Review #66: Before I Wake (2016)

This review was originally written in October 2019.

October Horror Movie Review #14: Before I Wake

For much of this movie I felt that it wasn't quite a horror movie; after finishing it I looked up the IMDB trivia and apparently the director strongly objected to it being marketed as one. There are definitely some scary parts of this film, but those aren't really the focus and at its core it's a family drama with some supernatural elements.

Before I Wake is a movie about a family that adopts a foster child who, as it turns out, has supernatural powers that bring his dreams (and nightmares) to life when he sleeps. At first they try to use this power to give them more time with their son, who died in an accident some time before, but then things turn sinister and the mom has to investigate into the boy's past to figure out how to stop this malevolent force that comes from his nightmares.

First I want to say that I was not at all expecting such emotional weight in this movie- I assumed it was just another horror movie, after all- and the resolution where everything is explained was incredibly heart-wrenching and very sad. Overall I did enjoy it, but I spent quite a bit of the film expecting one thing and not getting it. I would've liked it more had I gone in with the right expectations (though I'm not saying I disliked it).

The spooky bits were definitely spooky, and the movie did a great job of veeeeery subtly hiding little glimpses of the monster in the background for the first portion of the movie- to the point where I was never quite sure I had seen it until a moment after it was gone. It really set me on edge and encouraged me to assume it was going to turn horrific at any moment (for better and for worse). I can tell a LOT of detail went into this movie, and it was definitely shot well.

There's one big plot hole, though, and I don't understand why it was there to begin with because it could have easily just been cut out and the movie would have gone exactly as intended. There's a point where the mom drugs the child with some sleeping pills (as she is abusing his dream powers to bring back their dead son), and while he's asleep the monster shows up, wreaks some havoc, and knocks her out. When she wakes up, Child Services comes and takes the child away, asking why she drugged her child- she feebly answers "the drugs were prescribed by his doctor" but they take the child anyway, and then the rest of the movie happens because he's been taken back to the orphanage.

But... that's the thing- the medicine WAS prescribed by his doctor. We the viewer know that the mom manipulated the doctor into giving the medicine because she wanted to use the kid's supernatural powers, but he WAS suffering from insomnia (his teacher would easily have been able to attest to this, considering he asked to stay in during recess to try and sleep) and the doctor DID write that prescription for the child. So what the Child Services person was actually asking was "Why did you give the child the medicine his doctor prescribed for a condition he obviously has?" An absurd question, of course, but the movie needed the kid to be taken back to the orphanage for the story to keep going.

But of course they could've taken him for other reasons and it would've made way more sense. Take him because the kid's adoptive father just disappeared after (seemingly) assaulting his wife, leaving the home unsafe for a new child. Take him because he's clearly suffering from insomnia, possibly caused by unseen issues at home. Heck- change up the timeline a bit and it works even better: the sleep medicine was supposed to be short-term, so instead of having this event happen the first day of treatment, have it happen weeks later- the mom is so eager to abuse this supernatural power that she's been getting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors to keep him drugged up way longer than is healthy. Anything! Anything would have been better than asking the mother why she was following a doctor's orders. I don't understand how they could have messed that up so bad.

But, whatever, that's a small part of this film. It's just such a boneheaded decision that I can't help but focus on it.

In short, I really liked this movie, I just think it suffered from some improper classification.

Overall rating: 7/10

What I Would Have Done: Show the kid some photos of piles of money. I mean come on!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up: The Other Side of the Door

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------