‘Waking Nightmare’ Review: It’s a Comedy…Right?
Chloé Harper Gold
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Dreams, nightmares, and sleep disorders like sleepwalking have been the subject of curiosity for centuries. In addition to philosophical and psychological discourse, sleep and dreams have served as the inspiration for countless books, films, plays, comics…the list goes on and on. Waking Nightmare is the latest in this grand storytelling tradition. Written by Brian Farmer, who co-directed with Steve Craig, the film follows a young woman who finds herself acting out in her sleep following a traumatic event.
Jordan (Shelley Regner) isn’t doing well. Before the events of the film, her roommate died by suicide. It threw her into such a state of grief that she dropped out of college and moved back into her parents’ home. Now she’s plagued by nightmares and sleepwalking. Still, Jordan is trying her best to recoup. Her support system comprises her overbearing and unhinged mother (Diane Franklin) and her useless and immature father (Jamison Newlander). She also reconnects with her old school friend Zoey (Every Heart)—an archetypal punky alt girl with a boyfriend no one really likes (Brian Farmer).
After a troubling episode of somnambulism in which she pulls a knife on her mother, Jordan agrees to see a doctor (David Naughton). He prescribes Ambien. From there, things go from bad to worse. Blood is shed. Local police start to poke around. Jordan doesn’t seem to know the details of her nightly activities…but she does know that something’s wrong.
The premise of the film is a familiar one, but it’s still intriguing. Stories about fractured minds wreaking havoc will probably always grab an audience’s attention. Unfortunately, as a psychological thriller, Waking Nightmare falls flat. Its promising plot is undermined by tired tropes, stilted and unnatural dialogue, and inaccuracies that suggest a lack of research.
On the other hand, the film would totally work as a campy comedy of errors.
The problem is that it’s unclear as to which one it is. I felt like I was watching two different movies at the same time.
The duality of ‘Waking Nightmare’
Ambien is a medication for the short-term treatment of insomnia. Two of its more notorious possible side effects are nightmares and sleepwalking. Jordan tells her doctor that she’s sleepwalking and having nightmares. So her doctor prescribes her a medication that’s not only not indicated for these issues, but can actually cause them?
If Waking Nightmare is a thriller, then its entire plot is predicated on a mistake that no one double-checked. It would put the rest of the film in an unflattering light. But if the filmmakers wrote Waking Nightmare as a comedy, a doctor prescribing Ambien for sleepwalking with a straight face is pretty damn funny.
The police investigation subplot is trope-reliant to the point where it almost feels like a play within a play. Or rather, a cable TV cop procedural within a psychological thriller. Detective Moore (Ryan Bonnick) and Detective McCarter (Bryan Tyler Cohen) play the classic “good cop, bad cop” in the interrogation room. We also get an outdated threat of prison rape (“You will be in Super Max so fast, I swear to God, you will be someone’s girlfriend by tomorrow morning.”).
There’s also a scene featuring Moore, McCarter, and two men in a holding cell. One of the men desperately entreats the detectives to let him make a phone call while his cellmate slowly and lasciviously gropes him. Moore and McCarter watch the assault in progress, deny the guy his phone call, and leave.
In a thriller, this scene would be a tasteless attempt at comic relief. In a comedy, it would be a tasteless, albeit completely fair, joke about police complicity in sexual violence.
Waking Nightmare does have a few things going for it that would work no matter what genre the film is. Diane Franklin’s performance as Jordan’s mother is delightfully over the top and enjoyable to watch. Editor Patrick Kennelly’s work is also noteworthy. He intersperses Seth Wessel-Estes’ cinematography with dizzying and psychedelic montages and transitions from scenes of lucidity to sleepwalking sequences with a twitchy, disorienting style that reflects Jordan’s mental state.
The film’s conclusion is genuinely impactful and the final line is chilling. And of course, it’s always fun to watch horror veterans (Franklin, Naughton, and Newlander) come together for another film in the genre.
So is Waking Nightmare a thriller? Or is it a comedy? You can draw your own conclusions when it hits VOD on August 18, 2023.
Summary
‘Waking Nightmares’ has an intriguing story at its core, but it doesn’t seem sure if it wants to be a comedy or a horror movie.
