Indie Spotlight- The Nightmare

In an ongoing effort to help aspiring filmmakers and promote independent films, particularly those struggling with distribution and releases, we periodically feature films in our “Indie Spotlight” series for your consideration.

The Nightmare (2015) (English Language)

91min (US)

Genre:     Documentary, Horror

Director:  Rodney Ascher

Cast:       Siegfried Peters, Stephen Michael Joseph, Yatoya Toy…more

Director Rodney Ascher brings to life his terrifying experiences with Sleep Paralysis in horror documentary style, with testimonials from fellow sufferers and re-enactments of their vividly horrific nightmares which they are helpless to resist, along with the ominous “visitors” that come with them.

It’s rare to find a horror documentary that focuses on anything but the history of horror film and their filmmakers but in ‘The Nightmare’ we find a collection of similar accounts by people suffering from the little known mental/psychological phenomenon of ” Sleep Paralysis”.

A condition with shared characteristics for sufferers whereby a disruptive state between deep sleep and waking puts them in a physically helpless position where they are subjected to vivid nightmares or hallucinations, which often feature the presence of terrorizing “shadow like” entities, sometimes with physiological consequences.

Ascher makes great use of rudimentary but practical visual effects and an ominous and evocative soundscape to create surprisingly unsettling and effective re-creations of the terrifying events that plague the subjects in the film. He manages to weave them all together into a narrative that mirrors his own experience and that of the popular culture which has used Sleep Paralysis and the psychology of nightmares to great effect, in films like ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ as Ascher references in his film.

It’s hard to tell with ‘The Nightmare’ if we’re watching a documentary with people who are actually suffering from sleep paralysis, believe they are or are just saying they do, or indeed if this is all actually pure horror fiction with convincing performances. This suspicion isn’t helped by the many film and pop-culture references which make us wonder whether Ascher is just referencing the use of sleep paralysis in horror fiction, or if he’s being cleverly self-referential while actually creating horror fiction using sleep paralysis.

Whatever the reality, ‘The Nightmare’ is an effective and surprisingly creepy indie horror documentary with a refreshing take on the terrifying power of nightmares and different states of consciousness.

‘The Nightmare’ is out now on VoD to buy or rent at WeAreColony.com

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