Rendező:
Mike FlanaganOperatőr:
Michael FimognariSzereplők:
Jacob Tremblay, Thomas Jane, Kate Bosworth, Annabeth Gish, Scottie Thompson, Dash Mihok, Lance E. Nichols, Jay Karnes, Antonio Evan Romero (több)Tartalmak(1)
Mark és Jessie még fiuk halálát gyászolja, amikor örökbe fogadják Codyt. Hamarosan felfedezik, hogy furcsa képességgel rendelkezik. (Netflix)
Videók (4)
Recenziók (5)
The film seemed like it might actually work. I liked that it didn’t feature the standard jump scares. It definitely wouldn’t have been so bad if the filmmakers hadn't literally buried it underground. It seemed to me that the writer and director didn’t want to overexert themselves and when the actors saw them, they decided to take it easy, too. Everything was going so spectacularly badly that the special effects department decided they couldn't care less about the butterflies and the alien was scary enough. And if that wasn't bad enough, the ending was so terrible that I had to cool off for a while to be able to give it two stars.
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The premise is perfectly fine and carries you through even the weaker scenes by at least giving you a chance to contemplate how horribly amoral you are that you would ideally use Cody's gift/curse to pump him full of double-feature Ruth Negga movies and some very indulgent porn before bed. Flanagan, at least unlike most of today's horror royalty, isn't afraid to flesh the central idea into various impressive details that, despite the flat, fizzled-out plot, manage to unnerve you (the materialization of a vanished foster mother through the imperfect lens of a child), but it's the classic horror ills he managed to avoid in Oculus that are the undoing of his film this time. In fact, the characters are an utter disaster in their lack of characterization, dullness, and inability to generate the slightest interest (we don't know what they do, what they're into, if there was no plot these would be the most boring people in the world). You empathy is supposed to be evoked by the universal tragedy of losing a child and their general upright character, which isn’t enough and is mostly boring. Oh, and the jump-scares.
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There is some potential, but it’s squandered and never leaves the paper of the core premise. Unfortunately, at least for me, this film doesn’t do it. Flanagan misses the emotional target (with a big “help” from the actors), and horror-wise, he hits only every third shot or so. The main spook is a thoroughly laughable and unscary figure with a personal history that it’s revealed in an irritating manner, during a literal ending that’s preceded by a five-minute climax, which actually can’t be called such. After the excellent and disturbing Oculus, I didn’t expect Before I Wake to be a painfully sober and more or less safe fairy-tale with no signs of true horror and terror. It also managed to annoy me even before the story properly gets going. It really pisses me off when films about dreaming and sleep, like this one, for instance, cram completely unrelated dialogues about the topic. Here, the characters, while chatting “importantly” about dreams, for no reason whatsoever, say that they feel “awake”… because it makes the writers feel the film will be more gripping? Bollocks! It feels terribly forced and fake. It gives me the impression that the characters only repeat written phrases, causing me to distance myself. It’s impossible to either root or fear for them. Three stars, and it might be a bit too generous for this film.
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Mike Flanagan's efforts cannot be denied, but this year has not been kind to him. I simply don't like ghost stories and I can't enjoy them, and it’s hard at times to keep myself awake. On the plus side, there's Thomas Jane, the beautiful Kate Bosworth and up-and-coming young talent Jacob Tremblay, who gives a very convincing performance for a 9 year old. There are a few scares, but not a single one worked for me, which I consider a minus and it shows in the final rating. The central boogeyman has an original look, but the "finale" lacks punch, well it just doesn't have the balls. Probably good for fans of ghost stories, but for me it's an average film that I won't remember tomorrow. 55%
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If it weren't for the ending, I would be able and willing to rate the film much higher, but the horror aspect has disappeared from it, turning Before I Wake into a nostalgic family spectacle. The film is incredibly well cast in terms of acting talent, which contributes to its overall quality in terms of the performances. It's more or less the kind of horror film you want to see in movie theaters, and fortunately, that eventually happened.
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