1986. A group of college students participate in an experiment in order to prove that one ceases to dream after not sleeping for 200 hours. Naturally, said experiment begets nightmarish side effects.

While director Phillip Guzman offers a tasty evocation of the 1980's period setting and delivers a few fairly creepy moments, he alas lets the pretty interesting story unfold at a sometimes painfully sluggish pace and crucially fails to generate any real essential tension or an equally necessary feeling of urgency. Moreover, there's way too much talk and precious little action, plus the CGI demons definitely leave something to be desired.

Fortunately, the capable cast do their best to rise above the general mediocrity: Keli Price as the eager Joe, Brea Grant as the nerdy Frannie, Stephen Ellis as excitable worrywart Dale, Christine Dwyer as brash punk Holly, Yasmine Aker as unscrupulous businesslike professor Dr. Whatley, and Lukas Gage as the doomed Carter. A seriously blah movie.

There are a ton of horror movies released these days. At one time that was not the case, horror films only came in cycles and fans were forced to wait for those to come around again. But with the invention of streaming whole channels now are focused on the genre and films are being made with those channels in mind, movies that don't always play in theaters but go straight to disc and those channels. SLEEP NO MORE feels like it falls into that category, a horror film that's not bad but that you get the impression wouldn't have lasted long in a theater.

The story takes place in 1986 at a college where a group of grad students are experimenting with a new drug while trying to make a discovery about sleep and the lack of. Their theory is that once a person reaches 200 hours without sleep they no longer require it. The implications for this in use for soldiers and more would be astronomical.

The five students include leader Joe (Keli Price) who is sleeping with Professor Whatley (Yasmine Aker) in the side, Frannie (Brea Grant) the studious type member, Dale (Stephen Ellis) the class clown and Holly (Christine Dwyer) the girl with her own special secrets and Carter (Lukas Gage). As the film opens we witness Carter go off the deep end and commit suicide cutting his own throat after gauging out his eyes. This leads to an investigation where the study is shut down. Determined to carry on the rest decide to take matters into their own hands along with a professor willing to assist.

With break taking place they remain behind and set about carrying on the experiment, continuing to inject the experimental drug Cognifan into themselves while watching and recording the effects of the drug with no sleep. One by one they begin suffering from hallucinations, in some cases dangerously close to bringing them to action. The Dale is there control subject, not given the Cognifan. But he takes the drug after dozing off and waking then accidentally injecting it.

The question rises are the visions they are seeing simply images created due to sleep deprivation? Or was there something else that Carter saw, something so terrifying that it made him do what he did?

Comparison to films like FLATLINERS and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET will follow this film forever since those movies used similar concepts. But this one has its own take on the genre. It made for an interesting concept but as for the follow through on that my feelings are mixed.

The images seen by the group are CGI based and some will hate that aspect of it. I found that it didn't do any damage from my perspective. The ghostly images would be hard pressed with practical effects and the CGI here is far above anything seen in the weekly SyFy schlock films that channel puts out. They're genuinely creepy if not terrifying and add to the atmosphere.

The acting here is better than most films of the budget and all come off as believable. The setting rings true to with the cast confined to the dorm area the story takes place in. There's no need to run around campus due to the story involved. The cinematography is a bit lacking at moments but overall works fine. One thing the movie does to capture the time period is its use of popular music from the 80s. This works well in setting that period along with the Walkman being worn to listen to it.

On the whole the movie isn't a bad little flick with some enjoyable moments. I've read some reviews that have ravaged the film but didn't think it deserved the scorn that was being laid on it. I've seen much worse in low budget horror films and this one delivered on most of the marks it set out to hit. So if you're looking for something a little different this Halloween season give this one a watch. And then make sure you get a good night's rest.

Interesting concept and well-produced, but it felt a little draggy, like it wasn't succinct and attention-grabbing enough.