Film4 Frightfest the 13th – Day 4

#16 - Sleep Tight

rating: 4

director Jaume Balaguero forges what could be the start of a brilliant partnership with Luis Tosar in Sleep Tight, an immaculately-constructed, devilishly disturbing and wickedly funny thriller that mates Hitchcockian suspense with a specifically Polanski-esque brand of terror. Tosar plays Cesar, the suicidally despondent superintendent of an apartment block who, without giving too much away - because figuring it out is half the fun - has become transfixed with his beautiful neighbour, Clara (Marta Etura). The extent of Cesar's perversion is simply too deliciously demented to reveal, but needless to say, his intent is to bring the happy and optimistic Clara down to his level of misery. A very different apartmental shocker from Balaguero's last two films, Sleep Tight presents us with a character who performs disturbing, sick acts of passive-aggressiveness, but the deft touch of the script also suffuses these despicable acts with a fine sprinkling of gallows humour, as well as the seemingly unflappable nature - at least at first - of his would-be victim. The extent of Cesar's obsession, frequently throwing him close to discovery, is itself extremely amusing, and Tosar accentuates this feeling with a performance permanently on-edge but only flinging itself over the threshold in brief, manic spurts. Balaguero has a firm command of his picture, grasping a visually lavish aesthetic in the vein of Hitchcock; confident and assured. During later portions, the suspense is cranked up to levels both nail-biting and gut-busting, while the consistent flood of depraved revelations are sure to raise eyebrows, though never stepping beyond their sensational bounds. A brilliant chiller of an ending serves as a fantastic exclamation point for everything that has built over the previous 100 minutes. Luis Tosar is electrifying as every tenant's worst nightmare in this deeply unsettling, shrewdly measured slice of Hitchcock.