The Nightmare (II) (2015) User Reviews

Opinions, experiences, not necessary a traditional documentary

[leon-smoothy · 6/10 · 24 June 2015]

This is a movie with interviews with people having sleeping disorders described as "Sleep paralysis", a subject studied but certainly not yet enough, or, perhaps, the knowledge is not substantial enough to very exactly what the therm, or condition, actually is.

Where is the line to be drawn between "regular" nightmares, which can be truly terrifying, realistic and actually ruin peoples lives, and more "direct" experiences of attacks connected with sleeping stages and different peoples mental states, caused by stress, traumatic experiences (known or unknown)?

Many opinions about this documentary, or what you prefer to label it, is "there's just a dude telling a dramatic story about seeing strange things when going to sleep, it's not real or scientific!" Well, take it for that then, and go in to this for what it is, in this case not a bunch of medical psychiatric professionals/professors stating what is actually possible or not, and not facts and proofs.

It is well made though, compared to many other "documentaries" dealing with things not easy to scientifically prove. The people interviewed seems to give a true statement, as good as they can, of their experiences, and it's not accompanied by any dramatic narrator trying to push a certain theory as "THE Fact".

It is actually quite scary hearing about these (real) peoples experiences, compared to plain fiction. I have friends who during stressful/painful episodes in their lives have experienced the very disturbing feeling of "dreaming while awake", so to speak, but that has always seemed purely connected to the fact that it is possible to have moments/lapses in rem-sleep, dreaming, and being completely awake. If you ask around, I'm sure many people can refer to some personal episode that's connected to this, and it is also how many medical professionals choose to describe it as. Several people I have talked with, having had complex heart surgery, for example, has had some of these kind of feelings afterwards. NOT, however, "beings" terrorizing them.

Then there is the point "what you feed the mind with is what it will circulate around", and I mean certainly there is a connection in these kinds of experiences, as well as other strange happenings, that if you open your mind up to certain influences, it can affect you. That does not take a doctor to understand. I don't put a judgment in these particular cases concerning that.

The scary parts in these stories is more related to actual strong perceptions of physical attacks from something, such as strong pain, voices, "beings" seemingly terrorizing/stalking them at night on such a regular basis. These experiences is not much commented by medical science (yet), because professionals studying it is very careful where to draw the line (not to ruin their careers, maybe...).

For example, a leading professor can state that "there is probably multiple universes", but the same one would be careful to say "there is likely beings from other dimensions that can hurt you while you sleep".

So, take it for what it is...

Compelling but Uninformative

[ethanpollock · 7/10 · 23 October 2015]

The Nightmare is a genuinely scary look into the real life experiences of people suffering with sleep paralysis. It's fascinating to hear first hand what it is that the victims are experiencing, particularly when you see how their stories overlap with shared or similar visions. The reconstructions that play also draw you into the experience yourself, so it almost plays out more like a horror film than a documentary.

Therein lies my biggest gripe about this film, it's not really an examination of the phenomenon, just a retelling of a group of peoples night terrors. At no point is there a medical or scientific point of view on the subject; all the "evidence" presented is anecdotal. Not only this, the editing almost tries to lean toward a spiritual viewpoint, which is disappointing as instead of getting to learn about this condition it tends to feel more like a religious propaganda piece, going so far as to claim that the only defence against this particular nightmare is the word "jesus".

Entertaining, but not overly useful if your hoping to learn something.

Well directed, but has issues

[tylermoore · 5/10 · 4 April 2016]

The directing and editing on this documentary are very well done. Lots of really great horror imagery. I'm not sure if it's the people embellishing their stories or if the interviews are just scripted to begin with. But something feels incredibly fake about a lot of it. I really hate giving this a bad score. I was going to give a lower one but at least a 5 is average. Its a very well made movie, but some of the stories people were telling made me cringe with how made up they felt. Who knows, though. Maybe they did experience that. But for one reason or another, I didn't buy it. If you're interested in the topic of sleep paralysis, this is a decent watch. Check it out on Netflix. You might like it more than I did.

Flawed But Effective

[Michael_Elliott · 19 June 2015]

The Nightmare (2015)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Interesting documentary that caused quit the stir at the Sundance Film Festival. This documentary interviews eight different people from around the globe who all suffer from the same thing: sleep paralysis. Through their spoken words and re-enactments, we see their haunting visions as they go to sleep and find themselves unable to move and possibly be visited by demons.

THE NIGHTMARE is yet another horror movie that has come along and has many calling it the scariest movie since (fill in the horror movie name). Director Rodney Ascher, who previously made the bizarre THE SHINING documentary ROOM 237, manages to bring his rather unique and original vision to this tale, which is part documentary and part horror movie.

There's no question that the subject matter makes for a very interesting documentary and I found a lot of the stories to be fascinating. I mean, most people go to sleep to rest and find some sort of peace so just imagine if you dreaded going to sleep knowing that something terrifying and evil was about to visit you. Some of the stories told are pretty effective including one man who remembers as far back as being in a crib and seeing two figures standing over him.

