Though director William Malone scored a modest hit with House on Haunted Hill back in 1999, his 2002 follow-up Feardotcom pretty much tanked, and his next flick – 2008’s Parasomnia - didn’t even get a theatrical release in the US! That doesn’t necessarily make the film unworthy of your attention, though it doesn’t bode well. Nonetheless, I figured I’d give this DVD of Parasomnia a look.

Danny Sloan (Dylan Purcell) hits a rough streak after his girlfriend dumps him and thieves loot his apartment. When he visits his pal Billy (Dov Tiefenbach) in rehab, he wanders into the hospital’s psych ward and spies lovely young Laura Baxter (Cherilyn Wilson). Laura has been institutionalized due to a disorder that keeps her asleep most of the time; she occasionally awakens, but not often and not for long.

Danny feels smitten by the pretty Laura, so he starts to visit her. He also sees a psycho hospitalized prisoner named Byron Volpe (Patrick Kilpatrick), a serial killer who Billy claims would hypnotize victims and cause them to off themselves and others.

When Danny hears doctors indicate that they’ll take Laura away for experiments, he decides to "rescue" her. He kidnaps her and takes her back to his apartment, where he gets to know her during her occasional lucid moments.

In the meantime, we learn that Volpe maintained some strange mental connection to Laura, so her departure displeases the nutbag. This leads to much unpleasantness as he uses his mind control powers on Laura.

As I mentioned at the start, the fact that a flick goes direct-to-video doesn’t automatically make it a dud. Some movies just slip through the cracks and don’t get the distribution they need; their lack of theatrical exhibition doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy efforts.

Parasomnia doesn’t fall into the "buried gold" category. It’s more like a buried turd, as I can see exactly why the film went straight to video: it’s awful. Not mediocre, not disappointing, not even garden variety bad – it’s Awful with a Capital "A".

Essentially something like a Hitchcock take on Nightmare on Elm Street, Parasomnia falters in many domains. Acting? Mediocre to incompetent, headlined by Wilson’s Nell-style take on Laura. She goes over the top with the wide-eyed naif routine and makes scenes funnier than they should be.

Not that the rest of the cast helps. Kilpatrick essentially just plays a minor variation on Hannibal Lecter, while Purcell’s Danny offers little more than a whiny wimp – and a creepy character, to boot. Danny feels more like a stalker than an actual hero; he’s a loser who gets his own personal real-life love doll in Laura and doesn’t want to let his plaything go.

Silliness abounds in this moronic tale. Are we really supposed to believe that a psychiatric hospital keeps an inhabitant hooded and strapped like a torture victim at Abu Ghraib? I guess that’s within the realm of believability when you find a flick whose villain makes with the crazy hypnotic goo-goo eyes to get what he wants.

Perhaps someone could make a decent movie with a "literal sleeping beauty" character at its heart, but Parasomnia is far from good. It occasionally musters a certain level of tolerable mediocrity, but most of it just seems derivative and stupid.

Parasomnia appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While not bad, the transfer remained mediocre at best.

Sharpness was up and down, as the movie exhibited inconsistent levels of clarity. Overall, close-ups boasted good definition but wider shots suffered from mild to moderate softness. Some light edge enhancement didn’t help, and artifacts made the image a bit messy at times. Jagged edges and shimmering were minor issues, but sporadic specks and marks materialized; these weren’t excessive, but they seemed heavier than expected for a recent flick.

Colors weren’t much of a concern in this fairly monochromatic affair. Given the nature of the story, I didn’t expect dynamic hues, and the film tended toward a subdued bluish look much of the time. What colors we found seemed decent but unexceptional. Blacks tended to appear somewhat loose and inky, though, and shadows were often too dark. That was an issue given the fact that so much of the film took place in low-light interiors. All in all, there was enough positive material on display for a "C-", but it wasn’t an inspiring presentation.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Parasomnia seemed more satisfactory. Like many horror movies, it often went with creepy atmosphere. A few action/scare/dream sequences brought the track to life in a more active manner, and those added punch to the package, especially during the third act. The audio used the speakers in a natural manner that created a good soundscape.

Audio quality was positive. Music showed nice range and clarity, while effects offered good accuracy and punch. The smattering of loud scenes showed solid definition, and they lacked distortion. Speech was also concise and natural. Nothing here dazzled, but it achieved its goals.

In terms of extras, we open with an audio commentary from director William Malone. He provides a running, screen-specific look at the film’s roots and development, cast, characters and performances, sets and locations, effects and visual design, the opening title sequence, music, and other filmmaking elements.

Malone directed a pretty crummy movie, but he provides an engaging commentary. He digs into various aspects of the filmmaking process with gusto and covers a good range of subjects. Malone drags on occasionally but he usually gives us a pretty good chat.

A Making Of featurette fills 14 minutes, three seconds with notes from Malone and actors Dylan Purcell, Cherilyn Wilson, Sean Young, Patrick Kilpatrick, Kathryn Leigh Scott and Jeffrey Combs. We get general soundbites from the set, but the show emphasizes film clips and a few behind the scenes shots. The latter can be interesting, but the show feels too generic to be very informative.

More content shows up via Interviews with Cast and Crew. These fill a total of 52 minutes, nine seconds and include info from Malone, Purcell, Wilson, Combs, Kilpatrick, actor Timothy Bottoms, composer Nicholas Pike and visual effects supervisor Gene Warren III. They get into the film’s origins and inspirations, cast, characters and performances, cinematography, editing and the opening sequences, score, effects, and a few other movie topics.

Much of the info that appears here also pops up in the commentary, especially through the interviews with Malone and the actors. Pike and Warren provide some of the freshest material, though the others have some good moments as well. Bottoms spends much more time with reflections about his career than with Parasomnia. This is generally a good collection, but it can be a little redundant at times.

Three Deleted Scenes occupy a total of 12 minutes, 14 seconds. We find "Original Black and White Opening" (5:34), "Billy is Suspicious" (4:33) and "Danny Talks to Nurse" (2:03). The first two extended existing sequences in uninteresting ways, while "Nurse" adds a smidgen of exposition. All are superfluous.

Next comes a Stills Library with 19 images from the set. A few interesting details emerge, but nothing great. We also find a Music Video from the Plagues. This is an old garage single mentioned in the flick; the video just sets it to scenes from the movie. It’s a decent little tune but a boring video.

A few ads launch the disc. We get promos for Four Boxes, Blood on the Highway and Don’t Look Up. The DVD also provides the trailer for Parasomnia.

With an unusual "sleeping beauty" character at its core, Parasomnia had the potential to provide an intriguing tale. Unfortunately, it just riffs on other horror movies and suffers from too many basic flaws to become anything enjoyable. The DVD gives us mediocre to unsatisfying visuals along with fairly good audio and a pretty nice set of supplements. I can’t find much to enjoy in this forgettable flick.