In Theaters and Digital

Sleep is supposed to be the one place where the monsters cannot follow us—or at least where we can blame them on bad wiring, buried trauma, and whatever greasy mistake we ate before crawling into bed. In Parasomnia, writer-director James Ross II rips away that comfort almost immediately, turning sleep into an unlocked door and every nightmare into something that might already be standing on the other side. The result is a nasty, ambitious supernatural chiller that occasionally trips over its own mythology but still manages to leave a few claw marks.

Jasmine Mathews stars as Riley, a young woman whose night terrors are connected to a trail of blood stretching back to her childhood. She has built her life around controlling the uncontrollable: no drinking, no disruptions, and absolutely no careless surrender to sleep. Unfortunately, the human body eventually collects what it is owed. When Riley’s best friend disappears, she begins to suspect that the demonic figure stalking her dreams has stopped waiting for an invitation and crossed into the waking world.

Yes, A Nightmare on Elm Street is sitting in the room, grinning like a bastard. Ross knows it, we know it, and the movie knows it. Instead of pretending otherwise, Parasomnia pushes through that familiar doorway and builds its own cruel mythology involving generational violence, missing friends, mutilated eyes, and a creature known as the Seer. Ross is particularly effective when he keeps that mythology at the edge of the frame, allowing grainy images, fractured memories, and distorted first-person sequences to make us question whether Riley is dreaming, awake, or trapped somewhere between the two.

Mathews is the reason the movie survives its rougher patches. She gives Riley a wounded vigilance that feels lived-in rather than performed, making her terror register as more than the usual collection of gasps, screams, and frantic trips through dark hallways. RJ Brown brings warmth and uncertainty to Cam, while Stephen Barrington helps ground the story in the shared damage of Riley’s past. The relationships matter here, which gives the eventual betrayals and revelations more bite than the film’s demonic boogeyman can always manage on his own.

The trouble arrives when Parasomnia begins explaining itself. Horror loves rules until the rules start sounding like somebody reading the instruction manual aloud, and Ross occasionally buries the dread beneath exposition, spiritual lore, and third-act revelations fighting for elbow room. At 85 minutes, the movie moves like hell, but that speed comes at a price. Major developments are introduced before they have time to rot properly, while some of the visual effects cannot match the size of the nightmare Ross is attempting to unleash.

Still, there is something exciting about watching a young filmmaker swing this hard. Parasomnia is bloody, strange, sometimes clumsy, and frequently creepy as hell—a feature debut with more nerve than polish and more ideas than its running time can comfortably contain. Ross has not created the next Freddy Krueger, but he has made sleep feel dangerous again, and that is no small accomplishment. Turn off the lights, settle into bed, and press play. Just don’t expect the darkness to remain empty once the movie ends.

Parasomnia streams on Shudder beginning on September 4th, 2026.

MPAA Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 85 mins
Director: James Ross II
Writer: James Ross II
Cast: Jasmine Mathews; RJ Brown; Sally Stewart
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Don't Fall Asleep
Memorable Movie Quote: "Don't tell me this doesn't feel familiar."
Distributor: Shudder
Official Site:
Release Date: September 4, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: After her friend vanishes, Riley must confront the demon from her night terrors that may have crossed into reality, while facing her own tragic past.