It is easy to get lost in your thoughts, but what happens when you get lost in the mind of someone capable of destroying the world?
Ambrose London, a renowned expert in the field study of dreams, is called by a fellow doctor in the Arkham Asylum to interview James Fhelleps, a patient with apparently a case of split personality disorder. Since his first encounter with him, London starts to have nightmares and hallucinations. This turns out to be merely the beginning of his problems, as Joe Slater, the second personality of the patient, not only starts to feel as a real evil person, but also as something that has the goal to end humanity as we know it, and the means to do it.
Ok, there are some good things that writer and director Chad Ferrin brings with his new film “Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep”, based on the short story written by H.P. Lovecraft of (almost) the same name…
However, before I dwell into details, I need to give you a warning:
Do not watch this film during family time in your living room!
This goes double especially if you have people in your household that might be minors or that are sensitive to nudity, gore, mutilations and (somewhat – I’m not judging) gratuitous sex scenes, and who might walk into the room at the worst possible moment.
With that out the way, allow me to elaborate.
This film is a wild ride, and after some thought, I think it is due to a BIG change in tone that happens in the second part of the film. This might be strange to you if you know the original short story and might be expecting a step-by-step adaptation.
The first half of the film, despite having several brutal and awkward scenes, it can be taken as a fair adaptation, and is actually very interesting. Sure, you might need to forgive some bad acting and not so great special effects, but for the most part, the story was engaging and was creating a good amount of tension.
The backstory of Fhelleps/Slater was very well developed, and the mystery behind the second personality was very interesting. Although there is a big change in what is really going on in the Arkham asylum when the good doctors were not looking, it is a good setup for what we were going to see later.
But…
The movie started clearly in a serious tone, and later the film becomes more like a farce.
In the second half, there are some vibes of David Cronenberg’s “Shivers”, but without the intention of being played straight. The body horror elements go very bonkers to say the least, and there are some … morally questionable scenes that were a little bit too long.
The film never goes way too much into the sexual humor, nor does it get into the violent levels of Rob Jabbaz “The Sadness”; but it made me wonder if are we going to keep seeing impregnated nuns in cinema, something that seemed to be a trend in 2023-2024….and I still don’t get the appeal, but hey…
I would suggest to not expect a faithful adaptation of Lovecraft’s story, but in a sense it follows the troupes of his works, and for good measure, the film throws some winks of John Carpenter’s “In The Mouth Of Madness” into the mix.
This film is the last in the director Chad Ferrin’s trilogy based on works written by H.P. Lovecraft, the other two being “The Deep Ones” (2020) and “The Old Ones” (2024)
At the end of the day, we get a weird mix of body horror, humor, gore and some acting is not that great….not even for a farce. Just be aware that there will be several scenes of nudity, sex and genital mutilation, if you have no issues with that, go ahead (no pun intended), grab a couple of beers and push “play”.
“Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep’ will be available on VOD March 4th.
The movie was written and directed by Chad Ferrin
The cast has the talents of Edward Furlong, Robert Miano, Susan Priver, Bai Ling, Ginger Lynn, Lew Temple, Steve Railsback and Cyril O’Reilly.
