Written and directed by Jason Yu, a young, expectant wife must figure out how to stop her husband’s nightmarish sleepwalking habits before he harms himself or his family. Starring: Jung Yu-mi, Lee Sun-kyun, Kim Kuk-hee, Lee Kyung-jin, Yoon Kyung-ho, Kim Keum-soon, Kim Jun and Lee Dong-chan.
There are a certain number of things that will always work to boost a suspicious atmosphere, to fill your audience with anxiety, and adding in a pregnant woman or a baby are pretty much the top of the list. So, kicking things off with a pregnant Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) being frightened by strange noises creates a strong, eery air to put you on the edge of your seat. Jason Yu’s directorial style and the movement of the camera then add a big dose of classic mystery and horror.
It starts off a thread of tension which continues all throughout Sleep, building a gradual and patient pressure, and leaving viewers to wait for it to reach its limit. Yu does a great job of using your imagination against you, a lot of the time it’s not about what is happening but implying what could. All those dark, violent possibilities nicely draw out plenty of fear, however it does take its time. The pacing is very slow and by the time it does reach its big conclusion, it can feel underwhelming.
However, the leading performances from Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun are fantastic. Their constantly changing and incredibly charged dynamic is captivating. They have a great chemistry to build that family feel which makes it nicely difficult to watch when the sleep-walking and mysterious incidents start to fracture their relationship. Jung Yu-mi takes the offensive, bringing a strong intensity while Lee Sun-kyun is more passive and restrained, with a loving air and a touch of sadness weaved into a feeling of helplessness or hopelessness.
Sleep has an eery atmosphere, filled with tension and all manner of dark potential but makes its audience wait so long for an unsatisfying result. The ingredients are mostly there, especially the performances but the plot needed to throw in a few more developments or twists to pick up the pace. It goes for an overly slow burn, so while the idea itself is good, but it doesn’t play out as effectively as hoped.
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