Don’t Sleep

Freestyle Digital Media has acquired domestic rights to Don’t Sleep, a thriller written and directed by Rick Bieber that stars Dominic Sherwood, Cary Elwes, Drea de Matteo, Charlbi Dean Kriek and Jill Hennessy. The pic also marks the final onscreen performance from Alex Rocco, who famously played Moe Green in The Godfather; Rocco died in 2015 of cancer at 79. Don’t Sleep will bow in theaters day-and-date on September 29. Download, stream or torrent looks to be set for later this year.

The film begins with a prologue in which a young boy experiences a terrorizing nightmare set in a graveyard. That’s followed by an onscreen quotation from Nietzsche, which is the first sign that we’re in for heavy going. The little boy is subsequently sent by his concerned mother (Jill Hennessy) to see a shrink played by Cary Elwes, which is the second sign that we’re in for heavy going. Later that night, the mother checks in on her son, who suddenly starts sounding like Mercedes McCambridge’s gravelly demonic voice in The Exorcist. That’s the third sign.

Shawn and Zach are young lovers who move into a guest house together on an estate owned by Mr. and Mrs. Marino. When bizarre events begin to occur with increasing danger, Zach slowly remembers a forgotten time in his childhood when he suffered from what appeared to be a severe and violent psychosis - memories erased by as series of electroconvulsive shock treatments administered by his psychiatrist.
Thirteen years later, Zach (Dominic Sherwood) is a law student and is looking to move in with his loving, sensible girlfriend, grammar-school teacher and amateur painter Shawn (Charlbi Dean Kriek). And fortunately for them, older couple Vince and Jo Marino (Alex Carter and Drea de Matteo) are looking to rent the lovely cottage across the street from the home they share with Vince's elderly father, Poppy (Alex Rocco). The Marinos even give them a break on the rent because, well, they hardly use the place and Zach and Shawn are such nice kids. But being nice kids doesn't protect them from the demonic forces that have apparently been following Zach since childhood and decided to start acting up again.

What's weird and that much more disappointing about "Don't Sleep" is Zach's not the only one haunted by his past. It literally takes a village to create and be moved by Zach's demons, like when a closet door mysteriously pops open while Shawn undresses before taking a shower. Or how about when Jo is having sex with Vincent, and she sees something terrible over her shoulder? You might think, based on this admittedly selective plot summary that you were watching a horror movie about the terror of living with a "nice guy" type, someone who nobody is willing to admit is capable of hurting the women in his life. You don't even need to dig that far to find that subtext in "Don't Sleep." What else are we supposed to think when Jo drops a random truth bomb on Vincent, and recalls an urban legend that Mr. Marino once told her about a Crusades-era warrior who becomes a monster after his wife is repeatedly raped during his war-time absence? If this movie isn't about the nightmare of living with an unreflective white knight, what is it about?