Director: Michael Venus
Year: 2020
Country: Germany
Alternate Titles: Schlaf
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After her mother’s breakdown, a young woman fearing that she’ll follow the same self-destructive path learns about her mother’s obsession with a strange town that eventually starts her own obsession with the location, forcing her to confront dark secrets from the past to get away alive.
Review:
Overall, this was a solid if problematic genre effort. What works quite well for this one is the highly intriguing mystery and psychological torment that’s at play within here. The fact that the film centers around the deciphering of dreams hiding untapped misery and torment, with the mother’s insistence on locating the fabled hotel she’s noticed in the real world being the same as the one she’s dreamed of, becomes all the more involved once the daughter realizes that has begun affecting her as well. The trip to uncover the truth and the encounters with the locals are unnerving enough to be quite creepy with the clues seeming to point to something unexpected and otherworldly happening but not making sense. This helps to fuel the film throughout the first half as the mysterious build-up tends to pay off quite nicely.
Those payoffs come together quite well in the form of the nightmare sequences that may or may not be real. Despite ample evidence that the real world is scary enough with the initial clues to her mother’s mental state from the creepy journals and the strange disarray found in her hotel room when she arrives there, the fact that the striking visual in the dream-state where all sorts of bizarre figures and entities are shown that border on surrealism at times with the curiously just-off-normal route many of them feature. Since these provide enough context throughout the middle and final acts of the mystery being presented here, they end up delivering nicely at the end by featuring enough to really like about it.
However, there are some issues with the film that holds this one back somewhat. This is mostly focused on the fact that there's so much allegory and subtle commentary present that it's almost overpowering the scares at times. The multilayered story about the sins of the past involving the true history of the country being resurrected and the connection between their family history tends to dominate the majority of the tension featured here. That can make for a highly underwhelming experience for those wanting a more horror-oriented path here since so little of the running time is focused on outright genre thrills in favor of this unraveling mystery. As well, with this being quite complex to get to some of the plot points are dropped out and left unresolved to the point of frustration and confusion which all bring this down slightly.
Overview: ****/5
A somewhat more surreal genre effort than expected which features some minor drawbacks in how confusing and drawn-out it really is, that there’s more to like here than dislike still holds this one up quite high. Those that appreciate these kinds of slow-burn arthouse style features or enjoy surreal imagery will really have a lot to like here while most others, especially those that want a more straightforward and faster-paced film will be somewhat taken aback by this one.
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