Dream Eater is something that starts out as a psychological thriller but ends up in sheer and terrifying horror. I guess you could call it found footage of sorts but that’s not technically totally true. There is a handheld camera and all the events are captured by that very camera or by surveillance cameras in the house where most of the film takes place. The footage is not exactly “found” though. It’s a very deliberate action to start filming Alex when the young couple comes to the remote cabin.

One week later

They are there because a psychiatrist has recommended them to go somewhere calm to help Alex with his parasomnia problems. But let’s back up a bit. Dream Eater actually starts a week before with an emergency call to 911. This hysterical woman, Mallory, tells the operator that her boyfriend is bleeding to death and that he has cut himself so badly that there’s blood everywhere. It’s really refreshing to see a text with “one week earlier”. It’s usually the other way around. I wouldn’t have been so impressed if it was “one week later” as that is more like the norm.

Anyway, they turn up in this remote cabin where they’re trying to sort things out. Mallory has been instructed by  the psychiatrist to film everything Alex does and especially if he has any more sleepwalking episodes. But calling it sleepwalking is putting it mildly. There is so much more to his parasomnia than that. Alex seems to become another person, he almost speaks in tongues and becomes very violent and hostile towards Mallory.

Captivating

The interesting thing about Dream Eater is that it’s captivating already from the first few frames until the very end. There is increasing tension all the way. We get more and more worried about what Alex might actually do, to himself or to Mallory. At some point there’s no doubt that he’s capable of doing just about anything.

At the same time, Mallory is in contact with another expert on the subject and becomes convinced that there’s something in the family line of Alex that is causing the problems. He was raised in foster care and refuses to speak about his biological parents. And there is good cause for that. 

What’s also interesting is that it is not clear if these parasomnia episodes are caused by some kind of PTSD, if he’s just mentally unstable or if there’s an actual being taking control of his body – if he’s possessed by something like a demon or something. Different experts seem to have facts that relate to their particular conviction of what’s happening. 

Creepy

I think it’s a very creepy movie and as I said, I was hooked already from the start. I guess you could compare it a bit with Paranormal Activity. As in, we all know something is going on but not exactly what and everything escalates so slowly that we don’t even notice the increased tension.

I was very impressed by Dream Eater and thought it was very effective all the way through. It was cleverly filmed and a couple of sequences were really effective even though I saw them coming and that they were almost too cliché to work. But they worked anyway, that’s cool! And even the final shot might send chills down your spine…

Highly recommended if you like slow creepy movies that involve the mystery of the human psyche!

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Tommy Snöberg Söderberg

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Autodidact film scholar and music-loving thinker who reads the occasional book.

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