The Nightmare
2015 · Directed by Achim Bornhak
Original language: German
- drama
- mystery
- horror
The story
After a massive party one evening, 17-year-old Tina begins experiencing nightmares in which she is haunted by an unusual creature.
What it’s like
Cold, clinical rooms give way to dreamlike unease, with sleep-lab fluorescents and pale hospital whites set against the murky dark of night-time sequences where the frame loses its footing. Expect a restless, unsettled palette, close handheld framing on faces, and a soundscape that leans on hums, low drones and sudden silences rather than a melodic score. The mood is anxious and eerie, with a surreal, fractured quality that makes waking and dreaming hard to tell apart. Pacing is uneven and deliberately disorienting, unfolding in long, quiet stretches of talk and sudden jolts of nightmare imagery. Its tone is haunted and bleak, following a teenage girl whose sense of reality slowly erodes as she is pulled between friends, doctors and something she cannot explain. Intensity runs to dread and psychological unease, with a few disturbing creature images, though it avoids heavy gore. It suits a late, alone viewing for those who enjoy ambiguous, mind-bending horror and stories about fragile mental states, less so anyone wanting something gentle.
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