Bring Her to Me Review

PLOT: A woman plagued by nightmares of a demon tries to rid herself of these bad dreams with the help of a friend and a dream interpreter.

REVIEW: Back in the early days of his company Full Moon, Charles Band produced and directed a film called Meridian, which was basically an erotic horror take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. Band’s son Alex (you might know him from the hit songs he made with his band The Calling) has said that one of his earliest memories is of being on the set of one of his dad’s movies and seeing “a woman having sex with a giant rat”. That had to be Meridian… and there are more problematic elements to that film than just the idea that little Alex Band was running around on set and seeing things he shouldn’t have seen. Thirty-plus years later, the latest Full Moon production is another erotic horror film called Bring Her to Me – and while the story and setting of this one is very different from Meridian, I couldn’t help thinking of that earlier production while watching this movie. And in some ways, Bring Her to Me comes off like an attempt to make up for questionable decisions made during the crafting of Meridian.

Bring Her to Me stars Bec Doyle as Mara, who is plagued by nightmares that see her drifting into a dark void where someone is waiting for her… something that appears to be a man, but also transforms into a demon. These nightmares are terrifying for Mara and she wakes up from them feeling completely drained, like the dream is feeding on her energy. When she tells her coffee shop pal Raz (Kalond Irlanda) about this problem, he reveals that he has sought help for nightmares himself, and a woman named Abagail (Ros Gentle) – a dream interpreter who is “admittedly eccentric” – solved the problem for him. Mara agrees to give Abagail’s services a try… and the advice she receives is to see the dream through to its conclusion.

So the bulk of Bring Her to Me’s short (under 60 minutes) running time consists of scenes where Abagail and Raz come over to Mara’s apartment to watch her sleep while her subconscious takes her to that dark void to meet with the man who’s waiting for her. Played by Emerson Niemchick, this man is willing to give Mara anything she might desire, whether that might be fruit, drinks, or a pile of cocaine. Yet she still finds him too terrifying to give into, especially when he shows off his demon look. While Mara dreams of this man, the film cuts away to Abagail and Raz looking like they’re not as trustworthy as they initially seem, but we can’t be sure if that’s reality or an extension of Mara’s nightmares.

As mentioned, there is an erotic element to this film, so chances are that many viewers are going to put it on primarily in hopes of getting to see Bec Doyle in various states of undress – and those viewers will be rewarded, because there is plenty of bare skin on display, despite there being less sex scenes than some might expect. But Mara isn’t just there to be ogled. As the story goes on, she gets to show off an inner strength that isn’t apparent at first. I was impressed by Doyle’s performance, and left wanting to see a movie where she gets to play a badass, in-control character for the duration. While Doyle gets to play both terrified and strong, her co-stars get to have over-the-top moments and chew the scenery in a fun way.

Bring Her to Me comes to us from the same creative team that was behind the goofball Full Moon movie The Gingerweed Man, director Brooks Davis and screenwriter Kent Roudebush, and is just the second feature directorial credit for Davis. Having proven he could bring silliness to the screen with his first movie, Davis proves here that he’s also capable of taking a bit more of a serious approach and delivering a good erotic horror movie. If Bring Her to Me were slightly shorter than its already short runtime, it would have been a strong segment of an anthology, and that’s kind of what it still feels like. But instead of a segment in an anthology, it’s another chapter in the ongoing Full Moon saga, and it’s an enjoyable addition to the company’s massive library.

I just have one question: what is up with the locations in this movie? Every place is a rundown mess. The walls are falling apart in the coffee shop, and even the walls of Mara’s apartment look disgusting. It’s no wonder she’s having nightmares, living in a place that looks like that.

Bring Her to Me will be streaming on FullMoonFeatures.com as of October 27th.

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AVERAGE

6