mr-cooljoefeatncf Mainly I was intrigued by this film because dreams and sleep have always fascinated me, particularly sleep paralysis. I found it to be such a strange and frightening phenomenon, and wanted to learn more about it. As a documentary, this film fails. No science behind anything to do with sleep paralysis is explained, the entire film is individuals recounting their experiences. Most of the film is reenactments during interviews with these people, and the reenactments are really the point of the movie. And many of these reenactments are pretty good, even though the budget was as low as $28,000. With what they had to work with, they put great effort into it and it turned out well. It definitely has passion behind it, and I think that its director (Rodney Ascher) has potential as a good filmmaker. But back to the reattachment scenes, I really think the purpose of the movie was to give viewers a taste of the experience of sleep paralysis. There are copious amounts of pov shots in beds while shadowy figures approach, usually these shots are then switched to the person having the experience, and then switched back. This is played over haunting music and the person being interviewed. Its similar to some of those bad ghost shows on the discovery channel in the way its formatted, though the stories recounted here I am sure are real, sleep paralysis is a real thing, ghosts I'm unsure of. I suppose that's what works about this movie, is it instills the fear of experiencing sleep paralysis in its viewers. Also some of the ways it maneuvered around the low budget was charming. But is it an informative documentary? Not at all. As a decent horror film, however, it succeeds.

gavin6942 A look at a frightening condition that plagues thousands; sleep paralysis.That creepy mask the one guy created... wow. He should be in the movie business or something, because that was just as disturbing as any effect that this film has to offer (and it is no surprise it is used in much of the promo material).What I really loved about this was the connection with aliens. I have never seen much about sleep paralysis before, which is a surprise given how terrifying it is. You'd think it would be more widely studied. But as an explanation for alien abduction? That makes so much sense, and could be the solution we were looking for... all those years of watching "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Sightings", and here was the answer.Most reviews were generally positive. IGN was more negative, awarding the film a score of 3.5 out of 10 and saying "Like a person floating on the edge of sleep who never quite succumbs, The Nightmare grazes its subject but never truly dives in." Some are critical because the film does not have interviews with doctors, which is a fair note... but wow, the people behind this did a great job projecting the fear these people have into our living rooms... scariest documentary ever.

aabbatiello This movie was actually pretty spot on for all the curious people or disbelievers out there. I myself have sleep paralysis and I will admit I cried multiple times watching this because of how real it was. The only thing I didn't agree with was the guy who kept talking about aliens. I feel like if that was left out this would have been a lot better because it became a debate between the two. Maybe this guy really was experiencing these things or maybe he just wanted to be on TV I don't know but Everything else said was totally spot on. I wish I could talk to the people in this documentary and know how they are doing now, and share stories with them. I am really curious about the woman who supposedly found religion and got married and stopped having these experiences because I know from experience that SP is more likely to happen when you are in a less happy or more stressed state in your life, so that could be why she felt better but I wonder if she's had another SP attack since. Anyways I always recommend this to people who are curious but warn them not to listen to the alien guy.

jamesbbaxter A deeply unsettling exercise in empathy above all else - 'what does it feel like to suffer from sleep paralysis?' 'The Nightmare' uses the expressive possibilities and artifice of the medium to confront the viewer with a powerful insight into this terrifying phenomenon - otherwise closed off and utterly private. One of the participants mentions 'All the darkness looks alive' - a striking statement that somehow hits on the mood and ethos of the film. It captures something of the extra-temporal/spatial/personal weirdness of the experience, to which the film makers do an admirable job in bringing to 'life.' One can't help noticing that a lot of these reviews criticise the lack of a scientific perspective on top of the obviously dramatised nature of the interviews - in my opinion, kinda missing the point of the film. 'The Nightmare' doesn't try and be THAT kind of documentary; in part, it doesn't really ask us to understand, but to experience and feel, to get a flavour of sleep paralysis, expressible through the shadows and suggestion of fiction. You might also say that it acknowledges the kind of dream- logic that a lot of people tend to associate with cinema per se (traceable to the 'ghosts' and 'phantasms' of the earliest magic lantern shows) the perfect medium for such a subject. Anyway, this is very interesting and very scary stuff - just don't go expecting a PBS documentary!