Popular reviews

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  Review by Ian West ★★ 3

  Some interesting ideas here mixed in with sleep paralysis (forever scariest thing ugh) and a tinge of Japanese Horror influence make for some decent moments... and familiarity, that in the long run didn’t always stick for me. Still, though... I can think of worse ways to spend your time.

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  Review by Acoucalancha ★★ 2

  The Ring meets A Nightmare of Elm Street. A take on sleep paralysis, sleep deprevation and people going nuts on what's real and what's not. It's not as cool as it sounds though, it's nothing we haven't seen before and brings nothing new. The only sleep paralysis scene I enjoyed was the one at the beginning of the third act, the others were mediocre. Cool look for the sleep demon Mara she was creepy as hell towards the end. Acting was fine, weak scares, story was lacking, it got sooo cliché real quick but the worst crime was the pacing.

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  Review by Biscoito18 ½ 9

  Javier Botet must be the most requested horror actor nowadays. Just this year, he played the creatures of "Insidious: The Last Key", "Slender Man" and now "Mara". Unfortunately, most of the time we see very little of his work, as in "IT", "The Other Side of the Door" and even in "The Conjuring 2" where his Crooked Man was so covered with CGI that almost erased his performance.

  And, surprisingly, it's here that "Mara" finds its only positive point. Botet, despite the weak characterization of his creature, has good moments (especially in the final scene), in a simple but frightening performance.

  Olga Kurylenko does a good job, but all the characters here are just lifeless clichés, completely forgettable. Just another…

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  Review by Greg Dundee ★★½

  About as vanilla as a horror movie can get, Mara isn’t particularly bad, nor is it that good. It’s just your run of the mill, forgettable modern horror with a predictable story. 

  5/10 - just an average film 

  Day 27 of my 31 Days of Horror 2020

  Related lists:
  2018 Movies Ranked

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  Review by ZaraGwen ★

  Ironic that I found it difficult to stay awake

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  Review by dave. ★½ 2

  esse demônio que mata as pessoas enquanto dormem... já vimos isso com o freddy krueger. o engraçado é que eles realmente citam o filme a hora do pesadelo kkkkk

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  Review by Matt ★

  Well, bless Olga Kurylenko for trying. My god that woman needs a new agent. She's a good example of a half-decent actress whose CV is littered with rubbish, she barely seems to give herself a fighting chance with what she picks.

  Not much to really say about this. It's just a very poor version of Elm Street and It Follows but with sleep replacing sex. Cheaply made, badly acted and most importantly for a horror film - not even remotely scary.

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  Review by coles84 ★★★½

  While lately so many films have been influenced by the eighties and nineties, it feels quite rare to see a western film take its major influences from early noughties J horror. MARA feels like a remake of a j horror film but it’s totally its own beast. Containing a creepy titular character, played by go to creepy character man, Javier Botet, we get a story about sleep paralysis to the extreme and uneasiest.

  Currently scheduled for a release early next year I believe, I can certainly see this appealing to a wider audience and it will be interesting to see if it does hit theatres or goes straight to dvd. 

  A solid horror flick that uses its influence well. Sleep…

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  Review by Travis Lytle ★★★ 2

  A solid, spooky horror film about a group of people cursed with sleep paralysis, "Mara" is enjoyably chilling. Following Olga Kurylenko's criminal psychologist as she puts together the pieces of a murder case, the narrative see its protagonist soon embroiled in an investigation with demonic leanings. The story is sound, the cast is capable, and the production finds genre-oriented pleasure in the things lurking in the corners of frames. It is a small-scale and engaging experience.

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  Review by Zay ★★½

  Another sleep paralysis based horror flick that feels alot like Elm Street...except this time it's Freddy's gangly cousin Mara terrorizing ppl who feel guilty. Standard sleep paralysis horror flick thats only watchable do to Javier Botet's portrayal of the creepy dream demon Mara.

  5 out of 10

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  Review by night_shift ★★

  aZuuL's 2022 Movie Challenge - sleep demon week

  Sleep paralysis is pretty scary all on it's own, but these movies that throw in some sort of entity that's causing it amps up the creep factor. In this one we have Mara, a super skinny and creaking/crackling humanoid that sits on 'ya and chokes you out after freaking you the fuck out for a week or so before hand. She also marks you with busted veins in your eyes. Like a person who's got insomnia sometimes gets, you know.

  So, we follow Kate, a criminal psychologist played unconvincingly by Olga Kurylenko, who gets all in her feels after her first murder case separates a mother and daughter. From there, she starts…

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  Review by 🦇 GORY B MOVIE 🦇 ★★ 19

  If you watched one of the many sleep paralysis movies that came out last year, then you've pretty much already seen this one.

  It borrows from The Ring a bit too. Probably no coincidence that Mara is short for Samara.