The overall feel of Waking Nightmare, both the script and the final result, is that of a film school thesis.  Boxes are checked, competent performers bring the script to a kind of life, and the film is interesting enough. David Naughton’s presence is a tip of the hat to the larger theme of the good kid who may transform into a killer at night, but he is not given much to do otherwise.

Poor Jordan (Shelley Regner) – her college roommate killed herself, her mother is controlling and strange, and she is sleepwalking.  Has been, in fact, since she was a kid.  Except now she might be killing people in her sleep.  She falls asleep and wakes up in strange places with blood on her.  Her doctor (genre stalwart David Naughton, of An American Werewolf in London fame, making a cameo or two) prescribes medicine, but it doesn’t work. It’s a simple set up, and the film’s hour and ten minute run time could have been even shorter, but directors Craig and Farmer give the performers time and scenes in order to establish the characters as more round characters than might be expected.

The performers are likable enough, and Regner is able to carry the film with most of the supporting players lending, well, support.  Some are stronger than others, most notably best friend Zoe (Kelly Leon Guerrero) but they make the film watchable.  Multiple times throughout the film Craig and Farmer either include imagery or have a character watching a screen, allowing for incorporation of relevant filmed material, making the imagery of the film more interesting or to create a thematic relevance, such as the incorporates of scenes from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), also about a murderous sleepwalker.

Waking Nightmare is also narrated by Regner, as she writes in her diary, which gives the audience both insight into her character and more indications of the ideas the writer and directors are working with.  Not a great film, but not a terrible one, either.  No jump scares and even the twist is not much of one, although it allows for significantly more gore than seen in the film to that point.  Enjoy it for what it is.