Shadow people are mentioned throughout the documentary as several of the people claim to have encountered them. They talk about these dark, shadow figures who approach them and of course the people are pretty much unable to move so there's nothing they can do to stop it. I think one of the flaws with the film is that we're really given no information on what this could be. There's a lot of speculation on what it exactly is but perhaps a sleep expert being interviewed would have helped.

Another problem I had with the film is that the best stories are told right at the front when we're introduced to the character. After hearing their initial stories, what follows isn't nearly as effective and this is a 100-minute movie. Without any "outside" interviews, the stories become somewhat boring after a while so as a documentary it would have been nice throwing something else into the mix.

With that said, THE NIGHTMARE is certainly worth watching once as there are some effective moments.

Entertaining and at times scary, but missing a side of the discussion.

[greenbs · 7/10 · 15 April 2016]

It's a documentary, yes, but it seems like its main goal is to be entertaining, not inform the audience about the science behind sleep paralysis (what little information there is out there, at least). While that's completely fine, I do think they should have at least had a mental health professional or sleep expert (or whatever they're called) weigh in at times. Once again, that's fine that they kept the focus on the experiences of the subjects, but I do think that in the avoidance of including a professional and researched opinion, it does feel like they're giving some undue credibility to the "it could be paranormal" argument. They do interview some people who believe and explain the more rational side of things, but it still would have been nice to hear from a professional.

I've had sleep paralysis a handful of times in my life, and once in particular it was absolutely terrifying and it did seem like there was something in the room with me. It actually took a few weeks for me to get over it, but it would have taken much longer to get over if I actually thought for a second that the experience was "real" in any way and not just an elaborate creation of my own mind. That's not to say that I think the documentary is in any way dangerous to those who are looking for an explanation, but I do think people should go in more expecting a horror movie, and less expecting an informative documentary.

That being said, it is entertaining to hear all of these pretty terrifying stories acted out on screen. If that's your thing, you should give it a watch.

It had potential, but it was not what I was expecting, so I found it dull.

[subxerogravity · 7/10 · 8 June 2015]

So, I went to go see this movie because of another review I read that said it was similar to a movie called the BaBadook. It really is not.

The movie is a documentary about sleep paralysis, and it interviews eight people with the condition, and goes over their shared experiences with it.

It seems likes an interesting topic, although the Nightmare makes it seem that there was not enough info on the subject other than the experiences of the people who have it, which is most likely the reason why this doc overuses dramatizations overlapped with the people telling stories.

The dramatizations were used to show how scary the experience was to the subjects. Each having a shared "dream" of shadowmen haunting them as they try to sleep. The dramatizations did not succeed in making we scared, however. It's definitely no The BaBadook.

As a documentary, I'll give the filmmakers credit with being even with all the subjects. I could tell that the filmmakers were indifferent with one of the subjects, but they stayed fair with the material. The filmmakers also tired to film each subject's story within a narrative that they created, but this actually made some of the stories uninteresting due to lack of info.

I like the subject matter, but I found the movie boring, and I wished I really liked it better.

An Insult to the Very Idea of Documentaries

[TheBarleyGuy · 1/10 · 18 December 2015]

From that particular synopsis, and the fact that IMDb and Wikipedia both confirm it, you might be thinking that this movie a documentary. Especially coming from "documentarian" Rodney Ascher (Room 237, which was bulls**t too by the way), it would be a reasonable expectation that The Nightmare would also be a documentary. Not just a documentary, but a documentary about something that is probably a truly terrifying experience: sleep paralysis.

The film follows eight people suffering from sleep paralysis, night terrors and just your regular old run of the mill nightmares. With that being said, the word "paralysis" isn't spoken until 15 minutes into the movie, so many of the stories of these people's experiences are from when they were between 1 and 5 years old. I don't know about you, but my memories of my crib and infancy are hazy to say the least. Yet, these people have VIVID memories of being "visited" in their cribs and plenty of other things that I don't think fit into the things that are credible for a documentary.

Also hurting this film's credibility is the complete absence of doctors, scientists, experts, or anyone who wasn't suffering from, and reading a lot into, these sleep disorders. There is absolutely no information provided about sleep paralysis or other sleep disorders from anyone's perspective but the 8 people who believe that there is more going on here than their doctors are telling them.

Seriously, one of the subjects says "I don't believe the, like, medical explanation …there has to be something more to it."

All of the stories are presented as fact, complete with reenactments and there are absolutely no interviews with doctors, scientists or anyone who wasn't suffering from, and convinced of the reality of, sleep paralysis induced hallucinations. They even claim that melatonin is the chemical responsible for paralyzing you while you sleep, which is… completely untrue if my recollection of first year psychology serves me right. There is just nothing substantial enough to call this a documentary, not even in the open text of the film. There is just no real information given about sleep paralysis in reality. Just in the imagined horrors of these 8 people, and the director. The director ALSO suffers from sleep paralysis you guys, definitely no bias there.

