🟩 Laura Hasn't Slept (2020) Review - Mainstream Creepypasta | Film Waffle

 

Laura Hasn't Slept (2020) directed by Parker Finn

Aye! It's a short film adaptation of blue_tidal's famous creepypasta, The Smiling Man! 

Well. Not quite. Although, I have seen a couple of those floating around.

No, apparently this short was the precursor to the film Smile (2022). I'd heard of the film. Wikipedia says it grossed north of $200 million smackeroonies from a $17 million budget. That's kinda insane. Didn't know it made that big of a splash. Of course, I didn't know it originated from this short film either.

Go on. I'll wait. We can waffle on together afterward. And since it's so tiny, I can ramble freely without worrying about spoilers.

Quick Summary

Some woman named Laura pays a visit to a therapist, Dr. Parsons. She's having a recurring nightmare, you see. In said nightmare, she sees a man who stalks her. A horrible smile hangs from his lips.

I know you're not gonna believe this, but Laura hasn't slept for a couple days. She is terrified of getting "One, Two, Freddy's coming for you'd" by this smiling man if she doesn't stay awake.

Story & Characters

Let's go ahead and parse the film in half.

Half number one is the therapist's office. Laura is freaking out. She is seeking comfort and guidance from Dr. Parsons.

Half two is when the weird shit starts happening. We are transported to the office from Until Dawn sans Peter Stormare. Faces are melting off.

Come to think of it, that final jump scare does remind me of the Wendigo. Uh... Spoilers, I guess, if you haven't played Until Dawn.

There is some resemblance, right? I'm not going crazy? Maybe it's just the blank, white eyes and the dead complexion that looks like me in the mirror when I wake up in the morning. That or that shriveled granny from SpongeBob that buys all their chocolate to rub on her emaciated skin.

Where was I?

Two halves! Yes. The first half of Laura Hasn't Slept has the normal therapist shit, and the second half contains the in-your-face creepy shit.

I much prefer the former.

I've always found normal situations with an inkling of "wrongness" to be much more horrific than horror that is in my face. Them's my contemporary horror tastes coming out.

The idea of spilling your guts to a therapist that you realize, only halfway through your spiel, is acting too normal. Too rigid. That's creepy to me. That's scary.

And then we get to the second half, where bookshelves drop their loads like common whores, doors are nope-ing the fuck out of there, and the giant neurons outside are burning through more energy than an AI datacenter.

"You're not real! You're not real!"

Am I'm playing the Stanley Parable again?

That's not to say that the latter half was bad. But it's quite a step down from the kind of horror that thrills me.

As far as the jump scare is concerned... it was there. Look, I'm a veteran of internet horror at this point. I've been in the trenches for years. Slendy. SCP. r/NoSleep. I saw that twist coming in the first 10 seconds. Gonna need to step up your game if you want me to be frightened by something like that.

That's not to say I hated it. It's a fun trope that felt earned.

It is very creepypasta too. The eyes rolling back. Laura ripping off her own face. An eldritch dimension contrasted with the banality of a normal room.

Not saying those tropes weren't alive before the internet, but the internet popularized that personal and more introspective sense of dread. Probably Mr. Finn has an interview somewhere talking about that.

Now let's move on to how hard Caitlin Stasey went in as Laura. Because, holy balls, that was a fantastic performance.

At first I was thinking, "Well this is kinda too much. Maybe a little over-the-top. A bit dramatic."

But a moment later I was sold. You can really feel the emotion. The panic and the genuine fear in her voice. It's sorta like talking with a passionate flat-earther. You may not believe it, but you believe that they believe it.

It single-handedly catapulted this film to new heights. I would be rating this much lower if she hadn't killed it in her role.

And can I talk about the accent for a second? Caitlin Stasey is Australian, apparently. Girl, that American accent is clean. Most Commonwealthers have a really weird, nasally intonation when they try to imitate us United Statians. But listen to those rhotic r's during her rant at 2:00.

"I'll be at work."

"Or in my apartment."

"And then a man appears."

All of it pronounced beautifully. That's damn fine work. Granted, I took a peak at some of her interviews, and she seems to occasionally pronounce r like that in normal speech. So I'm not really sure what's going on. Maybe Mr. Finn found the one Aussie in the world that actually pronounces r's correctly.

Lew Temple as Dr. Parsons did well too. But, let's be real, he's more a mirror to reflect Laura's distress. Not sure if there was a way for the man to stand out more.

In the first half, the guy is bland and boring as he should be. Then when the monster shines he's reduced to saying "Laura" over and over again. The fact that the latter half was mid didn't help.

Mechanics & Structure

The sound design was pretty good. It punctuated the major beats when needed and ramped-up along with tension.

Same with the lighting. It solidified the tone shift as things switched from safety to uncertainty. From the first half of the film to the second.

I like how the cinematography shifts with the tone too. At the start, even when Laura is distressed, the shots are calm. Serene, even.

Once Laura begins piecing together the situation, the camera shots focused on her become more erratic. Yet when the camera cuts back to the therapist still maintaining the pretense, it is stable. That was a fun contrast, even for someone like me who hates Parkinson's Cam.

I particularly liked the shot above. I think it was the only camera angle that we got that was through Laura's eyes. There's probably a technical term for that. Don't @ me. But that little taste of physical empathy made Laura's terror more personal. More real for the audience.

Also, real random, but I love the movie poster. Simple colors. Simple shapes. Super sexy.

Conclusion

Sorry to subject you to a whole-ass rant that probably took longer to read than watch the film. Whoops! Let's wrap this baby up.

Love the first half. Second half was all right. Production values were real high. 'Specially for a short.

I gots a 9/10 for the start. 6/10 for the end. Mash those two together and we get 7.5/10. Round that shit up because I'm a generous Christian boi, and we get a 8/10.

Not too shabby. A solid, tight horror film.

Moral of the story: insomnia isn't good for your pores, homegirl. You'll get pimples. Wrinkles. Well, at least with what's left of your face, that is.

🟩 Rating: 8/10