Before I Wake

Before I Wake (2016) begins with a couple who lost their own child adopting an eight year old boy. Cody does everything he can to stay awake, taking caffeine and keeping himself up. The reason emerges: his dreams become real. The good ones fill the house with butterflies, and the nightmares bring something else. The idea is built around grief. The mother can see her dead son again and chooses to keep the boy asleep for it; the horror comes directly out of that selfishness. Mike Flanagan directed and co wrote. Kate Bosworth and Thomas Jane play the couple, Jacob Tremblay the boy. The strangest thing about it is how it reached an audience. Its producer Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and the film sat in limbo for months. The American release date announced for 2016 moved several times, and it eventually went to Netflix in 2018, which is where most countries saw it. By then Flanagan was known for Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil, so a film shot earlier arrived later. It runs 97 minutes. Good for: horror about grief, early Flanagan, and Jacob Tremblay. Less good for: the creature is digital and its effect is limited. The rules go unexplained and some scenes are not looking for logic. The emotional resolution comes too fast and the last ten minutes are a pile of explanation.