Parasomnia Review: Literal Late-Night Horror is Terrifically Tense

Parasomnia, the new original horror movie from debut director James Ross II and specialty streaming service Shudder, aims to provide a new answer to an age-old question: What if something attacked you, literally, in your sleep? It’s a question explored most notably by the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but the key point of difference here is a larger focus on the general vulnerability and uncertainty within sleep, rather than a specific killer or monster that can only attack in your sleep.

The result is a solid and effectively tense horror film elevated by some terrific performances and occasionally bogged down by pacing and an unwillingness to fully commit to its own genuinely good ideas.

What is Parasomnia about?

Credit: Shudder

Our story centers on Riley, played by Jasmine Matthews, a young woman with a tragic past and a history of night terrors, celebrating her twenty-fifth birthday. Everything seems well until the true darkness of that aforementioned past comes back to haunt her, and her best friend suddenly goes missing in the middle of the night. She always suspected that something deeper and more sinister lurked behind her night terrors, but now she knows the entity that tormented her is very real. And she must find a way to stop it before it gets to anyone else.

Parasomnia Review

Credit: Shudder

While it may be tempting to simply call this the new generation’s Nightmare on Elm Street and call it a day, what makes Parasomnia work so well is how it blends the “dreams are dangerous, you’re never truly safe” angle from that original classic and its contemporaries with strong character work, an effective message about processing trauma, and perhaps most noticeably most immediately, liminal space horror. Much of the film’s strongest moments are when it forces its main character and by extension, the audience to simply exist in familiar spaces like a house or a beach but in a way that doesn’t feel quite right, whereas the slasher-style jump scares end up being one of the weaker elements.

In regard to those first two elements, the film manages to get a lot of compelling dynamics out of a very small cast. Outside of the main antagonist, we only really follow four characters: Riley, Cameron, David, and Alish. And all four of them feel like living, breathing people with long-standing relationships that you buy and get invested in, an impressive feat given the less-than-90-minute runtime. This is of course, aided by some very strong performances, with Jasmine Matthews as Riley especially standing out as one of the more compelling horror heroines in recent memory.

Credit: Shudder

Also, without going into spoilers, I appreciate that the central theme of the story is ultimately not just about retaking your own power, but also the dangers of repressing your emotions and how important it is to be honest about how you feel and the way certain things affect you, a refreshing rarity in a genre that so often treats “Don’t be afraid” as “Don’t feel anything.” With all that said, Parasomnia does have two big issues that keep an otherwise great movie stuck in “just good” territory.

The first relates to that shorter runtime I mentioned earlier. The film’s admirable (and often successful) desire to dive deep into the characters ends up rubbing up against the breakneck pacing of the main narrative. There’s extensive character dialogue and even multiple POV switches that force the audience to spend more time in individual moments, but the main action and the “what is truly happening and why” of it all get dropped on you in a remarkably quick succession of set pieces. These two parts work well individually, but when taken together, they make Parasomnia feel too fast and too slow at the same time.

Credit: Shudder

The other problem comes down to the actual entity I mentioned in the plot summary. Despite how good a job the film does at tension-building and creating a truly terrifying atmosphere, the actual villains honestly aren’t that scary. They do horrific things within the plot and there’s obviously an initial jolt of anxiety created by the jump scares, but once our heroine has to face them head-on, it doesn’t really feel like there’s that much to them. What’s there works for what it is, but after the excellent build-up, it’s disappointing to see Parasomnia‘s conclusion boil down to things done before and better in several other horror films.

Is Parasomnia worth watching?

Credit: Shudder

2026 has been a banner year for horror, with films like Obsession and Backrooms making an almost immediate and massively positive impression on their audience. While Parasomnia doesn’t necessarily match the high bar set by the year’s most standout horror fare, the concept works, the performances are strong, and the ever-building sense of dread is impeccable. It may not be perfect, but you definitely won’t be falling asleep to this one.

Parasomnia premieres on Shudder September 4.

Parasomnia Review: Literal Late-Night Horror is Terrifically Tense