Mike Flanagan’s ‘Before I Wake’ is 2018’s First Great Horror Movie
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Somewhat ironic, considering Before I Wake was originally a 2015 film.
Not widely released until this past Friday, growing master of horror Mike Flanagan’s “new” film Before I Wake was actually made *before* Flanagan directed recent hits Ouija: Origin of Evil, Hush and Gerald’s Game. Believe it or not, filming wrapped way back in 2013, with the movie originally dated for release in 2015… then 2016… and then 2017.
Netflix saved the film from purgatory, premiering it last week.
Ever since Wes Craven brought a dream demon to the screen with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, the horror genre has been blending nightmares and reality in various different ways. But Before I Wake injects that particular approach with a whole lot of invention, centered on a young boy whose dreams and nightmares manifest in the real world while he sleeps.
Jacob Tremblay stars as the 8-year-old Cody, an otherwise perfect little gentleman who is adopted by Kate Bosworth and Thomas Jane’s Jessie and Mark Hobson at the start of the film. Jessie and Mark have recently lost their own child in a tragic at-home accident that still haunts them, but they’re hoping Cody will fill that void in their hearts – if that sounds a bit selfish, know that the film doesn’t shy away from exploring the darkness of that particular desire.
As for Cody, well, it doesn’t take long before he falls asleep… despite his best efforts.
When Cody sleeps, whatever he imagines inside his own head – be it a wonderful dream or a horrifying nightmare – literally manifests itself in the Hobson home. Cody seems to initially be at peace in his sleep, as colorful butterflies appear to Jessie and Mark while they’re lounging on the couch – these “dream” moments are pure magic, as they’re lit, filmed and wonderfully played by both actors as waking dreams that you can’t help but be in sheer awe of. But Cody’s supernatural abilities take a sinister turn when he begins to have nightmares. Cody is terrorized in his sleep by a barely-humanoid creature he refers to as “The Canker Man,” a slender, alien-like being that literally consumes anyone in its path.
The Canker Man is always with Cody, he warns his new parents.
But lest you think Before I Wake is your standard tale of a nightmare creature invading the real world, the brilliance of Mike Flanagan and Jeff Howard’s script is that it’s actually an emotionally complex tale of love, loss and the way that our past experiences, well, haunt us in our everyday lives. Without giving anything away, The Canker Man is something more than a dream demon that Cody conjured up in his worst nightmares; rather, it’s a nightmarish manifestation of the most terrifying, deep-seated moment in the young boy’s past.
Much like Gerald’s Game, Before I Wake is capped off with a heart-wrenching coda that ties the whole thing together and takes everything you’ve just watched to an entirely new level. The film is equipped with one of the strongest final acts you’ll ever see in a horror movie, highlighting what makes Flanagan such a master storyteller in the horror space: his deep, heart-on-his-sleeve empathy for others, and his clear understanding that horror means absolutely nothing without relatable human emotion at the center of it.
Before I Wake is the story of a sad mother who needs a child to love. And a lonely child who needs to be loved by his mother. And it’s another wonderful treat from a new master.
I’d say 2018 is off to a great start, horror fans.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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