Parasomnia (2008)

Film Title: Parasomnia
Also known as: Dreams of the Sleepwalker (Germany)
Released: October 17, 2008 (Screamfest Film Festival)
Directed by: William Malone
Written by: William Malone
Starring: Dylan Purcell, Cherilyn Wilson & Patrick Kilpatrick

Plot: A young girl suffering from parasomnia, a disease that causes her to literally sleep her life away, awaking only rarely, becomes the object of affection for an art student who kidnaps her from the hospital rather than let her become a guinea pig for scientific research. But little does he know that this "sleeping beauty" is being terrorized by a mass-murderer in her dreams, which the monster is now making a reality.

IMDb: 5.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

Sometimes called William Malone's Parasomnia, writer/director William Malone independently financed this project with the help of his friends. And while the end product occasionally shows its low-budget pedigree, it succeeds more than it fails, especially as an independent film. After a fantastic opening sequence in which Sean Young (her only appearance in the movie) jumps off the top of a building followed by the camera, with the impact being felt by both, we are introduced to Dylan Purcell, an art student who makes ends meet working at a record store. After his girlfriend leaves him and clears out his apartment, he visits his friend in rehab at the local hospital who tells him about a beautiful girl (Cherilyn Wilson) suffering from parasomnia, and the serial killer (Patrick Kilpatrick) who lives in the room next to her. When he stops by the girl's room he becomes instantly fascinated and smitten with her, despite being shooed away by her doctor (Timothy Bottoms). He begins visiting her more and more frequently, even sharing music with her via headphones while she's sleeping. He discovers that she is going to be transferred to a disreputable sleep lab as a test subject and kidnaps her instead, bringing her home with him. Very quickly he discovers that Klipatrick, who believes that she belongs to him, will stop at nothing to get her back. Jeffrey Combs (a personal favorite) and Jeff Doucette co-star as a pair of police officers investigating the kidnapping and the series of murders that ensue and John Landis has a small cameo as a department store manager. Kilpatrick, who has made a career of playing the bad guy, is sufficiently menacing as the villain, imbuing him with a malicious intelligence and charisma. Wilson is cute as a button, excelling in the scenes where she is filled with child-like wonder with the world she so rarely sees. She and Purcell have a nice, believable chemistry despite the awkward nature of their relationship. The early scenes of the two of them together really give the movie its heart, a heart mostly abandoned by the halfway point when the film becomes more style over substance. That style, however, is intriguing and inventive, full of surreal dreamscapes and a healthy dose of blood and guts. If watched in succession, you can see the evolution of Malone's visual style from House on Haunted Hill to Feardotcom to Parasomnia, his last, but perhaps best, film to date. The independent nature of the movie has largely meant obscurity for this one and a lot of people probably don't even know it exists, which is a shame since its much better than the bigger-budgeted Feardotcom.