
Salutations my screechers, screamers, and scary dreamers,
Tonight’s tale of terror entitled “Sleep Tight” concerns a cunning concierge’s compulsion to crush a blithe boarder’s beatific bearing.
Our film opens with a bit of narration which hints at our lead’s motivation, but before we can give it much thought we are dropped right into the main plot. It is clear that this story is already in progress so for a while we are left to guess about what exactly is happening as the events continue unfolding. Eventually things do cohere, but before everything became clear the opening felt like a litmus test since the mood and pacing are heavily stressed. This film is fashioned like the old time pot boilers so without giving away any spoilers let me just say that the ending was a must see as it is full of a dark and unbridled glee.
Even with the early confusion, the actors held my interest until the conclusion as they radiated a confidence before things began to make sense. The leading actor deserves special praise as his performance masks a creepy malaise and even as his mask begins to drop he never makes the role over the top. While our lead’s performance might cast a spell not all of the actors fare as well and one of the late additions was overplayed though, to be fair, his role was a bit cliched.
This never struck me as typical horror fare since it did not really try to scare, but focused instead on an ominous feeling which I found rather appealing. While the score itself backs up the tension the use of pop songs is worth a mention as they are used wryly which backs up the tone very slyly. Now though the sense of mood is killer I would have to categorize this as a thriller because though it has a wicked bite it is not likely to cause much fright.
Story/Concept: 1
Direction/Style: 2
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 2
Rewatchability: 1
TOTAL: 7/10
In brief, a dark sense of humor and a clever hook make this one worth a look.
Stick to the shadows my fine friends.
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