Parasomnia (2025) by James Ross II

Director: James Ross II

Year: 2025

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

After hanging out with friends, a woman’s seemingly innocent party trick starts to spawn a series of strange hauntings and visions of an otherworldly being that has ties to an incident from her past involving horrific incidents with her family, and tries to save her friends.

Review:

Overall, this was a fairly strong and enjoyable genre outing. One of the better elements of this one comes from the strong setup, which provides a great launching pad for the kind of supernatural spirit shenanigans that follow. The central starting point involving the specific party trick designed to counter her night terrors, only for the whole thing to get turned upside down when they occur anyway, is a fine touch, much like the series of interactions with her friends that talk about the backstory of her visions. This starts the belief that it’s a cyclical experience that tends to repeat at given times in her life, as it starts showing hints of this demonic spirit that starts to get close to her and her friends.

These scenes are handled quite well with the series of interactions that take place involving the spirit coming to her in her dreams and visions, as the series of distorted imagery and genuinely chilling visions come together rather nicely. With the different demonic symbols and twisted visions that show the figure coming closer to her every time she turns a corner or enters a new section of the twisting hallway where it all takes place, this all provides scores of intriguing and generally fun moments, even before knowing what’s going on. When the whole reveal takes place and how it connects with the early story about the repeating visions and what has happened to her throughout the film, it all comes together with the kind of fun that gives this a lot to like.

There are some issues with the film that hold it back. The main problem here is that the second half, where all the revelations occur, tends to come off with less intensity than the opening, as we get more in the way of storyline motivations than actual action. Much of what’s going on here is related to the sidestory of various characters coming together to locate the origins of this particular spirit haunting her, caused by their own misgivings that don’t feel fully fleshed out as they should. It’s all quite confusing how these various parts are brought together and what it all means for the previous intonations of the story, and the result is something that loses steam as it goes along. Given that this is also quite obvious with its low budget due to how the gore effects and other demonic make-up are handled, these all come together to bring this one down.

Overview: ***.5/5

An enjoyable enough supernatural genre effort, there’s enough to like here that it manages to be brought down only slightly due to the few issues present here that hold it back. Those with an appreciation for the subject matter, who are fans of the style, or who don’t mind the drawbacks on display, will have a lot to like, while most others might want to heed caution.