Mientras Duermes

(2011)

Mientras Duermes (Sleep Tight) is a creepy thriller about César (the always good Luis Tosar), a lonely doorman/supervisor of an apartment block who is in the process of perpetrating psychological (and possibly physical) torture on Clara (Marta Etura, also always good), a young, bright, fun loving woman. It seems César is entering Clara's apartment before she gets home, waiting under her bed until she goes to sleep and then knocking her out with chlorophyll to do want he wants to her. And he's sending her secret admirer letters that are going too far. Things escalate when César overhears a phone conversation between Clara and her boyfriend where she dismisses him and he decides to amp up his torture. He gives her a rash, then cures it, then puts cockroaches in her apartment. César helps get rid of the cockroaches as she goes to her mother's place and is in the process of the next phase of his torture when she comes home with her just arrived boyfriend and he is stuck in the apartment. He is caught leaving the apartment, but manages to get away by saying he forgot his bag of stuff that they had found. Police also close in on him, but he manages to divert them. Things are spiraling out of control for César and when he is given his two weeks notice to finish his job and leave the complex, he is also running out of time to complete his master plan. Excellent and very creepy (and quite disturbing) thriller from the director of the two [REC] films (the first one I really like, the second one's not bad either) that is driven by an excellent performance by Luis Tosar who plays a bitter, lonely man who gets in over his head extremely well. Sure to be remade and toned down, so see this film before then.

Marta Etura