The Nightmare was far better than I expected it to be, and about a theme that is rarely used in movies, sleep paralysis.
The film is obviously inspired by Roman Polanski. More about this later on.
The couple Mona (Eili Harboe) and Robbie (Herman Tømmeraas), both 25, should have received a fly swatter as a gift when they had a housewarming party. The buzzing from insect wings is constant every time Mona goes to bed in the evening, in the apartment in Bergen she and her boyfriend have just bought at asking price. The home is a big renovation project, and was not even properly cleaned and washed after the previous occupant died under unclear circumstances.
They got it cheap, then it may rather be that the noise from neighbors arguing and children screaming is constant. It's not just sounds that ruin Mona's night's sleep. She also suffers from sleep paralysis and somnambulism. The distinction between what are nightmares and what are hallucinations in the waking state is unclear, for her and for us. Sometimes she hurts herself when she sleeps.
Robbie is rarely present when she goes to bed, he works hard and late, and he usually comes home very late in the evening.
It gradually dawns on us that, by all accounts, Mona's restless sleep is connected to a feeling of stress she feels when she is awake: The expectations of those around her that, with a husband and a house in place - well, it is probably time to get children too? Robbie fusses all the time. They even have enough space!
Mona's fears are fueled by the young, strangely gusty couple who live in the apartment opposite them (Gine Therese Grønner and Preben Hodneland), and also the creepy sleep specialist Aksel Brun (played brilliantly by Dennis Storhøi). He wants to help her, but seems to be more concerned with superstition than with modern medical science.
Writer/director Kjersti Helen Rasmussen's chills has made a sublime horror-thriller that maks me think of not just one, but three great psychological thrillers signed by Roman Polanski. First and foremost "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), then "Repulsion" (1965) and "The Tenant" (1976). And "The Nightmare" does not shame them.
This has become a film with a lot of nerve. However - as so often happens with this kind of elevated horror, it seems that the more the movie tries to explain itself, it loses the grip of being a masterpiece.
Still it is great, and don't listen to the other reviewers, they simply don't get the references. One of the top Norwegian horrors of all times.