The documentary elements are just so absurd, one of the subjects compares sleep paralysis to an STD because he told a friend about it, and they started suffering from it. This is just what he says by the way, it's not proved at all.

The one thing that I can say positively about this is that the reenactments actually do offer some satisfyingly creepy moments, and actually might have been a solid framework for a horror film. That could have worked, even presented as a mockumentary where everyone is up front about what the movie really is. That way you can work horror into the "documentary" parts of the film and created a really frightening experience. Instead, what we have is something you could call "a bunch of people talk about nightmares they had" more than a "documentary".

The movie lacks all credibility, and where it might have succeeded as a piece of horror fiction, it completely and totally fails as a documentary. I know people have been saying "oh man, this was so f**ked man, it f**ked me up man" but you need to really think about it critically.

This movie is bullsh*t, and that's really all I have to say about that.

www.barleydoeshorror.com

Atmospheric

[metize · 7/10 · 18 March 2018]

Pretty immersive, good look into the people's head. Not really trying to convince or explain anything, just wonder. Not quite a documentary, not quite a horror movie. Fear comes from the creepy atmosphere and interesting stories.

A Documentary that Could've Been So Much More

[QuadeC2010 · 4/10 · 21 July 2015]

Who am I? I doubt you know me. For years I have struggled with the horrible experience of sleep paralysis. When I was around the age of 12, I had my first episode. I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't even call my mom for help. I was fully aware. I had no control of my body. I was experiencing horrible hallucinations. I didn't know how to make it stop. Then, in an instant, it all just cleared.

That next moment, I woke up my parents. It was around 3 am. I was squalling. I thought I had gotten a glimpse of hell. My mom didn't know what I was talking about. After that moment, I began doing some research on the phenomena and found out that it was, in fact, sleep paralysis. It terrified me and made me never want to sleep again. My mom never heard of the experience and though I just had a lucid nightmare. I didn't even sleep for the next night in fear of it happening again. It was, in a short explanation, absolutely terrifying.

After a while, sleep deprivation had taken a toll on my body and I went to sleep afterward and the experience didn't happen again. I thought maybe it was just my imagination... But my consciousness during the situation said something else. It didn't happen again for a couple months. Now I, a 23 year old male, still have these experiences happen once every month or two; sometimes more often if I'm sleep deprived or really stressed. I have extreme fascination in these experiences and have delved into the interest of these experiences and others' reaction to them. My mom doesn't fully believe but after some of others' stories, she has become more open to the idea.

Now I know that was a long, and possibly, unnecessary introduction to this review, but I feel it is vital to my rating because of the fact that I am so use to these experiences. I've become unafraid of them and when it happens I just brace myself and try to get myself to acknowledge these hallucinations are not real.

So now, to the review. As I said earlier, I have a huge interest in this phenomenon and when I heard there was going to be a documentary about it, I couldn't wait to see it, especially with the great reviews it was receiving! I saw the trailer and almost messed my pants. It looked so similar to what I experienced and was so excited to hear others' recollections and what I was left with was a mediocre, pretentious, documentary that I was extremely disappointed with.

Well, where to really start about this review? We begin with people talking about their experiences. There are several stories that are going on simultaneously, but it's never too busy, with some recalling the same shadow people I too experienced and caused me to lose sleep. The main problem with this movie you ask?

Well the main problem and why I gave this a 4/10 is because this documentary is an hour and a half long. 45 minutes of this documentary is taken up by a guy that I doubt had a clue of what sleep paralysis is. He is recalling alien hallucinations he had as a BABY. Memories don't usually form until you have an understanding of your native language. Clearly he had no idea as a baby. Not to mention he clearly remembers what those aliens said to him. I'm not saying aliens don't speak English, but I highly doubt it, much less him remember it as a baby. It just seemed foolish and unbelievable. It kinda seemed like a mockery of this to me. Also, the other half of the movie was split between several people.. Why did he have such a huge time slot to himself with such a stupid recollection when there are several others who get probably 10-15 minutes of time a piece?

Now the other half of the movie was pretty believable with some good, reliable, believable stories (even if they weren't, I still gave them credit for them). And it was effective in giving me chills by reliving my experiences every time I saw a shadow man on screen.

So it should be a 5/10 right? No. I knocked off another point for the lack of a psychiatrist or a doctor specialized in the field of sleep disorders to discuss a scientific explanation on what exactly goes on during this state. This documentary seemed to have no credibility and it didn't help that it had a guy who remembered "tv fuzz aliens" as a baby, whom as I said, took up a majority of the screen time.

In closing, let down is an understatement. This could've been my favorite documentary of all time, if not at least in a long time, and Rodney Ascher lets us down again like he did with Room 237. I guess I should've expected it, but he just solidified his place as a mediocre, pretentious, director. He made something scary and creepy as an experience that help give rise the horrifying Freddy Kruger into a dull, uninteresting, unbelievable documentary that had the potential, and yet, should've been so much more.

