PLOT: A documentary focusing on the phenomenon of sleep paralysis as
experienced by eight strangers.
REVIEW: Rodney Ascher’s THE NIGHTMARE should have been a
slamdunk. His SHINING doc, ROOM 237, was unsettling even if most if the interpretations put
across in the film were nonsense. It had so much style that it didn’t really matter if most of the
participants sounded crazy. THE NIGHTMARE goes further by exploring sleep paralysis (aka
nightmares), something I’m sure everyone can relate to. How often have you woken up in a cold
sweat from a dream that truly terrified you but you were helpless to escape from? Nightmares can
be terribly unsettling, and it’s definitely a fact that many people have a higher sensitivity to them
and suffer from them constantly. But the question is why?
Sadly, that’s a question Ascher doesn’t seen remotely interested in answering or even
exploring. Rather, THE NIGHTMARE is just the recollections of eight people from different
backgrounds, all of whom seem vulnerable, and many of whom seem mentally ill, with their
stories arguably being exploited by Ascher. The experiences are tied together thinly by a figure
many of them claim to be seeing in the dreams, a socalled “shadow man”. Possibly the only
interesting part of the film is when the participants remember seeing movies that closely paralleled
their nightmares (including A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and COMMUNION).It’s briefly
mentioned that these figures are relatively common in dreams, which is something Ascher could
have followed up on with some scientific sources, or academics with real insight into the
condition.
Alas, that never happens. Instead, Ascher just has the people talk and talk about their dreams,
cutting to the occasional recreation, some of which are admittedly unsettling. Yet, the subjects
seem extremely unreliable, and the idea of there being a psychological root to their problems
seems to be shirked off in favor of the oftcited notion that these are demonic or otherworldly
figures (probably the only interesting thing is when one person hypothesizes that people who claim
to have been abducted by aliens are actually suffering from sleep paralysis). As demonstrated in
ROOM 237, Ascher has a strong visual sense which redeems the film somewhat, and he would
probably ace a narrative film. The musical score is also extremely effective. But, the movie’s
technical sophistication does not make up for how bizarrely uninteresting it is given the subject
matter.
Granted, the people interviewed here seem to be troubled, and there’s very little doubt that the
experiences they’re describing are actually happening. But Ascher could have gone so much deeper
and tried to explain why. Instead, THE NIGHTMARE is clearly meant to be a kind of pseudo-horror film rather than a documentary, giving this a rather schlocky vibe as opposed to the
sophisticated ROOM 237. This is really a missed opportunity and a weak second feature from
Ascher, who clearly has talent but has taken an interesting premise and turned it into something
that feels like it will only play to the most gullible audience members.