Sleep Trailer: Parasite’s Lee Sun-Kyun Creates Night Terror In Korean Horror – Exclusive

It’s no wonder the notion of sleep is such fertile ground for a horror story – the more you think about it, the freakier it gets. What really happens when we drop off for the night? Where does our consciousness take us? And what’s in control of our bodies through that time? Those are all questions at play in Sleep, the upcoming Korean horror from writer-director Jason Yu, longtime collaborator of Bong Joon-Ho, in which a couple experience a different kind of night terror. It’s not exactly that something is wrong in their home – it’s that, whenever husband Hyun-soo (Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun, who sadly passed away last year) falls asleep, he exhibits increasingly strange and dangerous behaviour, causing much consternation for his pregnant wife Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi). Is Hyun-soo simply unwell? Or possessed? Or something worse? Watch the trailer here:

It’s a great set-up for a film, with plenty of potential to mine for tense, psychological set-pieces – and it’s clear that Yu’s friend Director Bong is impressed with his work, dubbing Sleep “the most unique horror film and the smartest debut film I've seen in 10 years”. High praise from one of the greatest living directors. Here’s the official synopsis: “Hyun-su and Soo-jin are newlyweds. Seemingly out of nowhere, he starts talking in his sleep: ‘Someone’s inside.’ From that night on, whenever he falls asleep, he transforms into someone else with no recollection of what happened the night before. Soo-jin is overwhelmed with anxiety that he’d hurt her family while she sleeps and can barely sleep a wink because of this rational fear. Despite sleep treatment, Hyun-su’s sleepwalking only intensifies, and she begins to feel that her unborn child may be in danger…”

Whether you’re a fan of Director Bong’s work, or a connoisseur of Korean horror, be sure to keep one eye open when Sleep comes to UK cinemas on 12 July.