Gosh, I wish this movie wasn't so technically flawed! You know what, I'll get to that in a minute. This flick is pretty cool, it is a documentary about people with Sleep Paralysis, a condition that causes you to feel petrified in the moments between wake and sleep and is accompanied by horrifying visions. This is the fuel for nightmares, so the title is pretty well suited to the film.
The reenactments are pretty good, there are a couple of lame jump scares, you see them coming, but they still make you jump – not scary, but still gets the blood moving. Where The Nightmare shines, though, is in the reenactments with the shadow figures; they're creepy, they're moving around your house at night, they're watching you sleep, and they might be trying to steal your soul.
Sadly, though the visuals in the reenactments can be pretty good, there are some massive editing issues for me. The film has a self reflexive participatory mode (using that documentary film class right there) and while mode works fine for the film, I think it steals a little thunder from the reenactments, which is really just too bad.
More than the mode of the film causing it to be a little rough is the massive number of jump-cuts. I think that the director has watched too many YouTube videos and thinks that jump-cuts are normal and okay. Sadly, he's wrong, and his film suffers because of it. The jump-cuts are distracting for two reasons: 1. Visually they are just distracting, they look weird, and you notice them which draws you out of the story; and 2. you start wondering exactly what was cut out. Once you start wondering about this, you have a whole new level of distraction, and you start to wonder if the stories these people are telling just aren't as good as you're being led to believe.
All in all, The Nightmare is pretty good, and I think people should watch it. Not only is the film informative, but wonderfully entertaining and a little scary. So, turn out the lights, look up The Nightmare on Netflix, and get your educational-horror on!
The reenactments are pretty good, there are a couple of lame jump scares, you see them coming, but they still make you jump – not scary, but still gets the blood moving. Where The Nightmare shines, though, is in the reenactments with the shadow figures; they're creepy, they're moving around your house at night, they're watching you sleep, and they might be trying to steal your soul.
Sadly, though the visuals in the reenactments can be pretty good, there are some massive editing issues for me. The film has a self reflexive participatory mode (using that documentary film class right there) and while mode works fine for the film, I think it steals a little thunder from the reenactments, which is really just too bad.
More than the mode of the film causing it to be a little rough is the massive number of jump-cuts. I think that the director has watched too many YouTube videos and thinks that jump-cuts are normal and okay. Sadly, he's wrong, and his film suffers because of it. The jump-cuts are distracting for two reasons: 1. Visually they are just distracting, they look weird, and you notice them which draws you out of the story; and 2. you start wondering exactly what was cut out. Once you start wondering about this, you have a whole new level of distraction, and you start to wonder if the stories these people are telling just aren't as good as you're being led to believe.
All in all, The Nightmare is pretty good, and I think people should watch it. Not only is the film informative, but wonderfully entertaining and a little scary. So, turn out the lights, look up The Nightmare on Netflix, and get your educational-horror on!