Before I Wake is a movie directed by Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind 2013's Oculus, and starred Jacob Tremblay, Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Annabeth Gish, Justin Gordon and Dash Mihok. As someone who adores Oculus, I was super excited to watch this because I wanted to see what the man behind this movie has more to offer. Mike Flanagan not only directed it but also co-wrote this movie with Jeff Howard. After struggling to secure a release date after it's distributor, Relativity Media, filed for bankruptcy, Before I Wake was finally released in Malaysia (although I'm not sure if it is under the same distributor for release outside of United States).
This is my review of Before I Wake. It will not contain spoilers (at least not any major ones) so feel free to continue on reading my thoughts on this movie.
I'm happy to announce that I love Before I Wake, it's a very touching movie. You might feel weird that I've described a horror movie as touching but Before I Wake, much like the director previous work Oculus, is more than just a typical horror movie. This movie is about dealing with the loss of your loved ones, it's a movie about people dealing with grief. While the trailer for this movie might just look like it was about a boy and how his dreams came to life, it's actually more than meets the eyes, and that's what I'm most impressed about it, that it managed to tell a compelling story that dealt with emotions that is more than just fear. I'm very much in love with the story. It's deep and sad, and makes me feel so bad for the characters that was involved. It touched my heart which is pretty rare for a horror movie to do that. It's a smart movie which combined sophisticated story within the horror genre.
But I have to admit that being a smart movie might also be the downfall of this movie. This is evident as I was walking out from the cinema hall, satisfied after having watched this movie, when I overheard a guy saying to his other friends that the movie was not scary at all. To his credit, that is somewhat true, this is not your typical horror movie with a bunch of jump-scares and edge-of-your-seat moments. While at certain points of this movie it does have its scary moments, this is definitely not that type of movie where it just scared you to death. No, it is not. So I kind of understand where this guy was coming from because if you're entering the cinema hall and expecting to be crazily scared, you would definitely be disappointed.
Having said that, I think Before I Wake still qualifies as a horror movie. While the drama brings impact to the story and giving it more depth, the horror element is still pretty much present in the movie. What the movie also cleverly did was connecting the sleep and dreams that was used as tools for the horror aspects of this movie with the personal struggles that the characters going through. Some of the scenes that made the connection were the scenes of the therapist session where some of the interesting dialogues occurred.
Aside from the story, the casts of the movie did a pretty good job as well. They were believable and sympathetic which makes me cared for whatever might happen to them in the movie. The story relies heavily on the three main actors; Jacob Tremblay, Kate Bosworth and Thomas Jane, and they were all great in their roles. Jacob Tremblay is a very good young actor and he stood out just as much as the other senior actors. The supporting casts, eventhough they were not many of them, did their best as well in contributing to the overall movie. As for the special effects, they were particularly excellent for a small horror movie. It was used to great effect whenever it needed to be.
To summarize this up, Before I Wake is a very good movie and I personally loved it! After the amazing Oculus, Mike Flanagan didn't disappoint me with his next movie. I find the story truly great and touching, while the performances of the casts were good as well. It's a good watch and I hope it will be in more people's radar because it will be such a waste of a wonderful story if it isn't.
Source of images from the movie trailer here.
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