The Scariest Documentary of All Time is Now Streaming Free; Don’t Watch it Alone
True story time. When I was fresh out of high school, I experienced a brief bout of insomnia. It lasted several months, and I was too chicken to see a doctor for a prescription sleep aid, so I opted to trial and error the over-the-counter variety until I found something that worked. I did, eventually, though every past iteration I’d tried had been building up in my body. Diphenhydramine does that the more you take. I finally stopped the night I suffered from sleep paralysis for close to 12 hours.
It was a horrifying experience. Genuinely. I was conscious but couldn’t move, suspended in a kind of dream state that altered my environment. I saw things. I heard things. I was in abject fear for my life. When I was finally awake, I brushed it off as a bad experience I wouldn’t let happen again. Until I saw Rodney Ascher’s The Nightmare, probably the scariest documentary of all time. Now, the film is streaming free on Tubi.
Per Tubi: Take a deep dive into the chilling medical condition of sleep paralysis through the bedtime trials and tribulations of eight vastly different people.
What distinguishes The Nightmare from other horror-tinted documentaries is principally its style. Ascher doesn’t just center The Nightmare around something scary—he films it as such. While The Nightmare in nonfiction (presumably, if you believe what’s going on), structurally and stylistically, it’s a horror film. There are retellings, jump scares, and conventional horror cues meant to evoke the same physical reaction you’d get with something like A Nightmare on Elm Street.
In our review of The Nightmare, we even wrote, “Ascher also knows how to frame a horror film. Scary moments are built to, gradually, generating maximum dread as you wait for the other shoe to drop. When it does, even though you know it’s coming, there’s no escape. Ascher goes balls-out on these scares, reproducing creatures and events literally from nightmares.” We even concluded, “That, my friends, is serious mojo. If The Nightmare wasn’t such an amazing, entertaining film, I’d advise you to avoid it. As it stands, all I can say is watch at your own risk… and sweet dreams.” Are you brave enough to bear it?
What do you think? Are you a fan of The Nightmare? What other documentaries scared the hell out of you? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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