Before I Wake (2016)

Hey kids, it's time for another #EpicHorrorMovieRewatch flick! I've made it through all the "A" titles so now it's time for "B"! I'm sure I'll make it though the alphabet by the end of the decade.

Before I Wake was directed by Mike Flanagan (Hush) and co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Howard (Oculus).

Sweet little Cody (Jacob Tremblay - Room) is asleep in his bed. Adoptive dad Whelan (Dash Mihok - Ray Donovan) holds a gun. The bejeebus has, well and truly, been scared out of him. Thus doth commenceth the Creepy Kid trope.

Mark (Thomas Jane - Vice) and Jessie (Kate Bosworth - The Art of More) lost their son after an accident in the bathtub and now are looking to adopt Cody. Apparently you can get children delivered to your door now. Cody arrives at his new home and takes his shoes off at the door. Good kid. Cody likes pineapple pizza so suck it to all you haters out there. Pineapple belongs on pizza.

 Sup.

Jessie finds Cody's stash (yes, stash, but he's like eight or something) of stimulants - he doesn't like sleeping. He does like butterflies though.

That night, the lounge room is filled with butterflies. Mark catches one in a glass but it soon disappears. Oh, there's also one of those scary dudes in the background who's only there for a little bit then disappears. You can thank me for pointing this out in case you play games on your phone while watching movies like I do.

This ain't gonna end well.

The next night, another butterfly turns up. So does Mark and Jessie's dead son, Sean. We see Cody wake up and Sean vanishes. In a nutshell, Cody's dreams come true. The catch is, something nasty and evil turns up as well because it can't all be sunshine and roses.

A kid at school bullies Cody. Cody has a nap at his desk. The kid gets attacked by the thing from earlier and disappears. At night, Cody tries to stay awake, even raids the coffee tin, but Jessie pops some kid-friendly sedative in his milk. Cody has a nightmare which comes true and they can't wake him up because he's on drugs.

It sucks balls getting tied up at work.

Something bad happens (didn't see it because I was looking at Twitter) and Cody is taken away. Jessie starts to look into Cody's background and finds Whelan (remember the dude from before) in a psychiatric institute. Turns out his wife disappeared......................

More sleeps, more bad things.

I kinda liked this one. The story was interesting, the kid likes pineapple on his pizza. Effects were good, acting was good. It bugs me when I see a horror film with a creepy kid and the kid can't act, it really takes me away from the story, but Jacob does a smashing job here. If you haven't seen Room then go see it. I'll wait...

Things I learnt: Don't give your kids Valium, unless they live next door to me, do whatever it takes to shut them up;  please don't let Thomas Jane get his hair like this ever again; before you buy a second-hand child, do your research, just in case.

Pretty good.
Six out of ten.