Interesting, creepy, and a little flawed.

[Cheesenode · 7/10 · 29 August 2017]

Gosh, I wish this movie wasn't so technically flawed! You know what, I'll get to that in a minute. This flick is pretty cool, it is a documentary about people with Sleep Paralysis, a condition that causes you to feel petrified in the moments between wake and sleep and is accompanied by horrifying visions. This is the fuel for nightmares, so the title is pretty well suited to the film.

The reenactments are pretty good, there are a couple of lame jump scares, you see them coming, but they still make you jump – not scary, but still gets the blood moving. Where The Nightmare shines, though, is in the reenactments with the shadow figures; they're creepy, they're moving around your house at night, they're watching you sleep, and they might be trying to steal your soul.

Sadly, though the visuals in the reenactments can be pretty good, there are some massive editing issues for me. The film has a self reflexive participatory mode (using that documentary film class right there) and while mode works fine for the film, I think it steals a little thunder from the reenactments, which is really just too bad.

More than the mode of the film causing it to be a little rough is the massive number of jump-cuts. I think that the director has watched too many YouTube videos and thinks that jump-cuts are normal and okay. Sadly, he's wrong, and his film suffers because of it. The jump-cuts are distracting for two reasons: 1. Visually they are just distracting, they look weird, and you notice them which draws you out of the story; and 2. you start wondering exactly what was cut out. Once you start wondering about this, you have a whole new level of distraction, and you start to wonder if the stories these people are telling just aren't as good as you're being led to believe.

All in all, The Nightmare is pretty good, and I think people should watch it. Not only is the film informative, but wonderfully entertaining and a little scary. So, turn out the lights, look up The Nightmare on Netflix, and get your educational-horror on!

Unsuccesful in both of it's goals

[ritapuisto · 2/10 · 9 November 2018]

If you try to make a mix between a horror movie and a documentary, atleast do one of them right. Yes this has some jumspcares, bit of tension and some ok looking imageries. But with it's lazy, unoriginal attempts at creating some actual horror value make it less than an average horror movie.

Even bigger issue is the "documentary" part. You can't just have scripted interviews back to back and call it a documentary. Where is the informational side of this so called documentary?

As a horror movie, this is maybe a 3 or 4 star piece. As a documentary, a crisp 1 star. Or better said, this shouldn't be labeled as a documentary at all.

I didn't just watch this, I lived it

[chelano · 10/10 · 23 September 2019]

Here is the thing. I will tell a little story. You can choose to believe me or not. But it will explain why I gave this movie a perfect rating.

The movie is a documentary about different people who experience sleep paralysis. Basically, you are so called "dreaming" but you cannot move anything or say anything. You are frozen and things happen around you. There are different forms. Some just can't move certain parts. Others, cannot move anything.

My story. When I was little I had sleep paralysis for years. It wouldn't be every night, but a few times a week. It was the same every time. I was frozen and I would hear someone enter my room and taunt me. Breath in my ear, touch my body and then finally grabbing me. Which then I would "wake up" screaming in cold sweat. My body would be tingling all over and I felt drained and sick. One night before I went to bed, I decided to fight. So I laid on my back and waited. I kept repeating to myself over and over "I will not be frozen tonight".

So I closed my eyes and then instantly reopened them. Everything was silent. I couldn't move, I was frozen. The so called entity was in my doorway, but I was frozen with my eyes at the ceiling. It got closer and closer and I started realizing I couldn't breath, but then I remembered what I said, "I will not be frozen tonight". After that I was able to move my hands. Then I realized I wasn't frozen anymore. So I sat up as fast as I could screaming "I AM NOT FROZEN!" In my doorway was a dark silhouette of a man in a black coat and hat; like from the 1950's. After I saw him he ran out of the room. Right after, my mom ran in my room. She heard me yellow "I am not frozen" and came to see if I was ok. Pretty crazy huh?

So fast forward 15 years later since I had this happen. I am sitting down to watch this movie with my love Alyssa. We get part way in and they start asking people, who was the man they saw. Most of them said.....the man in a black coat and hat. Just then Alyssa looked at me and my eyes teared up. She tried to snap me out of it, but I was so scared I couldn't even talk. How could this be real? When that happened to me, the internet wasn't even a thing yet. So I couldn't of even heard about it. Plus I was just a little kid and no one else had it happening to them. After that, I wasn't myself for a week and I couldn't even sleep that night.

Pretty crazy huh? What do you believe? Has this happened to you? Also I have not been able to watch this film again and probably never will for it may bring it all back to me and the man in the black coat and hat would visit again.

