«Nightmare» - Movie Review by Kinoafisha

Mona and her boyfriend Robbie move into a spacious apartment located in the heart of Oslo. The living space, reminiscent of a Gothic castle, was practically given to the young couple, but there's a catch: a horrifying tragedy occurred with the previous owners, which had a devastating impact on the house's reputation. Additionally, the place is in need of major renovations, which Mona takes on herself as Robbie disappears at work from morning till night. Soon after settling in, Mona starts suffering from terrifying nightmares, wandering in her sleep and unconsciously causing harm to herself and her beloved. Trying to understand what's happening, she seeks help from a local doctor whose work is dedicated to lucid dreaming. After conducting an examination, the doctor concludes that Mona is in grave danger.

Dreams are a golden vein for horror. However, not all nightmares end when we wake up, as evidenced by the directorial debut of Norwegian filmmaker Hjersti Rasmussen. Her film features sleep paralysis, sleepwalking, and the materialization of fears, with successive dark visions hinting at the presence of something malevolent within the house. Like Nancy Thompson from "A Nightmare on Elm Street," Mona is forced to fight against her own dreams for survival, while an evil demon from the dream world seeks to break into reality. Yet, the true cause of all her troubles turns out to be not a supernatural entity, but rather mundane "domestic drama."

By moving to a new place, Mona finds herself trapped in a hopeless situation familiar to many women. In order to build a family, she had to bury her career ambitions and resign herself to the role of a housewife whose sole purpose is to bear children. Robbie constantly reminds her of this unfortunate fate at every convenient opportunity, without considering that she may not want to become a mother at all. It is no wonder that her fiancé becomes the source of threat in her nightmares. Locked within the four walls of her prison-like home, the "homemaker" slowly descends into madness, and when she learns about her pregnancy, she comes to a disturbing conclusion that her son is a demonic entity that must be eliminated at all costs.

Despite the typical attributes of haunted house horror and an abundance of jump scares, "Nightmare" is much closer to the so-called apartment trilogy of "Repulsion," "Rosemary's Baby," and "The Lodger." Debut director Rasmussen borrows not only the claustrophobic atmosphere but also the image of an obsessed heroine from Roman Polanski's intimate psychological thrillers. Unlike various "Insidious" and other "The Conjuring" films, this Norwegian gem not only entertains its target audience with "screamers" but also vividly showcases the horror that women endure to this day. Therefore, this Scandinavian indie horror will appeal to anyone tired of the formulaic and detached-from-reality mainstream horror films, as it offers something truly new and refreshing.