Before I Wake (also known as Somnia) is a 2016 American fantasy horror film directed and edited by Mike Flanagan and co-written by Flanagan and Jeff Howard. The film stars Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Jacob Tremblay, Annabeth Gish and Dash Mihok.
Video Before I Wake (2016 film)
Plot
A frightened man with a gun nervously enters the bedroom of a sleeping child. He seems to be searching for something in the shadows when a sudden commotion makes him pull the trigger. The gunfire awakens the child and the man breaks down in tears, saying that he "can't do it".
Mark and Jessie Hobson adopt an 8-year-old child named Cody Morgan. The couple had previously lost their only son, Sean, who drowned in the bathtub. On Cody's first night with them, the couple are amazed as multicolored butterflies flutter across the living room, emitting a strong glow. Mark tries to catch one to show to Cody, knowing he likes butterflies. However, Cody wakes up and the butterflies disappear.
In his new school, Cody makes friends with Annie and is bullied Tate. At home, Cody asks about the child in a photo. When Mark and Jessie tell him about Sean, who is now "in heaven", Cody tells them that that's where his mom is too. That night, the couple see Sean and try to hug him. Cody wakes up and Sean disappears.
Now realizing the amazing gift that Cody has, Jessie takes advantage of it. She lets Cody watch home videos of Sean and then that night, the couple once again sees their beloved child. Days later, Mark notices that Jessie has become addicted to seeing Sean and confronts her, telling her that she is just using Cody for his gift instead of loving him.
Cody falls asleep at school, and a nightmarish creature, who Cody calls "The Canker Man", confronts Tate as Annie watches in horror. Meanwhile Jessie goes to a doctor, behind Mark's back, with a fabricated story about Cody not sleeping well, for which the doctor prescribes medication. She mixes it with Cody's drink. That night Sean once again appears before them, but turns into a nightmarish creature. When Mark is unable to wake Cody, Jessie confesses that she drugged the boy. The creature devours Mark as Jessie is thrown across the room and falls unconscious. She wakes up with Cody on the phone calling for help, as he found her lying on the floor. Cody's caseworker, Natalie Friedman, suspects domestic violence, compounded by Jessie drugged Cody to sleep, and takes Cody away.
Jessie steals Cody's case files and finds the boys former foster parent, who took care of Cody for at least fifteen months. He reveals that, with butterflies appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Cody's dreams started to become reality. More and more of Cody's dreams came true, but when the man's wife got sick, Cody became upset and that night, "The Canker Man" appeared and took her. Shocked and heartbroken, the former parent showed Cody all the couple's pictures in hopes him of recreating his wife. However, what resulted was a poor copy, since Cody was too young to remember her face fully. The man urges Jessie to kill Cody; instead, she digs more into Cody's background and finds more about his birth mother.
Jesse goes to the orphanage where Cody is now staying. In the orphanage, the staff notices that Cody has not slept for the past 2 days. That night, despite his protests, they give Cody a tranquilizer to help him sleep. Jessie arrives to find the place dark and isolated. She witnesses nightmarish versions of people in every room, including that of Sean, Cody and his foster family. She finally finds Cody, but before she can go near him, she is thrown across the hallway by the tall, slender nightmare creature. She pulls out a pillow shaped like a blue butterfly, hugs the creature (which was, in fact, Cody's distorted memory of his mother when she was dying of cancer; hence "The Canker Man"), and as she holds the creature it takes the form of Cody and disappears. Jessie places the butterfly pillow on the sleeping Cody's chest and carries him out of his room. Walking through the orphanage, Jessie whispers to Cody and asks him to release all the people the creature has imprisoned. The nightmare then turns into a beautiful dream, and all the people taken hostage by "The Canker Man" are released. When the supervisor confronts her, she lets Jessie take the still-unconscious boy home.
The following day, Jessie gives Cody the journal his birth mother Andrea had kept, which shows how much she had loved him and his special gift of making his dreams become real. Andrea died of cancer when Cody was just six years old, which resulted in his anxiety and nightmares. At bedtime, Cody asks Jessie to tell him a story. She tells him about a gifted boy who needed a mother, and a lonely mother who needed a child. Her story also tells about a mean kid who woke up, a couple which reunited, and the father who met his son. When Cody asks her if these will come true, she tells him that it is up to him to decide, since there is more to his dreams than meets the eye.
Maps Before I Wake (2016 film)
Cast
- Kate Bosworth as Jessie Hobson
- Thomas Jane as Mark Hobson
- Jacob Tremblay as Cody Morgan
- Annabeth Gish as Natalie Friedman
- Topher Bousquet as The Canker Man
- Dash Mihok as Whelan
- Antonio Evan Romero as Sean
- Kyla Deaver as Annie
- Hunter Wenzel as Tate
Production
On September 7, 2013, it was announced that Oculus director Mike Flanagan was set to direct a horror film called Somnia he co-wrote with Jeff Howard for Intrepid Pictures, and that the producers would be Trevor Macy and William D. Johnson, with Demarest Films' Sam Englebardt co-producing and co-financing the film with MICA Entertainment headed by Dale Armin Johnson. Focus Features International initially handled international sales of the film. On November 7, 2013, it was announced that Sierra/Affinity would now handle all international rights which were previously held by FFI. On April 4, 2014, Relativity Media acquired the US distribution rights to the film. In March 2015, the title was changed to ''Before I Wake", apparently over Flanagan's objections.
Casting
On November 7, 2013, Kate Bosworth and Thomas Jane joined the lead cast of the film as the child's parents, and Jacob Tremblay was set to play as Cody. On November 18, 2013, Annabeth Gish joined the cast of the film to play Natalie, the case worker assigned to young Cody.
Filming
Filming commenced on November 11, 2013, in Fairhope, Alabama. On December 12, 2013, the crew filmed scenes at Barton Academy. Filming completed on December 16, 2013. The music was composed by Danny Elfman and The Newton Brothers.
Release
On April 4, 2014, Relativity Media acquired the US distribution rights to the film. The film was originally scheduled to be released on May 8, 2015, but was pushed back to September 25, 2015, and later pulled from the schedule due to the company's filing for bankruptcy. The film was re-scheduled to April 8, 2016, and then re-scheduled to September 9, 2016. It was then pulled from the schedule.
In June 2016, it was announced that the film would screen at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July. The film had its North American premiere there on July 31, 2016. Excluding the United States Netflix will release the movie worldwide on April 28, 2017.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 29% based on 14 reviews; the average rating is 5.4/10.
References
External links
- Before I Wake on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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