Having previously seen many programs and documentaries about sleep paralysis as well as thoroughly enjoying the directors nostalgic and unsettling look back at one of the creepiest horror films in history in ‘Room 237’ I was very excited for the release of Rodney Ascher’s ‘The Nightmare’.
The documentary is an alternative look at the unusual night time event known as sleep paralysis. It’s a fascinating subject that has little to no scientific explanation or medical reasoning as to why it occurs at all, let alone why it happens to people around the world fro mall different backgrounds in all different cultures. In ‘The Nightmare’ a number of disorder sufferers discuss their experiences with the paralysis and which are dramatically reconstructed for the viewer in a somewhat terrifying manner.
The talking head participants themselves give plenty of interpretation of their experiences and what they believe is happening to them and why. Most of it is arguably conjecture and perception and of course without scientific grounds many people will simply laugh off some of the more ‘out there’ analyses from the dreamers but it doesn’t make it less interesting.
It’s because of this fact that once again the director appears to be getting a lot of flack much like he did for the various theories that tried to explain subtext and meaning behind Stanley Kubricks’ 1980 horror ‘The Shining’, which was featured in Rodney Ascher’s last documentarian effort ‘Room 237’. These are simply interpretations of the material, there’s nothing necessarily true or factual about any of them. The truth is we will never know especially as Kubrick is no longer alive, and the same goes for the world of sleep paralysis.
Many programs I’ve encountered previously on the subject are filled with scientific and medical theory, some of which seem even rockier than what was talked about in this documentary. But it’s almost the total absence of any ‘science’ here that really gives a much rawer feel to the proceedings. This allows the sufferers who have had to endure this torment personally to ponder on what they think is happening and the reasoning behind it. It’s quite refreshing to not have a subject such as this bogged down in scientific theory, and that’s what it is – theory, but have the victims themselves muse over.
It’s a fascinating and very different look at a subject many of us are aware of and which some of us actually experience on a nightly basis. It’s not purposely provocative by any nature but ‘The Nightmare’ attempts to give us a varied outlook about the disorder and giving the sufferers themselves the opportunity to help make some sense out of them.
OVERALL SUMMARY
The director is simply trying to let people going through this terrifying ordeal discuss the various theories and explanations as to why it may be happening. He’s not necessary suggesting these are religious happenings, or sinister demonic visitations or anything else. He is letting his interviewees tell their story and share their understandings of their own horrifying nightmares. The reconstructions are particularly vivid and memorable and may just be responsible for a nightmare or two of their own.
