Monday, May 8, 2017

Before I Wake - An Unusual Supernatural Horror Drama Movie

It was another weekend staycation in Bandung that I was enjoying with my wife in the past 2 days (More on that on my wife's blog). And as usual, if I got the chance to enjoy a Saturday night movie premiere in one of the cable TV channels, I would definitely allocate my time to see it. Of course it could happen only when the hotel was providing such channels. Lucky for me that the hotel we stayed in was having Fox Movies Premium channel that showed a film that I had not seen before. Though it was a horror movie, but I still wanted to give it a try. Now how scary was the movie? I will go straight to it now.

Brief Story Line

Jessie (Kate Bosworth - 21, Superman Returns etc) and Mark (Thomas Jane - Deep Blue Sea, The Punisher, Standoff etc) were a couple who had just suffered a very traumatic incident with the loss of their very young boy Shawn. Jessie had to go to a psychiatric group to share her loss, while Mark was not really keen to it and preferred to mourn in his own way.

One day, Jessie and Mark were informed by a social worker named Natalie (Annabeth Gish) that a young boy named Cody (Jacob Tremblay - Room) had been put up for adoption. Jessie and Mark who saw similarities with their son felt that it would be a good thing for them if they adopted Cody. When Cody first came to Jessie and Mark's house, he was very shy and have a box that he kept to himself.

On the first night, when Cody fell asleep and Mark was still watching television, suddenly a blue butterfly came to their house. Jessie who was awaken also saw many butterflies later but they soon disappeared when Cody woke up. Apparently the butterflies appeared whenever Cody was asleep and having dreams.

In the following day, Cody saw the picture of Shawn and was informed by Jessie that he was their son who had gone to heaven. During the night when Cody fell asleep, butterflies appeared again. But this time Shawn also appeared to the shock of Jessie and Mark. Jessie realized later that Shawn only appeared when Cody was sleeping, coz Shawn disappeared when Cody awake from his sleep. With this knowledge, Jessie started to encourage Cody to sleep but Mark did not really feel comfortable. Meanwhile Cody was also very afraid to go to sleep coz he was afraid of the Canker man who he believed had eaten his mother alive. 

So to what extend Jessie would "use" Cody to see Shawn again? What would happen to Cody and who was the Canker man? Find them all in this supernatural horror movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well, this movie was actually a bit intriguing at first. The premise seemed interesting and scary enough. However, as the movie progressed, it was getting clearer that the movie would not be the very scary kind of movie. Yes it was categorized as supernatural horror, but I personally felt that the movie was actually more like a drama with little horror background.

The performance of young Jacob Tremblay was actually very good as a scared and sad little boy. This was even before his Oscar nominated performance in the movie Room back in 2015. Yes the movie was released only in 2016, but it was actually a 2013 production which was delayed in releasing due to some reasons. So he was actually 2 years younger than in that movie.

Anyway, continuing the movie itself, I think that as a drama, it has pretty good story. The explanation on Cody was done nicely and it gave quite a surprise. Though it was not very mind blowing, but it did provide a moment of "ooooh" which was the main essence of the story. The ending was not what I would expected or hoped in mind, but I guessed the film maker wanted to make a "beautiful" ending. As I mentioned above, the scary part was not really scary and it was not a lot. There were glimpses of Canker man who was frightening only at first but later on would not be too scary. 

So if you are looking for a drama supernatural horror movie that would only scare you briefly but with a nice touching story, then you can certainly give this one a try. But if you are expecting a very frightening supernatural horror movie that would scare you nonstop, then you have to look elsewhere. If you are interested in watching it, the movie is currently playing in Fox Movies Premium channel. You just need to search for the schedule. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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