The Nightmare

Name: The Nightmare
Genre: Documentary
Released: June 5, 2015
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 68

2015

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Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews

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Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Ratings

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3.8	User Score Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Ratings

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The Nightmare

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Movie Details & Credits

Gravitas Ventures | Release Date: June 5, 2015 | Not Rated

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 theirFrom 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 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, (and had never heard of sleep paralysis before it happened to them), many see similar ghostly ‘shadow men.’ This is one of many reasons many people insist this is more than just a sleep disorder. [Gravitas Ventures]… Expand

Director: Rodney Ascher

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 91 min

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Critic Reviews

IndieWire Eric Kohn

May 4, 2015

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. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Jun 4, 2015

With The Nightmare, Ascher abandons the strictures of a conventional documentary to frolic in the terrifying netherworlds of human consciousness. It’s not enough for Ascher, a sufferer himself, to tell his audience about sleep paralysis—they have to feel it, too. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

Jun 11, 2015

That’s one of the great accomplishments of Ascher’s film: Intercutting his interviews with fictional recreations of what the subjects are describing allows you to see a version of what they saw, and you don’t need to believe any of it for The Nightmare to give you a major case of the creeps. Read full review

Justin Chang

May 4, 2015

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. Read full review

Empire David Hughes

Oct 6, 2015

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. Read full review

John DeFore

May 4, 2015

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. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Jun 4, 2015

While "Room 237" sought evidence for its most outlandish conceits, The Nightmare declines to delve. As the testimonies grow repetitive, the strategy suggests willful ignorance. Read full review

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User Reviews

Angry-Harry

Oct 10, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Not exactly comforting but it's nice to know you're not alone. Having gone through this myself, often, I was able to finish statements before the actors which makes me think that the original statements were followed to the letter. Like many, I do agree that the focus on the guy who's out of synch (seeing aliens and the antagonist presence) was questionable. Maybe there's other things going on there...I suppose it seems odd for me to discredit someone elses accounts for the bizarre but then again it's like talking about...say, taking a shower. Everyone knows the water is clear. The person who says my shower has red water is a kook. Here, everyone knows that shadows come during these events. It just is.
I'm uncertain if the paralysis is a side effect or an indicator of this phenomena but it seemed to indicate that they were one in the same. The truth is, it happens within a small window where consciousness and unconsciousness intersect and you may be in either state. It stands to reason this puts you in a situation where motor functions are in transition which seems possible for anyone to experience. Until seeing this movie I had deduced this phenomena to a chemical reaction from DMT and an active pineal gland which made sense to a point...but when we've all experienced these shadows...It seems absurd to think a chemical reaction would have so many people see the same things. What are these things? All I know is the more you dwell on negative energy the more likely they're going to come for you again.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TheQuietGamer

Oct 7, 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'tThe 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… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

BrushedRed

Jun 21, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. SO disappointed. When I heard there was a movie coming out about sleep paralysis, I felt liberated. This experience happens to me pretty frequently. My mom didn't believe me for a while but it's really the scariest experience I think you can have... Next to dying. I thought seeing a documentary-movie about people's experiences with sleep paralysis would make me feel better, and it's gotten good reviews to boot! However, I was ultimately let down with this movie.

This movie utilizes about 5 different episodes of this weird phenomenon, and about 3 of the experiences sound legit. The problem here and why I gave it a 5? The director spends too much time focusing on this one guy who is reliving an experience he had as a baby.. Babies cannot remember much detail, especially how he gets down to a T. It didn't seem real; it seemed made up. Not to mention his story is easily the worst of them all and didn't sound like sleep paralysis. He hate up about 45 minutes of the movie which is about 50% of it. Now, some of the characters had it right and had experiences like I had. It could've easily been a 9 or 10 by just letting them have the limelight instead of alien baby guy. The reenactments were very good and made me relive my experiences with sleep paralysis. Overall, I just had my hopes too high. 5/10… Expand

5 of 5 users found this helpful50

geewah

Jan 6, 2021

Neither a horror story or an enlightening doco, this feature comes across as a confused mess.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MattBrady99

Jun 19, 2015

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' throughI 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 it's...the 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.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

JohnGoodman49

Jul 21, 2015

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-documentaryHad 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Goofy27

Jul 21, 2015

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 overratedProbably 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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