Fascinatingly Terrifying

[thelastblogontheleft · 7/10 · 21 March 2017]

As someone who has read about and been simultaneously fascinated and terrified by the idea of sleep paralysis, this was both a fun and deeply disturbing watch. Director Rodney Ascher — in his second documentary following Room 237, an exploration of The Shining — interviewed 8 people who all had some level of experience with sleep paralysis. The documentary alternates between the very stripped down and honest interviews themselves — they very intentionally used off-kilter camera angles, played with shadows, and took advantage of techniques like filming a person from the next room over to really add to the sense of isolation — and some of the peoples' stories or specific memories acted out by professional actors and with special effects.

I thought it was a really cool blend of traditional documentary and horror movie. They opted not to include any input from doctors or psychologists on the matter, which I thought actually added to the film more than anything a sense of compassion, of mutual understanding, of just stark storytelling and brilliantly done segments of recreating their visions. There's no one there offering their ideas of why it happens, their research, their debunking, their charts or graphs… it's just the people, alone, recounting their memories and their fear.

"All the darkness looks alive."

The thing that struck me the most was how similar everyone's stories were. Sleep paralysis is not just the loss of your ability to move or speak — which would be awful enough on its own — but it is often accompanied by hallucinations, or "visitations". The fact that these people all described very similar details — all of them have regular encounters with these "Shadow People", and several specifically mentioned a man in a hat, a seeming leader of the group — makes you feel as though there's something much more sinister at hand, but whether that is some kind of deep government conspiracy, alien visitations, demonic possession, or something else entirely is unclear. But the ability to speculate takes this documentary — and this topic in general — from something creepy to downright horrifying.

Honestly, I'd highly recommend this both to anyone interested in the topic of sleep paralysis and someone interested in a decent horror film. It provides enough scares and haunting imagery — in particular they did an amazing job at making the shadow people look even darker than a regular shadow, which one interviewee mentioned — to stand alone as a horror film, which makes me super curious to see Rodney Ascher try his hand at something besides documentaries (though I will happily keep watching those as long as he puts them out, too!).

What a wasted opportunity

[lougurgitano · 2/10 · 9 August 2018]

This film had the potential to be both fascinating and help a lot of people. Instead, the filmmakers setlled on producing a cheap horror piece. Good documentaries illuminate a subject and educate the viewer, while they entertain him/her. This film gets stuck in the first act and never comes out of it. Like a person who suffers sleep paralysis and gets stuck suffering because he/she is unable to find a healthy cognitive way out, The Nightmare is happy being a film that will only convince further the suffering individual that he/she will probably go on suffering possibly till their dying day. The film is completely one-sided. It does not interview anyone else than the sufferers and offers no objective perspectives on the possible causes and treatments for the condition. In fact, it fuels the negative self-suggestion cycle that sufferes of the condition are already stuck on. As a sufferer of sleep paralysis who found control over the problem with logical realizations which I worked to overpower the mythical ones, I felt that my side of the sleep paralysis population was not only not represented, but intentionally left out to make a more scary film. If they were not going to have any scientific interviewees, they could have at least interviewed some who had overcome fear rather than succumbed to it. As is, the film is as irresponsible and reproachable as someone who has unprotected sex, knowing that he/she is infected with HIV. One of their very interviewees tells them that sleep paralysis is like a STD, as it is enough to suggest to easily suggestable individuals the concept and images of sleep paralysis for them to formulate it in their minds the next time they go to sleep. Yet, they chose to make a cheap horror film, probably with the sole intention of capitalizing on the suffering rather than be a shining light against it. What a failure! What a disappointing waste of a great opportunity! I hope that sufferes of sleep paralysis will be able to read this and know that there are very simple and effective methods to conquer sleep paralysis. All that sleep paralysis is, is a self-justifying cycle of fear that starts with a non-sensical, dream-level interpretation of a normal physical state to which most people normally just sleep through. However, once that the above mentioned interpretation (fantasy) is given the room to be accepted as reality, the mind, due to fear, becomes obsessed with it and now becomes hyper vigilant of the normal physical state and repeatedly remains awake and trying to justify it. Hence the self-feeding cycle. Once that you choose to believe that what you are exprienving are just bad dreams, you can choose to remain peacefully and confidently still. When you do, you don't feel the need to increase your breathing rate and fight against the relaxed self-controlled breathing that your asleep body is managing. It takes a little courage, but the courage can be found in trusting others, like me, who have conquered this state. Furthermore that courage and confidence will grow, in its own self-feeding cycle, once that you try it once and see that the fantasy has no real power over you as long as you don't give it the power of your fear. It is all a very logical and explainable problem. You can choose to see it as that, or you can choose to see it as unexplainable and unalterable. The choice is yours. Whatever you do, don't just take what this film has to offer. Good luck!

like sharing ghost stories with friends

[re-animatresse · 17 November 2017]

this is a documentary about sleep paralysis, not an educational film on the medical science and history of the phenomenon, but a series of narratives by people who have experienced it firsthand and their interpretations of their experiences

the documentary is intended to scare, with an accompaniment to the interviews and short re-enactments of primarily minimalist, suspenseful synth and droning/pulsating percussive noise by composer Jonathan Snipes. the interviewees are all fairly articulate, the film is well-edited and the monster/(dream) entity designs and costumes for the re-enactments are artfully haunting

the film is very effective at what it sets out to do, namely exploring a phenomena people throughout the world, including the director, have experienced and its effects on their beliefs and personalities it inspires a large enough fraction of the fear and contemplation in the viewer that the phenomena itself must inspire in those who experience it firsthand to make it well worth watching and recommending

