Posted on October 2, 2011
By Emmet Duff
Fantastic Fest
Sleep Tight
Directed by Jaume Balagueró
Screenplay by Alberto Marini
2011, Spain
It’s no easy task to conduct a captivating, exhilarating film around an absolutely horrendous human being. But in his first follow up to the Rec films, Juame Balagueró not only pulls this off, but, in a nasty piece of filmmaking magic, implicates the audience by encouraging us to care about his troubled protagonist. Sleep Tight is both a tense, relentless thriller and an unsettling portrait of subdued madness.
César (Luis Tosar) cannot be happy. He says as much in Sleep’s opening voiceover as he stands at a rooftop’s edge. He’s a concierge at an upper crust apartment complex, but, despite being incapable of happiness, he goes about his work with dignified class. Clara (Marta Etura) is César’s polar opposite. She is a tenant in the apartment building and her happiness is insistent and contagious. And though César always seems pleased to see Clara, greeting folks and holding doors is not really César’s passion, as it were. No, it is his nighttime indiscretions that keep him from jumping off the nearest balcony. And that’s the vaguest way this reviewer can describe Sleep Tight.
There’s an end to that vagueness. From the opening scene, Sleep Tight is admirably restrained in its storytelling. Balagueró doesn’t so much tell a tale–he delicately unfolds it, piece by piece. If you’re a 
fan of horror, it should be enough for you to know that César isn’t spending his nights working another job. He is spending them doing bad things.
Tosar plays his part with masterful subtlety. His César is a respectful, often charming man, but his desperate unhappiness and unforgivable actions never seem like a stretch. Worse, he is, to a point, a sympathetic character. He is a troubled child in the body of a professional monster. Marta Etura is also very good at conveying Clara’s carefree attitude and persistent optimism. Clara may not be as complex of a character, but Etura gives her vibrant life.
Balagueró proves his versatility with this film. He delivers scene after scene of expertly orchestrated tension, but maintains a comic detachment that makes the film bearable and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Throughout it all, César is at the center of the film. And, insidiously, the tension here comes not from the threat to innocents, but from the threat that César will be exposed, justly, for the monster that he is. Sleep Tight may not make you feel like a very good person, but it is nevertheless a thrilling, fascinating horror film.
Emmet Duff
Jaume Balagueró, Sleep Tight, Toronto Palestine Film Festival
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Emmet Duff is a small town Ohioan reborn as an Austin, TX based artist and writer. He spent his youth either reading or watching movies, which is probably why he feels compelled to watch movies and then write words about them. In 2009, he graduated from Kenyon College with a double degree in Psychology and Studio Art and has yet to capitalize on that deadly combination. Once a kindly and humble Midwesterner, Emmet now eats a Tex Mex breakfast, sports a ten gallon hat, and refuses to be messed with.
As an artist, Emmet enjoys photographing things, building things, and photographing things that he builds. Though his writing extends beyond cinema and criticism, he started his illustrious film writing career working for his older, very talented, brother in Sydney, Australia. Emmet has a enthusiastic love for all kinds of films and would be hard pressed to name a favorite filmmaker. But one time he spent a few days rewatching all of David Cronenberg’s films in a row. And he didn’t hate it. 
