Sleep paralysis demons deserve a better fictional riff than \u201cNightmare,\u201d a bland horror movie about a terrifying and possible experience. Even just learning about sleep paralysis can spread its effects, as provoked by Rodney Ascher\u2019s 2015 collection of real-life bedtime episodes, \u201cThe Nightmare,\u201d one of the scariest documentaries ever made. But for all the possibilities of illustrating the clutches of sleep paralysis, in which one can see themselves sleeping and unable to move while a shadowy presence haunts the room\u2014freaky, right?\u2014\u201cNightmare\u201d is a bland Shudder entry, with only a simmering anger to make it notable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elli Harboe (\u201cThelma\u201d) has to work overtime as Mona, a 25-year-old woman suddenly affected by sleep paralysis that becomes progressively violent to herself and others. She flails through a script that gives Mona lackluster problems in the daytime, like a relationship with a dud of a boyfriend, Robby (Herman T\u00f8mmeraas),\u00a0who works a mysterious job and doesn\u2019t help with the necessary restoration for their newly acquired but run-down apartment. Mona\u2019s attempts to sleep have her screaming, sometimes wailing on\u00a0Robby, and sleepwalking with little sense of reality. Despite the danger this unpredictable psychosis\u00a0should create, “Nightmare” becomes monotonous, and\u00a0Harboe’s inherent force can only do so much to punch up its mild nerves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s one compelling fire burning under writer\/director Kjersti Helen Rasmussen\u2019s story, and it\u2019s that of a woman\u2019s right to have an abortion. Shortly after Mona and Robby move into the place, she finds out she\u2019s pregnant. Mona knows that she wants to have an abortion\u2014she’s not ready for motherhood\u2014but various male forces in her life threaten her free will. Even the original doctor who reveals her pregnancy and offers an abortion tries to guilt trip her with mental images of the fetus\u2019 growth. And because she doesn\u2019t want to be challenged at home, she doesn\u2019t want to tell Robby about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n A demon begins terrorizing Mona at night, and it’s the cheesiest\u00a0embodiment\u2014the Mare is\u00a0a shirtless Robby, brooding as if he were a Cullen vampire sibling. This demon wants her to have this baby. On the page,\u00a0\u201cNightmare\u201d is really about a\u00a0woman\u2019s choice, and this film might warrant a look if\u00a0movies were worthwhile solely on\u00a0the courage of their convictions.<\/p>\n In execution, Rasmussen\u2019s story is a set of weak arcs, including the later involvement of an eager sleep doctor (Dennis Storh\u00f8i) who knows more than he\u2019s letting on about Mona\u2019s conditions but also the apartment she now lives in. Don\u2019t get excited when he mentions his device that can use signals from the brain to illustrate dreams to voyeurs\u2014this intriguing bit of technology is hardly used. His purpose is horror didacticism, to offer information (yes, their movie has a lecture defining nightmares), and to face danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sleep paralysis demons deserve a better fictional riff than \u201cNightmare,\u201d a bland horror movie about a terrifying and possible experience. Even just learning about sleep paralysis can spread its effects, as provoked by Rodney Ascher\u2019s 2015 collection of real-life bedtime episodes, \u201cThe Nightmare,\u201d one of the scariest documentaries ever made. But for all the possibilities …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[45,48,51],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction-movies","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}