Our pal Sean (Darren McAree) has a lot on his plate… he’s a recovering alcoholic who’s abusive mother has just kicked the bucket… though on that last one our hero isn’t quite sure.
To that end he signs up for a service that sticks a camera in a loved one’s coffin so family members can grieve longer… usually for a period of four weeks… but Sean is desperate for a longer look-see (by like eleven more months) so he throws money at the problem which ensures that will go down without a hitch.
While initially quite gung-fucking-ho over spying on Mommy Deadest, Sean can’t bring himself to log in for the longest, but eventually a confrontational AA meeting gives him the courage to smash that button… and before long mum’s postmortem movement is becoming ever more obvious!
Writer/Director John Williams (Creatures of the Night, Crispy’s Curse) delivers a rather skin-crawling premise with Watch Me Sleep… watching a family member decay in the grave is morbid-as-fuck, and it gives the narrative a strong hook… though the ambiguous nature of what is real or merely Sean’s delusions brought on by past substance abuse and trauma is left vague.
Normally that type of thing pisses me off six ways to Sunday, but here the nebulous nature of the preternatural peril at hand works mainly due to the strength of Darren McAree’s performance as Sean; he’s sympathetic and troubled, but relatable… that is until his sanity slips ever further away… and the prevailing sense of dread that weaves throughout the picture.
Special features on this Wild Eye Releasing DVD are light, and include only an image gallery and a collection of trailers.
While Watch Me Sleep doesn’t embrace it’s supernatural vibes full-on, it is a well-acted, suspenseful decent into one man’s psychosis.
