The Sleeping Room

This is a very steadily building thriller that has some great twists in it. Plus, to be honest, it's nice to not watch a movie like this set in an empty insane asylum or a cabin in the woods!

Anyway, I found myself definitely rooting for the "good" people and against the "bad". It is a worthwhile story!

I've never acted, it can't be easy. Watch out for the mechanic in this. Perhaps the worst actor I've ever seen. How do people get jobs like that? It's inspiring really. He must've been paid for that. There's some other klonkers in here too. Her boss could do with a bit of work. The chap she's after seems like he should be a much better actor, he's got the looks but is just a plank. The main character, she's good, she holds it together.

The film has a good, depressing, repressed feel. Story doesn't really get going. Some of it just didn't make sense to me, like the initial parlour trick? Eh? Anyhow, you get to see a bit of Brighton. It's good there.

"The Sleeping Room" is the type of film for which I honestly regret only being able to give a mediocre rating 5/10. Not out of malice or just to be different, but because it sadly doesn't deserve any better. The basic plot idea is good and original, the filming locations and set-pieces are terrific and it does contain a handful genuine moments of fright, but overall speaking the film doesn't have a proper pacing and the screenplay severely lacks coherence and logic (particularly towards the ending). I specifically regret my rather low rating because I absolutely love British horror movies set in the Victorian era or referring to the Victorian era, and because director/co-writer John Shackleton is a very sympathetic guy! He was present at the Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films and explained that the inspiration for "The Sleeping Room" came almost spontaneously when he was walking around in Brighton and witnessed the entire authentically creepy Victorian legacy. He's definitely right about that! Whilst renovating an old Victorian brothel, the timed handyman Bill and the troubled prostitute Blue find an antique movie projector that shows an unorthodox little home video made by the original brother owner Fiskin. When exploring the mansion further, because sex didn't work out anyway, they find more sinister things like a double-sized mirror and a secret sleeping room, which was used by the prostitutes to rest in between shifts and where the pioneer snuff-movies where shot. Blue discovers there's a blood link with her own macabre family history, while Bill gradually gets absorbed by the powerful influence of Fiskin's ghost. Oh, and in the meantime they also have to fight off Blue's loathsome pimp Freddie! The mystery Fiskin mansion truly had me captivated and focused, even though it unfolds terribly slow, but then suddenly everything nearly gets ruined because the script reverts to dreadful clichés, like shape-shifting and hallucinations. The primitive snuff footage is unsettling and the killer wears a horrifying mask (although it's just a simple cloth bag, like Jason Vorhees wore in "Friday the 13th Part II") and I counted two or three noteworthy "jump"-moments, but still "The Sleeping Room" left me behind unsatisfied and slightly disappointed. The acting performances are more than adequate, with a strong performance of the ravishing Leila Mimmack and a joyously sleazy part for David Sibley.

Leila's performance was convincing. The premise was promising. The script was doleful. The plot got completely and utterly lost. The penultimate scene on the beach made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Amateurish at best.

A horror movie that for most of its duration didn't feel like a horror movie. The tension builds slowly, almost to the point of boredom, but there's always enough to keep you intrigued. At a point it ratchets up into horror mode but unfortunately doesn't really reward you for your patience. Ultimately quite disappointing.