The Nightmare

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🎙️ EPISODE 409: 02.25.22 The following is a part of the RODNEY ASCHER director focus series I actually went to bed the night after watching this thinking I would experience sleep paralysis. As a former (?) victim (?) of the condition (?), I wondered — as is pit forth in the film — if merely thinking deeply about it again would spark its reentry into my sleep life. Thankfully, it did not. Because — while not as destructively as it impacted the subjects of the film — it was something I dealt with periodically and dreaded, probably from the age of 10 to maybe 30. It was never a nightly occurrence, maybe once a week tops at its height, but it was certainly "a thing" especially for my girlfriend (now wife) who had to dodge my very real punches as I fought my way out of it and back to the land of the waking. It's truly fucking terrifying.

Structurally, The Nightmare finds Rondey Ascher working with another unique mode of storytelling. In many ways, this is his most standard operating procedure doc, or at least his most Morris-like. He blends interview segments with reenactments of six subjects' personal experiences with sleep paralysis. These are all wildly different and, subsequently, each individual's fictionalized representation feels unique. Sure, it's not the best or most profesh thing I've ever seen but there is a definite charm in the lo-fi/indie aesthetic used to bring these stories to life.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 408 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 411 ⫸

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The Nightmare is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Rodney Ascher on the topic of sleep paralysis. It was released on January 26, 2015.