THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS: Watch The Trailer For Indie Horror Flick

The phenomenon of sleep paralysis and possible associated horrors is slipping into genre film more often of late. In 2011 we had Filip Tegstedt's excellent horror laced family drama, Marianne, and last year we were introduced to Rodney Ascher's haunting documentary The Nightmare. It was only a matter of time before someone went all Elm Street with the premise and made a straight up horror film about it. Cue The Man In The Shadows from Canadian filmmaker Joshua Fraiman. 

Rachel Darwin (Sarah Louise Jurgens, "Covert Affairs") is pregnant, shackled, giving birth to something terrible, attended to by a dark man in a brimmed hat. She struggles to wake, opens her eyes and he is there. The next day she finds out she's not alone, many others see that Hat Man too. Her husband, Scott (Nick Baillie, "The Dead Zone"), believes her but thinks there is a scientific explanation. Sleep paralysis. Electromagnetically induced hallucinations. Rachel speaks of the Hat Man at group therapy. The addicts and loners reject her, except for William ("Scare Tactics'" Adam Tomlinson, also making his debut as Producer). He believes her more than she believes herself - he believes in multidimensional beings, shadows that feed upon human souls.

Scott's frustration builds as Rachel's sanity slips. She slips into an intoxicated dream confronted by horrors of her past. The nightmares are getting worse.  It becomes harder to know what is real and what is not, and that includes the Hat Man.

Okay. So The Man In The Shadows does not look to be as over the top as the Elm Street films were but they were the closest thing I could think of to make the link between nightmares, sleep and horror. We have the trailer for you to look at. Fraiman's background is primarily as a DoP so if anything The Man In The Shadows should look good.