In My Sleep

Reviews from the Dark Side presents:
In My Sleep
Released 2010, now on DVD


Marcus Turner is many things.  He's a masseuse, an artist, a sex addict, and...a sleepwalker.

Marcus has had this problem since he was a kid.  Of course he can't remember what he does when he sleepwalks.  Throughout the movie we find that he can do some amazing things when he's not conscious like solving Sudoku puzzles, having sex with his best friend's wife, and maybe even murdering said wife.  Marcus wakes up one morning covered in blood with a bloody knife on his bedroom floor.  The same knife that he just received as a gift at his surprise party the previous night.  Things get worse when his friend's (Justin's) wife (Ann) is found dead with multiple stab wounds two days later.  Yes, the same wife he slept with previously while sleepwalking.  So how does he explain this?  He really can't.  He can't even trust himself.  Seems logical that he might do something crazy while he's asleep.  At the beginning of the movie we find him waking up in a cemetery close to his father's grave wearing nothing but his skivvies.  He wakes up in Ann's car after he's had sex with her not remembering the event.  There's a trail of blood leading from his apartment.  Or, is he being set up?  What's with the mysterious phone call he receives when he's out with Justin and Ann?  Why is his sex addict friend, Gwen, trying to get him to confess?  Does Marcus' dead father hold the key to all of this?

First of all, while I was interested to find out the answer to all of this craziness, it took too long to get there.  I think the director, Allen Wolf, is a little emotionally stunted.  Characters' reactions to situations make no sense.  For instance, Marcus' mother knows about her son's sleepwalking and helps to cover something up when he's a child.  Motherly love right?  Then when he's an adult, she seems to hate him and wants nothing to do with him.  When Gwen finds out that he handcuffs himself to his bed to keep from wandering at night, she's more angry than anything else.  Why angry?  Scared, OK.  Disturbed, maybe.  But angry?  At what?  I think the proper reaction here is don't upset the crazy sleepwalker!  And another thing that doesn't make a lot of sense.  We find out that Gwen is Ann's sister.  When she's trying to get Marcus to confess, she goes from angry and threatening to expose him to the police to trying to seduce a confession out of him all in the span of three minutes.  The detective who's trying to find Ann's killer really has no reason to suspect Marcus at first, but she plays bad cop trying to scare him into a confession.  The director also mixes up his genres.  He adds elements of horror in what is a crime thriller.  Very misplaced imagery with hands jumping out and grabbing, a hooded Vaderesque figure that has key lock for a face, a faceless woman crawling in Marcus' bed...

This is not a completely awful movie.  It has a good premise, but not good execution.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

** stars (barely-out of 5)

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. Buy this on DVD when released!
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here. Get this DVD goes without saying.