Because Everybody Else Has One

What to do when the best horror movie in ages is barely even a horror movie... This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about A couple adopt a young boy, Cody, after their own child died a few years before but they end up getting more than they bargained for when increasingly strange things start happening whenever Cody falls asleep. What we thought Before I Wake has been held back for months now internationally (I saw it as a press preview late last year), looking for a moment there like it might not be released at all, but it's really hard to see why. It may not be the most original or the most memorable film ever released but it is, by quite some distance, the very best horror movie to hit our shores in a very, very long time. Bringing to mind great Spanish-language dark fantasies like the Devil's Backbone or the Orphanage rather than your typical, increasingly boring, jump-scare-heavy (though there are one or two thrown in for good measure) Hollywoo...

There's no way I wasn't going to review what is easily the best of the Oscar-nominated films. Frankly, I will be very, very surprised - ande delighted - if a better film is released this year. Also, please note, I will be revealing no more than what was revealed in the film's trailer and in its general promotion, but, in terms of plot, there's actually not much the trailer doesn't cover. If you haven't seen the trailer or, obviously, read the book, consider this a slight spoiler warning BUT, and this is important, knowing whether or not our heroes escape their captivity is absolutely not, in any way shape or form, what the film is about. Feel free to read up on the entire plot, in fact, because this is one of those films where the plot machinations are absolutely secondary to the much deeper aspects of the film. Still, if you want to know nothing going in, see the movie first and then come back and read this review. But, please, do see it. Room is one of...