Beyond the Wall of Sleep is the story of a guy who's sent to an insane asylum because he can't sleep without having horrific dreams, and is highly agitated for a while after he wakes up.  So much so, that he's actually killed someone in a fit of rage because of it.  Now it's up to to Dr. Kaufman to figure out what's causing the dreams and to see if there's anything that can be done about it.  To that end, the doctor builds a machine to attune his mind to that of the patient so he can see what the patient is actually dreaming, because the things the patient screams about make no sense, and finding out what the dreams actually are could be the key to finding a way to help him.  Unfortunately, the doctor gets a lot more than he bargained for.

There seem to be a lot of takes on H.P. Lovecraft stories going around out there in the indie world, and writer / director Nathan Fisher has provided us with yet another one.  Some are good, some aren't so good.  So how does this one rate?

For me, this film is kind of a mixed bag.  Visually, the film looks really, really good.  The set design, the props, the costuming, the quality of the video...all excellent.  There were three things however that made this film not work so well for me, and I'll list them in order.

First was the acting.  While it was passable, it was somewhat stiff and the dialogue sounded recited.  There wasn't any great naturalness to it, which in my opinion, hurt both the characters and the story.

The second thing was the sound issues in certain parts of the film.  I had trouble making out a variety of things being said, not only by the crazy guy, but also, and most importantly, the entity at the end of the film that basically explains everything.  The sound was over-effected and I had a really hard time following it.  Even now I'm not really sure what the whole deal was with it all.  The normal dialogue however sounded fine and was actually recorded quite well, so this wasn't a consistent problem in the film.  Not to beat a dead horse, but this is where subtitles would have come in handy, and I really wish more film makers would take the time to add optional subtitles to their films.  Yes it takes more time, but in situations like this it can really help clear things up.

Lastly was the whole Lloyd Kaufman thing.  It's bad enough when you name your main character Lloyd Kaufman, but when Lloyd Kaufman actually shows up as a side character in a bit part when it's supposed to be an otherwise serious film, you just can't take it seriously.  Now don't get me wrong, Lloyd Kaufman is a really nice guy and I think he's great and all, but having him appear like that out of the blue in a kind of a goofy bit part in an otherwise serious film...it just didn't work.

So basically what we end up with is a really nice looking film with a decent story that had some issues that prevented me from really getting into it.  Issue one and three are personal issues and simply my opinion.  They wouldn't necessarily ruin the viewing experience for everyone.  The sound issue however, that's a tough one.  You might find yourself rewinding it a few times to try to catch all that's being said by the entity at the end.  It's not so bad that it's unintelligible, but you really have to focus on it to make it all out.  Even when you do though, from what I did catch, it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

The long and the short of it is, mostly great production quality with some problems that may or may not bother some people.  In any case, it was a great effort and definitely worth checking out if you get the chance to see it.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/sleep_movie.