Nostalgia Kinky

The low-budget British horror film, Watch Me Sleep (2023) isn’t a great film, but man does it ever have a great lead performance. Recently put out on DVD from Wild Eye Releasing, Watch Me Sleep features a pulverizing and volcanic lead performance by Darren Mcare, amongst the most intense I’ve experienced in recent memory..

Director John Williams is probably best known for his 2017 film Crispy’s Curse. Watch Me Sleep is his newest production as of 2026, and it shows him to be a solid low-budget filmmaker deserving of attention.

Williams original script for Watch Me Sleep concerns a recovering alcoholic who pays to have his recently deceased mother’s rotting corpse watched on camera for a full year, as a revenge for childhood ritualistic abuse he suffered at her hands. It’s a neat little story, but what really gives it power is the alcoholism. In fact, Watch Me Sleep might be more of a film about alcohol abuse rather than just a work of supernatural horror.

Watch Me Sleep suffers from rather drab cinematography, so indicative of modern cinema that it’s hardly worth blaming the film. Also, I find the ‘ritualistic abuse’ angle in film played out and, honestly, more than a bit harmful considering we are on the verge of another full-blown ‘Satanic Panic’. I’m old enough to recall how harmful that was the first time around. All that said, this is still an effective little film featuring that powerhouse performance from Mcaree, who is truly impressive in every moment he’s on screen.
Recommended and available from MVD.
Oh, and the curated soundtrack featuring The Hare and the Moon is perfect.

-Jeremy Richey, May 2026-