Before I Wake - For the Horror-Phobic

The ending of Before I Wake (written and directed by Mike Flannagan, 2016) twists the whole movie into something sad and beautiful which will touch even those who despise horror movies.

Before I Wake’s premise is this: a young couple, upon losing their child, adopt a boy. However, this boy has the unusual power of his dreams coming to life. Unfortunately, this includes his nightmares.

This movie is primarily about grief, and explores the ways people can handle it, both good and bad, quiet, like Cody (Jacob Tremblay) and Mark's (Thomas Jane) and loud, like Jessie's (Kate Bosworth). It focuses on exploring the 'right' thing to do with these powers. Should they be used to work through a parents' grief, or is it making things worse?

At first, that seems to be the ‘horror’ of the movie – discussing morals and asking what the audience would do in such a situation. It captures the wonder of Cody’s powers with beautiful butterfly scenes that, for a Netflix original horror, show of decent special effects. It helps, too, that Cody is a likeable child character – something that’s rare in the horror genre. There is a believable balance between Cody’s quietness and fears next to scenes showing his still childlike side sell the character well. It helps that he is given agency in the film – we see Cody’s opinions and choices, which ties into the overall theme of parenting well. (And Tremblay’s more than competent acting skills certainly help.)

Do our characters make the right decisions? Perhaps to a point, and that ties into an old facet of horror, getting us to understand and empathise with the characters so that when they take the step too far, we find ourselves unsettled and questioning ourselves. Therefore, your enjoyment of the film will hinge on how well you believe and sympathise with the characters. I personally found Bosworth’s numb grief plausible and found myself wrapped up in seeing her journey.

Unfortunately, the more the monster of the film, ‘The Canker Man,’ appears and the more into classic scares we get, the less enjoyable the movie becomes. It goes from focusing on a small family to our protagonist making her way through an orphanage like it’s a haunted house attraction. And the scares aren’t awful – there’s little reliance on jump scares and more the internal fears of Jessie and Cody, they feel somewhat forced to make a scary third act. At least the monster itself is well-designed – reminiscent of creepy pastas with just enough of a change to make it unique.

And The Canker Man is the most important part. Because when it’s explained just what he is, and just how Cody came to create him, the cliché haunted house scares are forgivable. This movie is about fears and grief and how they intermingle and that’s why I recommend it even to those who aren’t huge on horror. Once you’ve finished watching, you won’t be scared. It mirrors Cody’s journey and that makes Before I Wake a truly touching film. The last scenes tie the whole thing together and do a brilliant job of twisting the very end into something bittersweet. (And it helps that colour is used so well throughout the whole movie.)