Some of them scared me near to death

[killercharm · 6/10 · 9 March 2020]

A documentary featuring a kind of 12-step type meeting of people suffering from sleep paralysis. One by one they tell their particular story and some of them scared me near to death. Especially that one about the shadow man who came in that girl's bedroom every night and walked right up to her bed, bent over her and stared into her eyes from a distance of about ONE INCH. OMG. And the guy who had the downright hideously frightening space-alien types standing by his crib at night with their electric grins and reaching in with their great big hands. Everyone in this documentary is one hundred percent believable, which makes for a riveting flick. Like many who reviewed this movie here I've experienced sleep paralysis complete with scary sounds and figures. Mine were made of flame and smoke and the fear was so bad that once I finally was able to rip myself awake I was too scared to fall back to sleep though I desperately needed to. I think this has something to do with the fact that I won't have a mirror in my room if I can see it from my bed.

Unsettling and entertaining, the monotony for its duration detracts as documentary

[ArchonCinemaReviews · 6/10 · 1 November 2015]

Imagine: You are an adult. You rest your head on your pillow after a long day. Falling slowly to sleep, right at your most vulnerable, you catch movement out of the corner of your eye. In the doorway lurks a figure, a malevolently shrouded body leers toward you. You try to open your mouth to scream, but you can't. With all your might you try to will yourself out of bed away from harm, you can't. This is sleep paralysis, this is The Nightmare.

When it comes to sleep disorders, most people have heard of night terrors, those dreams so beyond nightmares that people scream and convulse in their sleep. There is another, a lesser known disorder, a more sinisterly psychological sleep disorder. The Nightmare examines people afflicted with this malady, but not in your typical 'documentary' thematic. Instead, it delves deep into our greatest fears, springing to life those horrors that plague these souls, paralyzing them.

This isn't your normal documentary, for though I've been put off by content or cringed at the realities of other documentaries, no other documentary has truly made me scared. There is something deeply unsettling about the individuals involved in telling their stories in The Nightmare. From all walks of life, with no connection to one another whatsoever, these people recount their experiences with striking similarity. This is where the horror of the documentary resides.

The Nightmare doesn't pose its subject matter in a medical manner, it is with a horror aesthetic. While entertaining and disturbing, it is in this aspect that critics can comment on the negatives of the film. It doesn't follow the standard formula, so there is no true scope or comprehension of the disorder except through vignettes of personal accounts. It is easy to discredit these people as sick without the aid of experts, though the subjects relay pop culture aspects and obsessively research the historical reaches of their disease.

The implicit conclusion of The Nightmare, drawn from the film's focus upon its subjects an how specifically and authentically they describe this horrific experience, is that sleep paralysis is perhaps not a medical malady but a greater, more malicious, occurrence. The documentary loses its strength with nothing to break it up, with Rodney Ascher's 90 minute film constantly and solely reliant upon the stories and their recreations and nothing else.

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Speculation Run-amok

[flannery1978 · 1/10 · 8 June 2015]

From the creators of Room 237 (excellent doc) comes stories of sleep paralysis. If you're into 90min of hearing about someone else's dreams, then go for it! If not, then this will seem like pure tedium with hack visuals to match.

If you find this film scary, then save yourself some time and just type in "horror" into your Netflix or Amazon search box, and watch anything that pops up.

Calling this film a documentary is a stretch, as there is zero professional medical info or research about the subject whatsoever. Instead, we get story after story of hyperbolic romanticized experiences during the least credible time in your life; as you drift off to sleep.

Let itself down overall

[webstercharlotte · 6/10 · 22 December 2022]

Hadn't heard of this at all until just today when I was searching something on Google so watched it thinking and hoping it was promising.

Firstly I'm a lifelong lucid dreamer and have been plagued by nightmares, night terrors and sleep walking since being a very young child. The dreams and nightmares are typically anxiety based and tend to follow a theme of being on aircraft that's plummeting to the Earth, alien abduction or frantically searching for or trying to do the most simple task urgently (like dialling a telephone number to get help I can never punch in the numbers in right order)

Over time I sort of figured out how to suss that it's a dream and became a lucid dreamer, manipulating and changing something terrifying into whatever I wanted or, when it's really scary, shouting myself awake again. The first experience of sleep paralysis in the sense that's it discussed here came later on in life but follows a near identical and pretty eerie word for word one as many others. Unable to move / frozen / trying desperately to scream and having large dark shadows looming over the side of my bed sometimes "lifting" me off the mattress accompanied by weird buzzing or fuzzy sounds etc.

