If youve ever experienced sleep paralysis, youll know its pretty damn scary. If you havent, then 2015 brought us the documentary film The Nightmare. Rodney Aschers film focuses on eight accounts of people suffering from the sleep disorder, harrowing in every sense of the word, emphasised by disconcerting reconstructions of their ghastly hallucinatory experiences. People lie in a helplessly catatonic as silhouettes edge closer and closer, figures peering over a babies cot, even menacing phone-calls from inexplicable sources. It's all as scary as it sounds. The documentary also looks to explore the science of sleep paralysis and if this phenomenon could be held accountable for reports of alien abductions or demonic visitings. Through framing, scoring and a serious source material, The Nightmare manages to prove that a non-fiction film can be every bit as terrifying as one with a constructed narrative.
Most of my time is occupied by reading, staring at a screen, being oppressed by the government and awaiting the return of the Great Old One Cthulhu... I also write a little too.
