Before I Wake (2016)

Mike Flanagan has become an in-house horror factory for Netflix, and built quite a following in the process. Netflix Originals “Hush” and “Gerald’s Game” earned the talented filmmaker such cultural cachet that he parlayed their success into an original series for the service, “The Haunting of Hill House,” currently in production. As if to further bolster what seems like it could become its own channel on the service before long, Netflix has unearthed the long-delayed third film by the director of “Oculus” and “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” “Before I Wake,” which was originally scheduled to be released in 2015 and already premiered in most international markets. The film was delayed a few times after its 2014 production and then fell into release limbo after Relativity Media went out of business. When this happens, the eventual release is often a letdown. Put simply, films often gather dust when left on a shelf, and sometimes they’ve been left there for reasons other than financial. But this is not the case with “Before I Wake”—well, not completely. It’s a flawed film, but there are elements that really work, especially the lead performance and some of Flanagan’s gifts with composition. "Before I Wake" is also particularly interesting to watch now as one can see it as a career stepping stone to the movies he's made since.