Some of the descriptions in this were literally identical including the guy who willed himself to roll over and onto his girlfriend so she'd wake up and then waking up. The tall dark looming shadows, sudden horrifically loud screams and people rapidly shooting over from the far side of the bedroom right 2cm from my face - often with screams and faces morphing horribly.

I can test and outsmart some of the scariest dreams an example being when I was dreaming about riding a roller coaster with my husband and the train derailing at speed. Whilst hurtling and in mid air in sheer panic, it suddenly dawned on me this wasn't real and I turned to my husband and said "We're dreaming this - we're not crashing at all it's just a dream"

"WHAT?? WTF are you talking about????"

"Nah mate honest. We're just dreaming and I know cos we went to the theme park today, got home and I fell asleep on the sofa which is where I am right now we're not here"

"You sure?"

"I'm positive - trust me we're gonna wake up any second now"

Poof! Eyes open, wide awake and sure enough I was on the sofa having dozed off after a busy day at said theme park .

I was prescribed sleeping tablets by the doctor once which I tried out to see if they helped with nightmares but it turned out they made things even worse because I tend to have nightmares almost every night without fail but when I fell into one, the sleeping tablets were keeping my brain on the down and preventing me from shouting myself awake. I knew I was dreaming, knew the meds were in my system keeping me asleep and knew I had no choice but to ride it out for however long it took them to wear off which just exacerbated the sheer primal fear to no end.

In the last year or so my adult daughter has left home and moved in with her boyfriend and being a freaky sleep walker and having mad bouts of shouting and turning things upside down in my sleep, I've gone and slept in her room now and then so I don't disturb others.

Odd thing is whenever I go in there recently, I have the most horrible dreams and hallucinations of random people rapidly zooming over and getting all up in my face which jolts me clean out of sleep with a gasp.

Knowing SP is more common when laying on your back I made a conscious effort to sleep on my side or propped up which definitely helped but when I'm in my daughter's room, it doesn't matter when, how and which way I sleep or what I try doing to prevent having another jump scare nightmare.

Whenever she comes home to stay, she has been having the same and people coming in her room running over to her and has been having similar dreams in her own bed this last year too (coincidentally when I have)

Interestingly I only have these fast people showing up and bothering me when I'm in her bedroom and we've lived in this house over 20yrs it's bizarre. Even more bizarre is it nearly always happens between 3 and 4am which made my daughter go "Oh my God I keep bolting out of sleep with the same thing at that time!!!!!"

I ended up digging out some of my old books and reading up because this new experience is trickier than the lifelong nightmares and lucid dreams in that being so fast and furious, my brain doesn't have chance to figure out it's a dream and do anything about it. I don't like that I seemingly have little control over this one so can't find a way around it - hence why I started reading up again and was intrigued that people often report having the same experiences in a specific room or place.

This documentary really fell short in terms of pointing out this type of similarity, delving into the most common and sometimes inexplicable experiences shared by people and it really went down the route of more spiritual and paranormal which I don't think helps anyone least of all those who daren't tell anyone what they are experiencing for fear of being seen as barmy.

One of two people seemed to have got stuck on their SP experience as being something of a real, demonic entity that's actually, physically visiting and harming them and some seem to have found a way of coping or learning to manipulate and overcome it through a belief that Jesus banished the demons and is keeping them dreaming of sunshine sprinkles and rainbows.

It doesn't matter how or in what way someone finds a way to cope or overcome this very real, utterly terrifying and even debilitating condition but sadly, this film seems to lean too much towards supporting that angle for the sake of making good entertainment.

For that reason it fell short and let itself down badly because it's just given more weight to the belief many people have that SP is just the odd scary dream and the personal accounts and experiences elaborated to the point of being outrageous.

As I say, for me it was figuring out that sleeping flat on my back seemed to induce it (and taking steps to make sure I didn't roll over into that position wherever possible) and then figuring out that medication to help me sleep actually made things far worse than without.

I noticed if I sleep in a totally darkened and silent room, I'm more prone to having bouts of SP and nightmares so sleep with the TV either on mute or music playing quietly helps as does a few drops of lavender oils and tea light candles.

I just found it so interesting how recently I've had this new thing of people suddenly rushing and running over to me whenever I sleep in my daughter's room, it happens the same sort of time early hours and then discovering my daughter has been having similar and when she's back home, nearly always has the same with some random man sprinting over and shouting her name at the top of his voice.

It is still not well researched, studied or fully understood so there would be limited if not generic views and info from medical professional and sleep disorder experts but it would certainly help to get a better overall and more balanced understanding rather than painting it out to be made up and bits added on.

The guy that remarked how he finds ways to ward off bouts on a short term temporary basis but it somehow adapts and finds its way back again I could relate to 100% but the way it was put over and edited made him sound like he wasn't a full set.

