X
- 2015
- Not Rated
- Gravitas Ventures
- 1 h 31 m
- 2015
- Not Rated
- Gravitas Ventures
- 1 h 31 m
Summary From Rodney Ascher, the director of Room 237, comes a documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of Sleep Paralysis through the eyes of eight very different people. These people (and a surprisingly large number of others) often find themselves trapped between the sleeping and waking worlds, totally unable to move but aware of their...
Directed By: Rodney Ascher
- 2015
- Not Rated
- Gravitas Ventures
- 1 h 31 m
- 2015
- Not Rated
- Gravitas Ventures
- 1 h 31 m
The Nightmare
68
3.8
Where to Watch
Summary From Rodney Ascher, the director of Room 237, comes a documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of Sleep Paralysis through the eyes of eight very different people. These people (and a surprisingly large number of others) often find themselves trapped between the sleeping and waking worlds, totally unable to move but aware of their...
Directed By: Rodney Ascher
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
68
61% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
39% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
68
61% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
39% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Cutting between various chilling anecdotes of sinister late night visions and horrifying reenactments, The Nightmare manages a tricky balance of visceral fright and sincere investigation. It's a rare non-fiction achievement that earns the ability to freak you out.
More frightening (yet strangely entertaining) than most of today’s narrative horror films.
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 25 User Ratings
3.8
16% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
40% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
44% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 25 User Ratings
3.8
16% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
40% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
44% Negative
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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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.
8.3/10
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The human brain, this movie suggests, is the ultimate horror-movie director, and sleep-paralysis hallucinations are just an extreme form of the standard-issue nightmares we all unwillingly create on a regular basis. It’s one thing to be tormented. It’s another thing to face the grim reality that you’re tormenting yourself.
Whether it is the movies that have shaped our dreams or our dreams that have shaped the movies, it’s safe to assume that The Nightmare will find its place in that eternally recurring cycle.
While Ascher brings the experiences to life in a way that could conceivably induce nightmares in casual viewers, the potency of these scenes is ultimately diminished by repetition.
Neither as frightening as a good horror flick nor as enlightening as a straight documentary, Rodney Ascher's The Nightmare borrows from both worlds in its depiction of the phenomenon known as sleep paralysis.
Ascher is too content to let repetition of experience take over his film.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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I don't like repeating myself here but for this one it looks like I have to, and that's what hurts more then pain is disappointment and that disappointment is what I had for this documentary.
The Nightmares is a documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of 'Sleep Paralysis' through the eyes of eight very different people. These people often find themselves trapped between the sleeping and waking worlds, totally unable to move but aware of their surroundings while being subject to frequently disturbing sights and sounds. A strange element to these visions is that despite the fact that they know nothing of one another, many see similar ghostly 'shadow men'.
Every since I sawed the teaser trailer for The Nightmare I straight away was looking forward to seeing it as it's a documentary about nightmares and people's experience with it and documentary are normally interesting with the right tone and facts. The trailer scared the living crap out of me by it's scary looking creators that these people sawed in they dream and in the documentary they re-create those nightmares and they do look scary. Now after seeing and I got to tell you that **** most disappointing thing since Particle Fever.
The Nightmare isn't a terrible documentary, it has it's scary and interesting scenes that will probably haunt you or get you listening more then scared. Some scenes that are really effective and that's to do with the re-creating the monsters, ghost or demons that these people dream about. I can see some people may like and find this documentary more interesting and scary and I got to admit I did in a couple of scenes. But I think most of the positive things I said sadly ends here as these such problems and a lot of things that could have been improved to make it more effective.
Now for the problems and there's a lot: The one that kept taking me out of the documentary and made me question the whole thing is the fact that when these people who experience they worse nightmares ever and in the documentary they re-create it to show you as the audience what they experience, but here's the thing every single person in the interview who talks about they nightmare it's always them laying in the bed seeing this thing hover over them or slowly opening the door and walking towards them, after a while it got old really fast and I wanted something new like if they were getting chased by the creature or anything scary then just laying in bed as these something in your room, I mean is that what people dream of laying in they beds.
The re-creation for the most part was really well done, but maybe too well done for it's own good. What I mean is that I noticed is that it's always darkly lit even when it's in a dark room you still can see everything in the room. I thought it will be more scary if it was pitch black and when you see this thing in the darkness it's more terrifying as it will put you in the same spot as this guy was experiencing it and I thought that may made it effective, but that's just me giving out ideas.
A couple of times while watching the documentary I got a bit bored and started to get uninterested at some parts, because it was the same thing over and over again delivering nothing new just the same repeated pattern used way too many times. Not even the scary dream re-creations could scare me anymore.
Overall The Nightmare was a huge disappointment and the documentary was kind of a dull mess and that's what upset's me more. Some people can watch this and maybe like it more then me and if you do like this then good for you, but for me it totally didn't live up to my expectation.
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Had the overall potential to be a great movie, but who expects people to believe them without some type of scientific cred. This is a good popcorn flick with some pretty spine tingling imagery, but at the end of the day what are you left with? I, for one, was left with a pseudo-documentary that felt like it belonged on TLC or the Discovery channel rather than a theater. I know sleep paralysis is real and it has actually happened to me before (maybe with not the severity these people experienced), but this documentary has no credentials. How do you expect someone to believe your research if you don't have any sources? I'll generously give it a 3 for the imagery and some of the stories, but I feel as though it doesn't deserve quite that much overall.
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Probably the biggest disappointment of a documentary I've ever seen. I didn't find a bit of it scary, and am I the only one that thought the main guy of the movie (the one with the alien hallucinations) was a bit crazy? I mean I can't say I expected much because I saw his overrated documentary about Room 237 *yawn*, and this is about the same. Got way too high of ratings for such trash.
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Production Company
Zipper Bros Films,
Highland Park Classics,
New City Road,
Campfire
Release Date Jun 5, 2015
Duration 1 h 31 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Tagline Welcome to the scariest place on earth
Awards
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 2 Nominations
Moscow International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
iHorror Awards
• 1 Nomination
