Slumber: A Familiar Nightmare

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Slumber is a terrifying, yet excellent and relatable film. With its gut-wrenching and thrilling scenes, this film will leave you with the chills.

Have you ever woken up in a dream feeling like someone was sitting on your chest? Or dreamt you were running, but were actually not getting anywhere?

The newly released horror film, Slumber, plays off of all of these night terrors and makes you face some of your worst nightmares for a solid hour and twenty minutes.

The film stars Maggie Q, who plays a sleep doctor that is on a mission to help protect a family who is being stalked and terrorized by a demon that feeds on people’s nightmares. But as the nightmares start to become all too real, the sleep doctor is faced with her own inner demons as well.

There are many films that use the nightmare or night terror concept, but where they often fall short is by using a ridiculous looking demon or an unbelievable premise that causes a disconnect between the viewers and the movie. What makes a movie truly terrifying is when you can relate to it, and Slumber does just that. What I loved is that they leave the demon in the shadows and let your imagination do the rest.

Slumber also does a great job at creating a gut-wrenching and uncomfortable vibe without using much gore at all; it uses psychological thrills skillfully.

Common nightmares like teeth falling out, falling from great heights or simply floating above your bed were just some of the disturbing scenes that create a horribly uneasy feeling throughout the film.

These hyper realistic nightmares were definitely made possible by some incredible sound effects and perfectly planned sets and lighting.

The vibration of the bass (that chills you right to the bone) amplified the scenes and made them resonate with you for longer then you want them to. This, mixed with eerie rooms that were dimly lit and had the right amount of shadows, created truly suspenseful scenes.

However, one of the major flaws the film had was it tried to introduce too many characters with too complex personalities in such a short period of time. It muddied and confused the plot at some points of the film. Like the hospital’s hipster janitor and his oddball uncle were characters that were a bit “hokey” and seemed out of place from the rest of the characters. Some may appreciate them as a comic relief, but I do believe they took away from the film.

That being said, Slumber was an excellent film that did an incredible job at bringing to life some familiar nightmares. Be warned though, if you watch this movie right before bed, sleeping may not be the first thing you’ll want to do next.