We still understand so little about the complexities of the brain with Charles Bonnet Syndrome one of the most fascinating yet relatively unknown and all too often misdiagnosed in older people as being some sort of cognitive impairment / dementia (CBS is a phenomenon that causes visual hallucinations predominantly experienced by people with impaired sight and in some cases in those who are completely blind)

Allowing it 6/10 purely because of the personal accounts and descriptions being eerily similar to people the world over, from all walks of life and different cultures but can't rate any higher just because it lacked some actual information and details about what we DO understand.

Nearly as much of a waste of time as Room 237.

[rgmurray · 2/10 · 17 August 2015]

There's little here that's of any value by the end of the film. Waste of time, feels much longer than its stated runtime.

I had hoped that the film makers would present the initial stories of the people suffering from sleep paralysis or night terrors or whatever they're experiencing before introducing a neurologist or researcher to explain more about the sleep cycle and what these people are going through.

Instead, we're left with a wishy-washy bunch of unrelated and dissimilar ghost stories. It might have been interesting to hear about the history of night time visitations from monsters and demon and how those shifted into witches or aliens as time went on. No, instead we are told stories about how people claim to have contracted their nightmares from someone telling them them.

We hear from a guy who claims that he and his girlfriend experienced a shared dream, and from people who were driven to Jesus by their demons.

At least Room 237 made some pretence of trying to find outside "experts" to refer to .

Documentary about the sleep paralysis phenomenon

[vickyhatessprint · 7/10 · 30 September 2020]

I think the thumbnail/movie poster might have given viewers a false sense of "horror" security. The phrase they use ("Welcome to the scariest place on earth") to accompany the movies' title pulls you in and then you have high expectations for the documentary. The subject is pretty scary but not THE scariest. I think alien abductions, ghosts, and hauntings seem a lot scarier in comparison. If you look at it as just a documentary about sleep paralysis, you'll find this one interesting. It was put together well and I think they did a pretty good job at trying to depict and re-enact the experiences people were describing.

Very creepy but not too informative

[tuomadseen · 3/10 · 9 October 2015]

First I have to say that this was definitely one of the scariest films I have ever seen. Actually I wish I did not see this at all... Don't watch it if you are sensitive. I like horror movies and thrillers and so on, but this one gave me a few sleepless nights.

The reason why I gave so poor rating is that this was not at all what I thought it was supposed to be. I was waiting for an informative documentary on sleep paralysis. Instead I got a bunch of scary stories on what sleep paralysis is for some people. And these were probably the worst cases. No scientific information what it is, no professional interviews etc. or solutions or anything good to show of this phenomenon. After watching a documentary I would like to know something more, now I know just that sleep paralysis is very very scary. This should have been marked as horror instead of documentary.

Wow, I thought I was the only one... Very Very Creepy

[derrickodaniel · 9/10 · 12 August 2015]

I thought was about the reasons people have sleep paralysis. I was watching out of sheer curiosity. I was a not expecting to hear the stories of unrelated people around the globe talking about the exact same things I've seen and experienced.

The Shadow People peaked my interest. I turned to my friend and said, "I used to see those in my past up to a couple years ago, but the one I saw multiple times had a Quaker type of ha on his head". Right after my comment... guess who came up?

Completely spellbound by these peoples recollections of their experiences. I shivered with goosebumps and the hair on my arms standing up... I thought I was all alone with these experiences.

The film is presented in a typical documentary fashion but with great visuals of these horrific episodes. It sure held my interest.

Because this documentary completely hit home with me, I give it my first EVER "10".

Great job to the people behind this and thank you very much for making this.

The Nightmare does have an interesting matter that only feels like it scratches the service of the condition

[kevin_robbins · 6/10 · 19 March 2024]

I recently watched the docuseries The Nightmare (2015) on Prime. This picture interviews a series of people who go through life with sleep paralysis. They explain what they see at night and what it's like to sometimes be awake and unable to move which makes their life struggle with what's real and what isn't.

This series is directed by Rodney Ascher (Room 237). The interviews cover a wide variety of the effects of having sleep paralysis. Those with the condition have hallucinations and visions mixed with states of being unable to control their muscles leading to them facing challenges with reality. Their every day life is literally a nightmare. The film focuses heavily on interviewing people with the condition but not much about the history and evolution of those researched with the condition. Their stories and experiences are the focus.

In conclusion, The Nightmare does have an interesting matter that only feels like it scratches the service of the condition. I would score this a 5.5-6/10 but recommend seeing it once.

They should add "Horror" next to "Documentary"

[Evanoil · 4/10 · 12 August 2015]

Well , i won't praise this piece or something but i will say that the makers of this one somehow managed to produce documentary film that has horror elements in it and its kind of working . If you are interested in this subject then this film will be a nice to you , i must say that it get a little boring after a half of an hour and stuff seem to be told over and over again and thats something that is killing it completely . The film has a lot of potential hidden in it but unfortunately the makers have failed to deliver the documentary that you can keep watching for a full 90 minutes. If you didn't understand my opinion by now then i will sum it up the easy way : The movie will get you bored a little more then 30 mins inside , i cant recommend it since it was made a little sloppy .