If I Die Before I Wake

This was one of the most suspenseful direct-to-video thrillers I have seen in quite a while.

The movie starts off with three intruders breaking into a house while the family sleeps and picks up wonderfully from there.

If I Die Before I Wake, was one of those films where the situation could happen to anybody and that's where it's appeal comes from. This movie centers around a teenage girl living in the house and how she deals with whats going on. Her main focus are to of course, get out of the house, keep herself and little sister hidden, and to protect her family who are meanwhile being tortured and beaten.

The movie had a great load of suspense for the first twenty minutes but then winds down as the lead character is forced with split-second decisions. However, the end sequences pick up with intensity leading to a hard-hitting climax.

The acting was especially good with the teenage girl comparable to Marilyn from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

There wasn't much violence or gore so don't rent this looking for a massacre. Do rent this though if you want to be thrilled and at the edge of your seat. 6/10

If I Die Before I wake is a reletively short but effective horror movie that follows a family held hostage by burglars. We know little about the characters, but all play a very important role in the film. The film opens with brief shots of the family. Parents sleeping in one room. Teenage son Ben working at his computer in his room. The two sisters asleep in thier room. This is all we know of the characters when the burglars break down the door to the house. Lori Beth, the oldest sister. She hears the burglars enter and hides little sister Mary. Ben, listening to music over his headphones is quickly captured. He is heard yelling and seen being carried by to of the three burglars into his parent's room where they too are taken hostage. Lori Beth tried to escape but can't. After telling her sister to remain hidden, she sneaks into Ben's room and grabs one of his baseball bats as a weapon. She sees her family through the open door. Mom and Dad sitting on their bed hands tied behind their backs. Ben is laying on the floor also tied up. The burglars save a great deal of their fury for Ben. The rather big kid is beaten and kicked several times before he is gagged. The father, too is briefly gagged. From this point on, the movie is very violent. Lori Beth trails the burglars through the house until the end. The story is very good, but the excessive and constant violence and fouls language seems to spoil certain aspects of the film. All of the actors do a very good job in their roles. If you can take the violence, you will enjoy this movie.

This is one freaky movie that tells the story of three intruders breaking into a family's home and holding them hostage. It also shows pretty graphically what some people might actually do in this sort of situation. It is intense and over all frightening. Although some of my family members found it too violent for them to stomach, if you can put up with a lot of violence, then you're in for one scary ride of a movie. 5/5

I'm still holding my breath from this outstanding thriller!! What a fantanstic job Brian Katkin did in this sleeper hit. I can't rememeber how long it has been since a movie scared me. This one gets your attention from the start and never lets up. I actually considered turning it off about half way through because I was that horrified. I wasn't sure if I could take much more of the terror! I certainly was glad that I didn't. Katkin shows that a great scare can still be done without expensive "tricks" of computer effects. This is just a well done, good old fashion journey into fear. It is directed as good as the best of the best thrillers!

What helps make this so believable is this a crime that could happen to any of us at any time! I don't want to ruin anything by revealing the story. Just lock your windows and doors and allow yourself to let the movie take you for a ride. You'll be rewarded with a adrenaline pumping thrill as good as anything I have ever experienced. And I have to mention that Stephanie Jones was incredible. She does a 10 plus job of acting. She allows us to feel the horror she feels through the entire film. Also, the camera work was some of the best I've seen in this genre. It captures the fear perfectly, constanting taking us to the edge.

If you like a good scare, don't miss this one.

For a movie that plunges into its thin story without introducing any characters, motives, or the scene, If I Die actually manages to create an air of dread from the start, but unfortunately tapers off to a conventional ending.

If I Die Before I Wake has a simple shoestring plot - three redneck burglars break into a suburban home and hold the family hostage, torturing them. In fact, they are tortured for the first third of the movie (the runtime is 72 minutes), and its quite a disturbing bevy of screams and pleading from the family that is successful in building a nightmarish tension.

From then on, we follow daughter Stephanie Jones as she maneuvers (sometimes incredulously) past and hides from their captors. While the script consists of routine dialogue and sometimes monotonous reworkings of Jones eluding her tormentors, it often surprises with the unexpected deaths of some major characters and one chillingly scripted scene in which one of the burglars peruses around with the little girl, mimicking the actions of her father from the home videos they are watching in the living room.

Director Katkin partially succeeds in delivering a cheap but genuinely creepy horror film in the first half by wallowing in torture and masochism, he missteps from then on last and falls prey to script conventions. Still, If I Die Before I Wake is worth a look if only for the unflinching terror inflicted on the innocent suburban family.

6 out of 10