The Horror Show
Slumber
by Jonathan Hopkins
While sleep paralysis normally lasts for one or two minutes, Jonathan Hopkins’ Slumber lasts a good 85 minutes, desperately trying to innovate and tweak an overtold story.
Hopkins’ inspired-by-real-events story follows Alice (Maggie Q), a sleep doctor investigating a mysterious case of haunting, linked with unexplained sleep paralysis phenomena and nightmares. Ironically, Alice is immediately thrown into deep waters as she is forced to face her traumatic past, which was anchored by her own sleep issues and scarring events.
Among her current patients is Danny (Lucas Bond), a young boy who is not only suffering from sleep disorder, but also appears to be subject to physical harm in his sleep. Locking him up in a facility to undergo an overnight sleep study is merely enough to shed some light on the sinister happenings. This is when it becomes clear that - surprise, surprise - supernatural forces are involved, featuring a ghastly demon known as the Night Hag, and the haunting starts.
For its running time, Slumber devolves into a lengthy, subdued story. The low-key build up doesn’t do a lot of justice to the storyline, whereas it feels like the movie runs out of ideas early on, resorting to repeating scenes and sequences to fill any time gaps. Thinking about the ending, every element is sloppily put together and eventually it seems like there is no clear closure to the story.
Even though Slumber has many problems, it also comes with some positive notes. Although not perfect, the performances are decent enough to carry the movie forward. In addition, the eerie scenes are well crafted and, overall, there are several intense moments to hold onto.
At the end of the day, uninspired title aside, Slumber is an okay bedtime horror story about a malevolent demon - but not something that the horror community hasn’t seen multiple times before.
Maria Kriva, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.