NIGHTMARE, The

THE NIGHTMARE

Director Rodney Ascher / 2015 / USA

"Suggests what might happen if David Lynch and Errol Morris collaboratively adapted Unsolved Mysteries for the cinema … a gripping, uniquely unmooring experience." – Slant Magazine

Sleep paralysis is a condition that occurs somewhere between sleep and waking: the person will have the sensation of consciousness, but be unable to move or speak. For some, the paralysis is accompanied by terrifying visions of shadowy men, creatures or premonitions of the future. As sufferers recount for the camera the things they experienced, we experience every moment of fear and emotional toil right alongside them.

Director Rodney Ascher (Room 237, MIFF 2012) – himself a sufferer – takes us deep into the world of paralysis victims, recreating in terrifying detail the experiences described by his interview subjects. Exploring the philosophical and religious implications of the condition, Ascher uncovers the meaning of these experiences with chilling detail.

"There are sequences in this film that put to shame anything I've seen in mainstream horror in the last decade." – Birth. Movies. Death.

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