Well for the characters here, that's not good advice. Still if you are into horror, you want certain things to happen. You expect them to happen. So this does check a lot of boxes. Which makes it likely you will "enjoy" the movie - if you are into horror movies.

The theme has been done before, you may feel it has been done better than this. But while this isn't the best movie ever made, this is quite well made. The actors give it their best, for a small budget movie. Characters are cliche of course and this is overall predictable, with a scare at the end (or twist?) you won't be surprised by. It may be satisfying for most viewers though ...

The film opens with the definition of "sleep paralysis." And don't worry if you missed it it is repeated by Dr. Tank Girl (Lori Petty). Beth has it and her twin sister Kate (Jocelin Donahue) doesn't. Soon Beth doesn't have it and Kate does as does nearly everyone around her. During this time they are visited by a hag who chokes them. Sometimes they die. Like Santa, you must either believe or be very pretty for it to come visit.

Go to sleep and see a hag. Not as interesting as a Freddie film, where you move around in your sleep trying to escape. Face it, people laying there getting choked by a hag is low energy. The cover scene was interesting as a spider lowers itself on the open eye of the paralyzed girl, except we see her move her eyelids afterwards...something I might have done with a spider descending into my eye and not wait until I am choked. The sister relationships didn't work for me, it seems they were not developed properly as if they cut a scene. It wasn't until the end that we got the real story. And the final scene with Tank Girl should have come in the middle of the film and been part of the feature.That is the formula we want to see. I didn't find the film scary, but if you have sleep paralysis it might scare the bejesus out of you. And would you sleep around a guy who looked like Hassan (Jesse Borrego)? Hey, Hassan, as long as you are not sleeping, go take a shower and wash your greasy stringy hair.

Guide: infrequent F-word. No sex. Brief blurred butt body double nudity.

Winner of Best Thriller Feature Film Award at Shriekfest 2016.

'Dead Awake' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Dead Awake' is not great, or good, has a fair share of problems (fairly big ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There are however a couple of decent, even good, qualities in 'Dead Awake'.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric, likewise with the decent way it's shot.

A few unsettling moments here and there.

However, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary it got. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best and the acting never rises above mediocre and often awful.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense. A lot of the film has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations.

There is very little threat here and what there is of it is used poorly, while the psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show the horror of sleep paralysis which is actually terrifying but completely trivialised here. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is pretty leaden and the music doesn't really fit.

Concluding, very poor. 2/10 Bethany Cox