Before I Wake

“Before I wake” (2016, Mike Flanagan, Intrepid Pictures, Demarest Films, MICA Entertainment, Relativity Media) is an innovative film about the dangers of having your dreams come true and the imaginative resilience of children.

Jessie (Kate Bosworth) and Mark (Thomas Jane) are absolutely devastated after their son Sean (Antonio Evan Romero) tragically dies. After some time, they decide to adopt a young boy called Cody (Jacob Tremblay) who is the same age as Sean would be: 8. 

Cody is a polite and pleasant child whose mother died when he was only 3. However, Cody does not like to sleep, and Jessie and Mark are surprised to find out why. You see, when Cody dreams, his dreams become temporarily corporeal in the real world. Jessie begins to take advantage of this skill, but they all soon learn the downside when they meet up with one of Cody's recurring nightmares. And Cody's nightmares can kill...

This film has a lot going for it. Jacob Tremblay gives a fantastic performance as the haunted young Cody and both Kate Bosworth and Thomas Jane create realistic and relateable parents. Jessie is consumed with her guilt and pain over the loss of her son, but Mark is determined to make the most of the new opportunity that Cody has given them, and his scenes are frankly adorable. 

The premise is so imaginative and beautifully realised with stunning imagery and a haunting premise. The monstrous nightmare creature is also very different and very creepy. The design of the creature is creative. I love the way it moves. The twists and turns in the plot were good, I found myself thinking about the film quite a lot later on. There are admittedly some leaps in reality at the end of the film, but the full movie comes together nicely. 

Director, Mike Flanagan, was also behind "Occulus", another film I found innovative and haunting to watch. I think we'll be seeing some more from Mr. Flanagan in the future. 

Suspenseful and creative, this film was refreshing viewing. 

[Image: Intrepid Pictures]

Hani

Fear Clinic

"Fear Clinic" (2014, Robert Green Hall, Bearing Entertainment, Dry County Films, Fear Chamber Productions, Anchor Bay Entertainment) is based on a web series of the same name. I haven't seen the web series, but it didn't hinder my understanding of the premise of the film.

Dr.Andover (Robert Englund) is a psychiatric doctor who has invented a machine (which is reminiscent of an Iron Lung) which he uses to help his patients confront their greatest fears and phobias, curing them of such.

A group of people who all experienced a traumatic incident together, but who previously were unacquainted, have all been patients of Dr. Andover after the terrible events left them with crippling phobias.

They had thought themselves cured, but a year after their treatments, they all begin to be plagued once again. They independantly return to the clinic, to discover that it is all but shut down and that Dr. Andover is having serious doubts after one patient dies during the treatment and some very real manifestations begin to torture both him and his remaining patients.

So, what to say....

It's a good premise. It's got some really talented genre actors in it and it also has Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour in it (and a shedload of not-so-subtle Slipknot and Stone Sour references laced through it). The characters are fine; some interesting even. Maybe not all developed particularly...

The hallucinations are fun and a little gross with some nice, good old fashioned physical effects. And the setting is as to be expected (creepy, old, run down hospital).

So, why am I not raving its praises? Because it's just not worthy. I was confused due to disjointed scripting and thus bored. And not scared.

Robert Englund's character is haunted and withdrawn. He's meant to be that way; it's part of the story. But it just took away some of his iconic charisma.

But that's not my problem. Essentially my problem was the lack of rules. It felt like they had a concept story and a 'verse planned out and then forgot to cement the rules. By the end it was just all the characters going loopy, which didn't fit with the tense, slow build up throughout the rest of the film. And a mishmash of information given to us at the start was left unused, but not in a clever red-herringy way.

It has a lot of potential but just doesn't deliver what I was expecting. A bit of a disappointment really.

Oh, and as much as I love Robert Englund, I've never ever needed to see so much of his bare backside!

Image: as marked

 

Hani

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

"Wes Craven's New Nightmare" aka "New Nightmare" (1994, Wes Craven, New Line Cinema) is the 7th Freddy film in the series and is the finale by Wes Craven which aims to put Freddy to bed for good and reclaim the series after some truly abysmal sequels. Of course, we all know that "Freddy vs Jason" happened 9 years later, but that's a different story...

