First poster for Rodney Ascher’s sleep paralysis doc The Nightmare

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Rodney Ascher's new documentary, THE NIGHTMARE, is getting set for its premiere at the Stanley Film Festival before it hits VOD and limited theaters on June 5th. The first poster, from Badass Digest, is fantastic and terrifying in its simplicity—an empty bed teases the scariest place on earth. Awesome.

“This project was a once in a lifetime opportunity to cross-breed two genres I love, documentary and horror. After exploring people's real-life waking nightmares in long, free-flowing personal interviews, it was a bizarre trip through the looking glass to bring them to life and get lost inside of them on the set,” said Ascher.

THE NIGHTMARE’S subjects hail from different backgrounds and walks of life, but share eerily similar visions of malevolent, near-human beings that grow increasingly aggressive the longer the sleep paralysis recurs. Are these just random hallucinations or something more? Rational explanations get challenged by the similarities of the “shadow people” multiple subjects describe looming over them. Ascher, who has first hand knowledge of sleep paralysis, brings the full intensity of this experience to the screen while maintaining empathy and respect for his subjects. As the film unfolds, distinctions between the documentary and horror genres fade as do easy lines between reality and the imagination.

The horror documentary is produced by Ross M. Dinerstein (THE PACT, THE DIVIDE) and Glen Zipper – producer of the Academy Award winning film, UNDEFEATED. The film is executive produced by Content Film President Jamie Carmichael (THE PACT, BLACK BOOK) and co-produced by Tim Kirk (ROOM 237).