#31Days: Parasomnia (2025)

content warning: blood, gore, violence against women, foul language, alcohol use, smoking, trauma

10 years ago, at a group foster home, Riley does not leave her room, staying in bed all day. David, another resident, witnesses the aftermath of a horrific murder that Riley sleeps through. In the present, Riley and David are still good friends, with David even setting up a surprise party for Riley's birthday. Then David goes missing and Riley is forced to confront a lifetime of night terrors, trauma, and the strange feeling that something has been following her for years.

Parasomnia is the feature-length debut of writer/director James Ross II. He crafts a natural, lived-in world that builds an instant sense of trust in what we get to see. Sure, there's potentially a full-blown demonic possession in the first five minutes of the film, but the world of the foster home feels real enough to connect with right away.

So is the party where the world starts to get a bit more strange. Riley and her friends are drinking, talking, and playing two truths and a lie. It feels like a real party. Then Riley reveals that she will not fall asleep until everyone else around her falls asleep first. And she shows her friends how they can manipulate their blood pressure to pass out in about five seconds. Then they start doing it like a game. Ross' structural loop is establishing narrative credibility and trust before sliding in the next unnerving detail.

Parasomnia balances on that edge of the rational and the unimaginable throughout its runtime. Every inexplicable thing we see has a far more likely rational explanation. Sleep comes before anything wrong, and anything wrong can be explained away. The only certainty is the trail of murders that seem to follow Riley throughout her life. Much like Riley's nighttime routine, everything can be protected through logic until it can't.

There's a subtle language to transitions between reality and Riley's "routine" logic. The lights get darker, but the colors become more vibrant. The grounded noises of reality like a breath or a light buzzing become louder than they ever could be. Focus shifts in and out, coalescing into a series of rings and distorted proportions that could seemingly only exist in a dream. The result is a horror film that must be felt to be believed.

Parasomnia is streaming on Shudder.

#31Days is an annual tradition around here, even if the results aren't always published. For decades now, I've watched and reviewed a different horror film every day in the month of October. 2026 sees the return of the reviews to Sketching Details in real time.