Danny Sloan is an unlikely protagonist for a horror movie, which makes him at least modestly endearing in Parasomnia, the latest flick from director William Malone (out July 13 on Blu-ray and DVD). Danny (Dylan Purcell) is an undergraduate art student with a deep, Hi-Fidelity fascination for obscure 60s garage rock recordings. His life changes abruptly while visiting a friend in rehab at the county hospital. Wondering down the crepuscular corridors, he encounters beauty and the beast. The former is a lovely girl, Laura Baxter (Cherilyn Wilson), confined to bed by a rare sleeping sickness; the latter is serial killer Byron Volpe, kept hooded and chained in a padded cell.
Danny impulsively decides to rescue Laura after he learns she is about to be carted off to a dubious research center for pharmacological experiments. But Danny finds that Volpe, a mesmerist and rare book dealer (now there a combination!) already claims her through his power over her dreams. A lad of no particular acumen or skill, Danny has undertaken more than he knows how to handle. And hes in love with the strange girl who keeps nodding off.
There is something oddly moving about Dannys concern for Laura, which seems to have little to do with sex and everything to do with old-fashioned romance and chivalry. But dont mistake Parasomnia for a romance movie. Malone drenches his production in buckets of fake blood and unconvincing gore as if concerned that otherwise no one would stay awake through a movie about a psychic serial killer stalking a narcoleptic girl. And thats a shame, because the plot of Parasomnia could have developed along more interesting lines.
Take the villainous Volpe, a descendent of Fritz Langs memorably spooky criminal mastermind, Dr. Mabuse, as well as the sort of guy Hannibal Lechter might have over for dinner. He seems to stand for intellect utterly disembodied from soul or conscience, the evil of self-absorption, but is never developed into anything beyond a boogieman. At least Mabuse had a mad plan to wreck society and Lechter was a good cook.
