1h 32m
Director: Adam Schindler / Brian Netto

You're probably familiar with sleep paralysis, a condition which occurs during sleep whereby you're dreaming but can't move your physical body? You'll know if you've ever experienced it that it can be terrifying, especially if you're having a bad dream. The premise of this film is loosely based around this condition.

Iris is grieving for her son who fell off a cliff in an accident, she regularly returns to the site of his death to tend to a memorial to him and she is ready to end her life in the same way when a stranger interrupts her. Even though it initially seems like a harmless interaction, she later discovers he's a serial killer who likes to inject his victims with a paralysing drug before he dispatches them.

The direction is excellent. Iris is constrained with a zip tie on the back seat of the killer's car at one point for example and you see her character go through a range of emotions whilst she acclimatises to her situation. She decides to try to distract the murderer whilst she uses her pocket knife to discreetly sever her bonds and we are treated to a moment where the audience knows what she's up to whilst the killer does not. The dialogue here is also great as at one moment we're led to believe the baddie has rumbled her ruse.

Several times in this film, I was reminded of that scene in Kill Bill Volume 1 where 'The Bride' is trying to use her will to wiggle her big toe and there is much to be said for Iris acting as a proxy for the audience who have to witness the proceedings helplessly. Take her almost burning to death for example or her trying to undo her seat belt whilst parked at the garage.

The writing is very good with characters having clearly defined motivations and things like set up and pay off embedded in the narrative. When Iris is first kidnapped for example, the killer explains to her that he's already injected her with the paralysing drug. He then explains each stage of the drug's effects, which we later see play out without any further dialogue.

It's also meticulous cinematography. Notice that almost every shot has the characters positioned perfectly, with the main character in that scene almost dead centre of the frame except when it's useful in communicating something about the internal state of that person which then sees either the character or the framing change to reflect it.

Everything looks very symmetrical and balanced in this flick which is reminiscent of older movies where because of the expense of shooting to film stock each take was set up very carefully.

There's one shot I particularly liked when you can see both characters in a vehicle whilst they watch a house burn down which you can see in the reflection of the car window.

You'll notice that there are hardly any actors in this film which means that the performances must be authentic enough to carry the narrative and hats off I think they do. There certainly weren't any moments where I felt I didn't believe them let's put it that way!

It's worth mentioning that this movie is produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead and the early 2000 Spider Man franchises amongst others) which might be part of the reason that the quality of the film making feels so good.

I gather that this film hasn't got rave reviews and that might be because it's using quite dark psychological human experiences which can be difficult to watch but objectively, as a movie, it's a work of art!



Trailer: