Director – Pavel Khvaleev (Involution, III: The Ritual)
Starring – Polina Davydova (III: The Ritual, Zaklyatye Druzya), Evgeniy Gagarin (III: The Ritual), and Olivia Indik (Twelve Days of Christmas)
Release Date – 2020
Rating – 2/5
I love getting in movies I’ve never heard of before to review. There is just something exciting when a package arrives and when I tear into it I find a movie that I know nothing about. My mind always races with the possibilities of what I’m about to watch. A week or so ago I got a package in from Epic Pictures Group that had the new Russian horror film Sleepless Beauty in it. This is a release that I knew nothing about but the title and artwork really pulled me in. Thank you Epic for sending this one my way.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows Mila (Davydova) who is kidnapped and taken to a secret facility where she is tortured and forced to stay awake. She is then forced to do specific tasks that doesn’t seem to have a specific purpose but soon it reveals why she is being treated this way and it’s so someone can control her. **Spoiler Alert**
I was really curious about this film and I was really excited to check it out. However, I soon found myself watching the clock more than the film. Honesty, it was boring and predictable which resulted in a very painful watch. I struggle to find entertainment in “torture porn” and this film was very much just that.
The acting in this one is very well done which is extremely surprising considering most of the film’s cast has very few credits on imdb. I may not have cared for the film itself but I was very impressed with the cast and characters. It works and I would have loved to see them in a different style of film.
The story for this one takes an interesting premise and turns it into a film that could be compared to other torture porn. We spend most of the movie watching a young woman crying, screaming, and suffering abuse. Just a few minutes of this and I’m ready for the story to move on to something else which it doesn’t for some time. The film just doesn’t have enough story to run the entire length of the film.
Finally, the film has plenty of blood and a few death scenes. These scenes are rather fun and the practical effects work but for the kill. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before but they are fun and bloody. Overall, Sleepless Beauty was a big let down. Torture porn is not really my thing and I often become bored quit fast with it but Sleepless Beauty really tried my patience. If you enjoy the slow burning films following women bound and endlessly tortured then this one is for you. However, if you are like me and looking for something with a story then this one will leave a bad taste in your mouth.
