist.

It was just unrealistic how they do their sleep studies where the doctor herself (not technicians) was the one doing the overnight vigil observations, and is still expected to hold her clinics the next day. Of course, odd things only began to happen to her patients right there on her monitor just when she irresponsibly went out for coffee without any reliever. 

Alice's supportive husband Tom was played by Will Kemp, while her artistic daughter Niam (who also suffered from nightmares, but was not integral to the plot) was played by Sophia Wiseman. Her colleague at work Dr. Malcolm was played by William Hope. Clinic janitor Dave was played by Neil Linpow, while his eccentric, sleep-deprived grandfather Amado was played by Sylvester McCoy. Alice's little brother Liam was played by child actor William Rhead. His falling out of a window to his death was Alice's own nightmare.

The tormented Morgan family was played by Kristen Bush (as Sarah), Sam Troughton (as Charlie), Honor Kneafsey (as Emily) and Lucas Bond (as Daniel). I have a personal aversion to dreams about falling teeth so Sarah's nightmares were the worst, the scariest and the most disgusting for me. The little child actors really figured in some intensely scary scenes here, which might give them nightmares in real life. 

It was unfortunate that the final confrontation with the Nocnitsa was so corny and anticlimactic, wasting all the suspenseful buildup to that moment. It was not a long movie, which was a relief, but I was sort of expecting a better payoff for staying to the end. The twist was hinted at earlier, but never really made clear. I was waiting for a little explanation about how a Nocnitsa victim can be saved with some sort of a curse transfer, but that never came.  5/10. 


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