This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if the film wasn’t leaning on such heavy thematic material that it evidently has no idea how to discuss. Flashbacks of this kind should be about character building, but all Don’t Sleep is concerned with is plot. They don’t add any meaning or insight into Zach as a person, they just tell us what happened to him as a kid. Zach’s history is relegated to jumpy flashbacks, and their only purpose is to fill in the gaps rather than to re-contextualise the present. It’s a shame then that Don’t Sleep struggles to ever give him the opportunity to explore his character. Sherwood walks away as the strongest cast member, if only for his ability to, y’know, actually emote – his handling of the horror stuff is a bit more hit and miss, but whenever Zach is in a calm head space Sherwood demonstrates himself as a natural, likeable performer. Needless to say, the performances here are pretty rote too – but then again, with characters this dull, how could they not be? Kriek‘s character is so underwritten that her painfully wooden performance can’t really be blamed on her, and both Carter and Matteo try their hardest in their supporting roles but still can’t make any of the bizarre neighbourly shenanigans stick the landing. It’s a film content to serve up potentially nifty little genre tricks, but one unprepared to handle them well enough. The way the film avoids the pitfall of having Shawn not believe Zach when things get a bit weird is appreciated, but Don’t Sleep soon doubles back on that promise too. Both Zach and Shawn are about as bland as fictional young adults can be, with Zach’s sole characteristic being his nightmares and Shawn’s being how she responds to them. Tiresome Characters and Drowsy Performancesĭon’t Sleep‘s tackling of the horror genre is so lacklustre that, like most other sloppy horror B-movies, it forgets to write characters. So, props for trying something pretty different, it’s just a shame it didn’t really come together. Remember how Get Out smoothly and intricately shifted from (spoiler alert!) “awkward casual racism in my girlfriend’s house” to “an entire family want to remove my brain and give it to an upper class white guy”? You’ll find none of that smart narrative work here, with Don’t Sleep instead relying on cheap plot tricks to become a whole new kind of film in its final few sequences. What begins as a bog standard horror film eventually erupts into something more fantastical, with elements of dark romance and paranormal fantasy flowing through its climax. Ultimately, though, Don’t Sleep has to be granted praise for how unpredictable it turns out to be – I could comfortably say not a single viewer of this film could guess its conclusion. It’s a story that feels woefully formulaic and predictable from its very opening, and Don’t Sleep frequently threatens to derail on the sheer basis of how silly the execution of it all is. Soon, though, Zach’s spooky dreams start to return, and both his and Shawn’s peaceful lives are about to be thrown into a waking nightmare. They make things work for them, move into the new place without too much disruption to their lives and even bond with the neighbours ( Alex Carter and Drea de Matteo) in the process. He’s now an adult who’s pushed that life behind him and he’s all set to move into a lovely cottage in a lovely village with his lovely girlfriend Shawn ( Charlbi Dean Kriek). The film is pegged to a guy called Zach ( Dominic Sherwood), who has had strange nightmares since he was a kid. Conventional horror can still be effective if it’s at least executed with precision but Don’t Sleep can’t even muster up an effective jump scare, let alone any real, nerve-shattering terror. One of Don’t Sleep‘s chief issues is just how uninspired and formulaic its approach to the horror genre is, pulling itself into a rut early on and never serving up anything scary or compelling enough to really win itself back over. Thankfully, the film’s opening sequence is its worst and things start to improve from here on – but not by a whole lot. You know how in some horror films (usually mediocre ones) a couple of characters sit and watch a really shoddy horror film as a kind of laboured foreshadowing? Don’t Sleep‘s opening scene resembles that level of quality. As he’s having a nightmare, the camera slowly creeps towards him, we get quick flashes into his horrible dream, the dramatic music builds to a crescendo, and then he wakes up. Don’t Sleep opens in a little boy’s bedroom.
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