Parasomnia (2025) Review: Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2025 Cinemax
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸 on 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by James Ross II
Night terrors! An evil entity manifested from them! Blood galore! Parasomnia has all this and more, with plenty of surprises in store.
Official summary
After her friend disappears, Riley must confront the demon of her night terrors that may have turned into reality, while also dealing with her own tragic past.
Goodbye
First feature film from writer/director James Ross II Parasomniawhich won the Silver Audience Award at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, is a highly entertaining slice of horror film that opens with a plot of night terrors and curses, then later adds an unexpected backstory that builds suspense.
Riley (Jasmine Mathews) is haunted by terrifying dreams on her 5th, 15th and 25th birthdays involving a supernatural entity called The Seer (Simon Longknight). On these previous anniversaries, people close to Riley died. She’s sure she’s developed habits that will keep her out of harm’s way for her next birthday, but her longtime friend David (Stephen Barrington) is skeptical. At a reunion at the family home where his parents died in a murder-suicide on his 5th birthday, the couple are joined by Riley’s boyfriend Cameron (RJ Brown) and David’s girlfriend (Danny Brown), and of course, bizarre things happen and David insists on leaving. But the Seer’s reach isn’t limited to where Riley might be.
The ensemble cast is wonderful here, including Sally Stewart who joins the proceedings during the second act, but I’ll leave the description of her character out of my review because that would spoil things. Parasomnia This is the kind of film that should be seen as cold as possible, because Ross II has several surprises in store for spectators. Part of the film’s appeal is that it follows the conventions of certain horror subgenres and then takes viewers down unexpected paths. Highly recommended for scare aficionados of all stripes, but those with an aversion to on-screen eye trauma can watch with their fingers.
Review of Joseph Perry
Parasomnia screened as part of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, which took place October 16-25 at the Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg.
