Jason Yu – 'Sleep' movie review

Possession has been explored in cinema for decades, most notably defining classic horror movies like The Exorcist, The Evil Dead, and, more recently, The Babadook. Many cultures and religions believe in spirit possession, and this idea has incited a long-standing fear in people across the world for centuries.

Considering the number of horror stories featuring possession, you’d think filmmakers might struggle to come up with an original angle to explore such an overdone theme. Yet Jason Yu has proved otherwise with Sleep, a black comedy horror centring around a woman who loses all sense of reality as her husband battles a strange sleep disorder.

The film begins by lulling us into a false sense of horror, with Jung Yu-mi’s Soo-jin waking up next to her husband, Hyeon-soo (played by the late Lee Sun-kyun), who suddenly bolts upright, still sleeping. Tensely, the camera follows Soo-jin as she investigates the house after Hyeon-soo utters, “Someone’s inside”. She soon discovers that the noise is coming from their dog, and when Soo-jin returns to her bedroom, cradling her pregnant stomach, she finds her husband in a new position on the bed, his feet dangling off the end. 

After the title card, we’re introduced to the couple, and now they’re both awake, with Hyeon-soo showering his wife with affection. The pair are clearly close, as their framed family photo of them with their dog emphasises, and they seemingly can’t wait for their new addition to the household. Yet, it doesn’t take long for everything to fall apart.

We then see Soo-jin meeting her new neighbour in a comical sequence in which she accidentally opens the door in her face, leaving her mildly injured. This offbeat and quirky sense of humour is a constant presence throughout, and it gives the movie a unique charm that separates it from your average horror film. Sleep has a distinctive personality, and as comedy weaves with horror, Yu proves himself to be a master of balancing out the two with equal strength.

Soo-jin soon finds herself in a constant state of anxiety when Hyeon-soo starts to exhibit some terrifying symptoms of possession, which his doctor mislabels as a REM sleep disorder. In one sequence, which evokes the physicality of early silent cinema, Soo-jin watches on in horror as her husband chews raw meat from the fridge and cracks an egg into his mouth before dropping a whole, uncooked fish in between his lips. She has to stop him from jumping out of the window, too, using all of her might to pull him back to safety.

Naturally, the unpredictability of his condition causes her to fear the safety of her baby, who she gives birth to within the film. As Hyeon-soo becomes even more unrecognisable during the night, she starts to descend into a strange state of possession alongside him, possessed by fear, anxiety and intrusive thoughts.

There are many subtle foreshadowing techniques and fascinating parallels left open to interpretation, such as the link between being possessed by a spirit – having someone living inside of you – and pregnancy, both of which dictate your mood and your life. How much of that thing that’s not you – but resides inside of your body – is actually you?

Sleep is an impressive debut from Yu, and while the movie doesn’t elicit the same levels of fear found in many classic horrors, it’s a clever and contained film that is well worth your time. Yu is certainly set for success, whether that be in the horror genre or within the realm of black comedy.

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