I had no idea what was going on for the first half hour of this movie. For starters, I thought it was animated not live-action. Look at the poster. Do they look real? The answer is no. I was also sure it was foreign, probably Japanese but at least European. Wrong again. Filmed in Boulder, Colorado with an all-American cast. So this movie is about a rag-covered creature who kidnaps a little girl's spirit through her dreams. To the waking world, she is in a coma, beyond the help of everyone, but in the place between worlds, two bands of warriors assemble. The first are the Storytellers, a pleasingly multi-ethnic bunch who are responsible for giving good dreams. Then there are the Incubi, vinyl-clad Dark City-looking things with glowing glasses that project funhouse-mirror smiles onto their faces, who give nightmares. After the girl is taken, the Storytellers get a Pathfinder in order to make things turn out right. He is blind (and kind of a dick) with electrical tape X's over his eyes.
Of course I loved it. Need you even ask?
That's not to say it doesn't have flaws. The editing is choppy, some of the character reactions are over-the-top (using sudden volume swings to denote anger or frustration instead of more subtle cues), not a lot of character development and a fairly predictable plot but I can forgive all of that with the right ambiance.
It reminded me a great deal of Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask in tone and style or maybe a more kid-friendly Donnie Darko. A subtle sense of wrongness pervades the air, turning familiar things sinister. The good dreams are shot with a warm amber light, where the in-between world is a flat blue and the Incubus-sent dreams are sickly yellows and greens. Simple things, but they really make a difference when they're done well.
This is one I intend to buy. I was very impressed with it overall and I think it's important to reward weirdness done well.
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