Sleep Tight Review

5th Mar 2013

Sleep Tight is an atmospheric tale of César (Luis Tosar), an unhappy and bitter concierge, whose suicide is only staved off by the unhappiness of others. While he is unable to feel happiness, he can derive pleasure from the misery of others, so he sets about irritating the residents of his building with petty nuisances. However, while over-feeding pets or misplacing mail might put most of the residents in a foul mood, he can’t seem to bring down the eternally cheerful Clara (Marta Etura). Using increasingly disturbing measures to upset Clara, it is clear that César is spiralling out of control and his quest to wipe the smile from Clara’s face has horrifying consequences.

Sleep Tight is a brilliantly low-key horror that unnerves the audience with the simple idea that we may not be as safe in our own home as we’d like to think. Director Alexandre Aja avoids gore, excessive violence and CGI ghouls and instead skilfully notches up the tension and horror using character development. César makes for an excellent villain, his actions are despicable but are not so evil as to be unbelievable and Luis Tosar is brilliant at portraying a man who is both intriguing and repulsive and, at times, surprisingly sympathetic. There is one memorably tense scene in Clara’s flat where you almost find yourself routing for César, almost. In turn Marta Etura brings sunshine to the screen as Clara, she’s the light to César’s darkness and it’s easy to see why he both hates and desires her. There’s also a range of interesting characters in the film and César’s and Clara’s interaction with them highlights the fact that a person’s public persona is often at odds with their true feelings. Furthermore these characters, from the cleaning lady to the little girl who unwisely attempts to blackmail César, save the film from focussing too excessively on the two main characters, while also enabling character development.

The film is beautifully shot and a small portion of credit should be given to the beautiful building in which the entire film is set, a building so lovely that Clara’s apartment is desirable even with the unhinged concierge under the bed!

The sole criticism of this film is that in parts it feels slightly too slow and verges on repetitive. However, this slow pace and repetitiveness lends a very realistic element to the film and allows the horrific conclusion to have more of an impact on the audience, so it’s definitely forgivable.

Sleep Tight is a clever, unpredictable and tense film that examines an aspect of human nature that César takes to the extreme, the act of making those around you unhappy because you yourself are unhappy. It provides characters you care about, sometimes in spite of yourself, and one almighty twist. If you like your films blood soaked then this isn’t for you, but if you want an intelligent film with nuanced performances I can’t recommend Sleep Tight enough. You’ll be sure to check under your bed afterwards….