Don't Sleep (2017)
After moving into a cottage together, two young lovers confront the horrors of a forgotten childhood.
Director:
Rick BieberWriter:
Rick BieberStars:
Shawn and Zach are young lovers who move into a guest house together on
an estate owned by Mr. and Mrs. Marino. When bizarre events begin to
occur with increasing danger, Zach slowly remembers a forgotten time in
his childhood when he suffered from what appeared to be a severe and
violent psychosis - memories erased by as series of electroconvulsive
shock treatments administered by his psychiatrist. As the terrors
surrounding their lives grow to deadly proportions and innocent people
are slaughtered, Zach is forced to question his own sanity and fears for
Shawn's safety. Once the threat of psychotic behavior turns into the
possibility of demonic possession, Zach is confronted with a horrific
reality he never could before have imagined.
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
29 September 2017 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
The Other See more »Company Credits
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Color:
ColorDid You Know?
Trivia
During filming breaks Jill Hennessy would sing and play guitar.
Rick Bieber’s latest directorial effort is being released on the same day as the remake of Flatliners,
the original 1990 version of which he produced. Whether or not that’s a
coincidence, this tedious slog of a horror movie isn’t likely to
provide much competition. Notable only for featuring Alex Rocco in his
last screen role, Don’t Sleep practically begs audiences to defy its ill-chosen title.
The film begins with a prologue in which a young boy experiences a
terrorizing nightmare set in a graveyard. That’s followed by an onscreen
quotation from Nietzsche, which is the first sign that we’re in for
heavy going. The little boy is subsequently sent by his concerned mother
(Jill Hennessy) to see a shrink played by Cary Elwes, which is the
second sign that we’re in for heavy going. Later that night, the mother
checks in on her son, who suddenly starts sounding like Mercedes
McCambridge’s gravelly demonic voice in The Exorcist. That’s the third sign.
Cut to 13 years later, when the now grown young boy, Zach (Dominic
Sherwood), a law student, and his girlfriend Shawn (Charlbi Dean Kriek)
rent a room in a cozy guest house owned by a married couple (Alex Carter
and Drea de Matteo, the latter deserving better than this after getting
whacked on The Sopranos).
Things at first seem idyllic. So much so that Shawn dreamily tells
Zach, "I just want to feel like this forever," which in horror films is
the cue for things to immediately start going wrong. And so they do,
although not before Shawn takes a nice hot shower, which gorgeous women
in horror films are very prone to do. Any guesses why?
To say that plotting is not the film’s strong suit is putting it
mildly. It has something to do with menacing hooded figures popping up
periodically, looking not so much demonic as badly in need of dental
work and acne medication. Zach also begins acting more than a little
strangely, finally demonstrating that he’s truly possessed by a
malevolent force when he and Shawn have sex and he takes her from
behind, standing up. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that the mystery
revolves around the shrink’s unorthodox treatment of his child patient
years earlier, because by the time it’s revealed, most viewers will have
long since tuned out.
Wasting the talents of its several veteran performers, Don’t Sleep represents a sad career coda for Rocco, who so memorably portrayed Moe Green in The Godfather. Even getting shot in the eye seems more dignified.
FINAL RATING: 2/10 for the genre and 2/10 overall. Really really bad one.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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