Before I Wake

The concept and the cast are both great, but Flanagan biffed the execution big time. There's just too much downtime, this kid's dreams come alive, the potential for scares is there, but instead it wastes too much time on backstory, drama, and Bosworth's and Jane's attempts at resurrecting their own son via this kid's dreams. Coulda used a hell of a lot more monsters.

Fantasy/horror film is at its best in its quieter moments, dealing with Bosworth's grief and guilt over the loss of her child, with shades of DON'T LOOK NOW, but it's a shame that this more interesting aspect ultimately loses the tug of war to middling jump-scares, which seem to owe something to THE BABADOOK. Comes off the rails for the final third, and reaches an unfocused conclusion which doesn't gel with some of the literal events that happen in the lead-up. Great work by Bosworth, though.

Kind of poor in its execution but I think it had some good ideas. It was interesting something that was so clearly not meant to be a horror movie forced into being one. The acting was pretty good and Flanagan had some good direction, but it's just pretty forgettable, especially in the bigger picture of Flanagan's filmography.

Great cast. Some spooky moments. Kate Bosworth is marvelous & lovely as the grieving mother. Thomas Jane was also very good. The young Jacob Tremblay was adorable. Performances were awesome. A sweet little boy whose dreams manifest themselves is an intriguing idea, until he has nightmares. Everyone's reaction to his abilities was strange. The plot & dialog was mostly good for a huge load of supernatural nonsense. The saccharin sweet ending was rotten. Tons of lost potential.

I really liked Hush and generally liked Oculus but this was too close to yet another creepy kid spooks his white middle-class suburban parents rated PG-13 in cinemas everywhere movie. There's a touch of Ursula K. Le Guin in there but overall it's just a bit too ordinary, I expected more from Mike Flanagan. On the up side at least he didn't feel the juvenile need to end every horror film with a bad ending

Scary idea though the story itself turned against itself. Some scary moments also became soon silly effects.

Interesting concept. They did fine.

It's not THAT bad. I mean it's bad but it's worth a watch.

A few decent scares and tension, but ends up a little sappy.

A carefully constructed tale with nothing left to chance.

Before I Wake has a very interesting synopsis going for it, and the movie does some take it in some very cool directions, however I continually found myself being pulled out by the entity haunting the film. It became a burden quickly, and given all the ways you can do with this, I felt disappointed. The story raps up nicely, and while the plot moves at a slower pace, it does work for the progression of all the characters, even if they aren't something to write home about.

It really tries to push the envelope and work as this low fantasy horror about a kid that can make dreams and nightmares come true -- with frontal shots to sustain the power of some dialogues --, buts ends up being nothing really remarkable.

Once again wonderful premise thwarted by lack of imagination since budget certainly wasn't / didn't need to be an obstacle.

It was 3/10 movie until the cankerous ending. I just truly hate this kind of saccharine shit.

Worth a watch.

Great idea, but it really falls over itself trying to package itself into a neat little allegory in the vein of Pan's Labyrinth.

watchable

One thing I really enjoyed and found to be almost groundbreaking in the genre (hehe), was that everything was happening to both of the parents. There wasn't the awkward "I don't believe you" part and 10 minutes later the sudden realization of the truth. Overall a nice movie, with nicely explained denouement, that satisfied me. Given that horror movies are spewing out like credit loans, this was actually different, despite the inability of the industry to produce creative story lines.

Concerning the origin of its evil it concurs with The Babadook more than with the nightmares on Elm Street, and I'm always fond of horror skewing to dreamlike abstraction rather than the literal. Now Flanagan is a masterful craftsman and clean stylist, and I hope he'll find material as sad and remorseful that's less dependent on jump scares.

Very creepy. Explains itself well at the end.

62.3

In the third act, the story ties together neatly and I realize there were actually some great ideas in here. Sadly, the execution was a bit lacking before that point. The ho-hum CGI monster is shown way too much way too early. Also, in a horror movie about nightmares coming to life, imagine all the crazy, surreal, creative stuff you could do for the scares. But no - it sticks to the same butterflies and gray ghoul for the most part. Bit of a missed opportunity, but ultimately not bad.

jag lagade mat och rökte lite samtidigt som jag såg den här, så kan ha missat en del..

Not Flanagan’s best, but it’s enjoyable. I actually preferred it as a dark fantasy drama over a horror film, even though Flanagan is a great horror director. The last act doesn’t hold up, but it doesn’t wreck the film either. The fairly good acting more or less makes the film along with the concept.

Sad horror, a unique genre by Flanagan.

Utterly gorgeous - I'm floored.

It starts out pretty generic, with the usual jump scares. The second act switches gears and gets interesting. Then the third act throws it all to the garbage because of an extremely poor decision regarding the characters.

Before I Wake is a surprising film. What would be sold as a straightforward horror film is actually a well constructed and acted Dark Fantasy. As can be expected, Flanagan combines genius camerwork, heavy atmosphere and fine casting to create a totally thrilling and touching experience. Before I Wake showcases all of the reasons Mike Flanagan is one of the best Directors ever to specialize in horror.

More reviews here : http://movie-freak.be