This film enjoys an invisible fourth wall and acts as a nice wink and a nudge to the fans as we follow, instead of Nancy from the first film, Heather Langenkamp (who played Nancy in the first film) as she begins to suffer Freddy nightmares.  This quickly escalates into a much darker story when it becomes apparent that Heather is not the only one.

To make matters worse, she's been asked to appear as Nancy again on Wes Craven's new Freddy film and is surprised on air by an appearance of Robert "Freddy" Englund during an interview.

With 'cameos' from Wes Craven and John Saxon as well as hefty screen time of Robert Englund in both his forms, this film brings the franchise back from the dead while also giving a satisfactory 'out'.

The effects are fun and fit in with the series perfectly and Freddy's stalking is actually more frightening again and less cartoony. There are also question-marks over Englund's disappearance mid-film which has the spooky connotations of him actually transforming into the nightmare man!

The explanation as to how Freddy can get into the real world is good and ties in well, separating this film from the mythos of the previous ones nicely.

More scary but not without the laughs we've come to expect from Mr. Krueger and a wholly fun film. Recommended!

[Image: New Line Cinema]

Hani

The Nightmare on Elm Street

"The Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984, Wes Craven, New Line Cinema) is the first and, in my opinion, best of the series of  the "Nightmare...." saga.. This film introduces us to famously unkillable and unavoidable, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Freddy's the stuff of nightmares. Not only are they his domain, but they are also his hunting ground. And his favourite kind of victim is? Oh, teenage cannon fodder, of course!

As Halloween approaches, I like to lace my usual random horror viewing with some real classics, because frankly, I like to be scared and sometimes the classics are the only way to do that. So I'm starting with some base fears (via yesterday's 'IT' and today's Freddy); the nightmare.

When a group of friends all have similar nightmares about getting hunted down and murdered by a mysterious and severely disfigured man with a glove which has knives for fingers, you'd think they'd be a little worried. But you know horror movie teens; they love sex... And to hell with everything else!

When Tina (Amanda Wyss) is then murdered in her sleep by said man, the teens begin to realise that there is someone stalking them in their dreams... A someone who can kill you, and whom you can't avoid, because... well... Everyone sleeps.

Poor Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), Glen (a very young Johnny Depp in his first big screen film role) and Rod (Nick Corri) try to avoid ol' murderous Freddy as best they can, but can you just fathom it? None of the grown ups believe them! And instead think that they are all either crazy or mad killers!

The special effects are still admiral to this day (for instance the much copied bath scene), although often a little kitsch and corny (the mildly hilarious phone-tongue scene for example). The bit with the stairs was always my favourite, though! Really gave me the shivers as a kid.

The scary thing about Freddy is that he has utter control in the dream realm, and an uncanny knack of convincing you that you're actually awake and safe! The false-start dream sequence is overplayed these days, but "Nigtmare..." still brings it with the best of them.

Englund clearly relishes his role as psychotic child-murderer-turned-murderous-dream-ghost, bringing an edge of manic glee to the role. His iconic jumper, hat and glove is still a common sight on Halloween to this day on both males and females alike.

A real classic that suffers from the 'too-many-sequels-spoils-the-broth' mentality which threatens many of the greats (see 'Halloween', 'Friday the 13th', 'Poltergeist', 'Alien' and 'Predator' for evidence...) and not so greats (see 'Puppet Master'...). Craven is one of the few masters of the 'too-many-sequels' craft, however, and has enjoyed much success with his 'Scream' films.

The plot is actually pretty dark (as most horrors obviously are), and the adults in the film are way too busy trying to ignore their own dark secrets to admit that Freddy is killing again. This level can easily be ignored by the gorehounds looking for boobs and blood, but for those seeking something more, it can add another dimension.

A film everyone should see at least once, and one which manages to remain funny and jumpy despite it's rapidly ageing look.

[Picture: New Line Cinema]

Hani