Review: ‘Go to Sleep’ proves sleepwalking will never not be terrifying

If A Nightmare on Elm Street has taught us anything, it’s that sleep can be deadly. With his new found footage film, Go to Sleep, director Steven Espinoza taps into the subconscious mind when under the spell of sleepwalking. Along with his co-writer Chris VanderKaay, whose own film .ask splashed onto the scene two years ago, Espinoza examines a broken man, his struggle not only with sleepwalking but also in the aftermath of a messy separation, and the things we do when we’re under immense physical distress. Go to Sleep illustrates how sleepwalking really is the body’s hocus pocus way of dealing with life.

Sam (VanderKaay) just wants to feel better. He’s moved into a new place following a heated split from Mary Alice (Kathleen Killian Fernandez). He sees it as a fresh start, even though his wounds may never heal. The day he moves into the house, he starts sleepwalking. He’s never done that before. His nighttime behaviors are strange. It’s initially pretty innocuous stuff, like turning on the kitchen faucet, but things quickly escalate and put his life in immediate danger. VanderKaay’s honest portrayal of a lonely man’s unraveling hooks you right into the story, and you stay for the midnight mayhem.

At his wits’ end, Sam installs several cameras all over his home and begins wearing a headcam every time he goes to sleep at night. When he checks the footage, he discovers a dark, mysterious figure prowling around his property. He first believes that the peeping tom has nefarious intentions. Each batch of footage reveals that the creep is growing closer and closer to him. Sam considers the idea that, perhaps, the person has something urgent to tell him. As he tumbles further into the figure’s eerie world, he learns something far more sinister than he bargained for.

Go to Sleep finds Chris VanderKaay at his finest and most emotionally disheveled. He colors Sam with the most desperate state of the human experience. As he attempts to untangle his woeful plight, Sam might have to take a much closer look at his life to save himself from certain doom. The story Espinoza and VanderKaay have created is akin to a sleep paralysis demon sitting on your chest. Real fear leaks from the TV screen, and it’s not so easy to wrangle yourself away.

In the sea of found footage, Steven Espinoza’s Go to Sleep rises to the surface. It’s full of the deep excavation of the mind in its most restless state, feeling like a fever dream and inciting puddles of night sweats. Even if you’ve never been a sleepwalker, the film will make you sure glad you aren’t.

Go to Sleep is now streaming on FoundTV.