They’re a young couple, and they’re in love. He’s a background actor working his way up, and she’s expecting their first child any day now. They have a yippy little Pomeranian, a beautiful apartment, and a life so idyllic that the cinematographer shoots it with gauzy, soft yellow light. Some movies signal the status quo is about to be upended, this movie shouts.

Written and directed by Jason Yu, Sleep is Korean horror that doesn’t try to do too much beyond creep the audience out. That it does well—even if it involves a climactic PowerPoint presentation.

It all starts when the husband, Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun), wakes up in the middle of the night and proclaims, “Someone’s inside.” An odd thing to say emerging from a dead sleep, no doubt, but Hyun-su is an actor, and the line must have come from a script. But then Hyun-su starts sleepwalking. Then, sleep scratching. Then, sleep eating. Each iteration becomes more severe and more alarming to his wife, Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi).

They visit a doctor, and he puts Hyun-su on medication. They try holistic approaches, and Soo-jin’s mother gives her prayers to ward off evil spirits. Nothing helps, and Soo-jin starts to lose it. Because as easily as Hyun-su falls asleep, and he can nod off with the best of them, Soo-jin can’t. She stays up night after night after night fretting about her husband, herself, and the safety of her coming child. But without sleep, she starts to become the mad one.

Told in three chapters, with some very adept camerawork by cinematographer Tae-soo Kim, Sleep is an alluring ghost story that benefits from its parameters. Most of the action takes place within the four walls of Hyun-su and Soo-jin’s apartment. Sure, other characters enter and exit their lives, but the perspective stays very close to the couple, building from curiosity to alarm to paranoia as Soo-jin slips further and further in desperation. She’ll do anything to protect her child and save her husband. And that might be the most terrifying thing of all.

Sleep / 잠 (2023)
Written and directed by Jason Yu
Produced by Lewis Taewan Kim
Starring: Lee Sun-kyun, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Gook Hee, Yoon Kyung-ho
Magnet Releasing, Not rated, Running time 95 minutes, Premiered May 21, 2023, at Cannes International Critics’ Week

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