Sleep

A recently married couple find their lives turning upside down as a result of the husband’s nocturnal behaviour.

Late one night, as recently married Hyun-su sleeps, he whispers to his wife, ‘Someone’s inside’. Sleep talking soon escalates to sleepwalking and signs of something much more troubling. Is the stress of work and approaching parenthood taking its toll on him, or is there a more sinister explanation?

The debut feature of Jason Yu, an acolyte of Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong, is a supremely entertaining and impressively claustrophobic psychological horror. Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun (in what would become one of the final roles for the tragic star of Parasite) are terrific as the couple at the heart of this strange, increasingly unsettling mystery, with Yu’s original script moving seamlessly between dark comedy, psychodrama and feverish frights. Spooky and stylish, this is a confident feature by a promising new director that may just keep you up at night.