MovieChat Forums > Parasomnia (2008) Discussion > Plotholes galore (expect spoilers!)

Plotholes galore (expect spoilers!)

posted 13 years ago by scarylibrary
8 replies | jump to latest

I wanted to like this film, I really did but it bothered me that the villian (Volpe) tried to be too many things. Was he supernatural? Psychic? A serial murderer? Crazy?

He was in the hospital room right next to Laura, however we're supposed to believe that he's a mental patient who murdered several people. Why is his room next to Laura's? She isn't crazy, she just suffers from a sleep disorder. Is she in the mental ward too?

As the movie progresses, we learn that he can infiltrate Laura's mind while she's sleeping and cause her to do things for him (i.e. kill). Why doesn't Volpe make her to do things to people in the hospital? Why does he wait until she'd been kidnapped to utilize her then?

If Volpe is truly so powerful and able to hypnotize other people so readily, then how did he get captured and placed in the hospital in the first place?

Was the villian wanting to harm Laura or not? I just didn't understand his infactuation with her. What makes her so special? Can he only exercise his mindcontrol powers to someone sleeping?

And realistically, why did Danny fall so fast and so hard for this girl? I get that they met briefly as kids, but it seems like his life went to total hell after he met her. And he didn't live far from her. Are we to believe that all this time his true love was just around the corner?

Also, we see that Laura has at least a mother during the flash-back. What happened to her? Did I miss something? The doctors mentioned she had no family.

For me, there are just too many questions to make this enjoyable for me. And the ending was just the cheesey-icing on the cake (very Romeo & Juliet-esque).

"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places." H.P. Lovecraft

[–] RotwangsGirl 13 years ago

I have to say I am a fan of this film. I was reading scarylibrary's post and found that a few people had the same reaction to the film. Several of these posters comments are really about the same thing. It has to do with the hospital and what doctor's do or don't do and Volpe's abilities. I've seen the film several time's now and you really have to watch this film carefully (which means to me that the director has faith in us the audience) . There are virtually no plot holes that I can find. It appears to me that the reason Volpe is in the room next to Laura's is that this is not Cedars Sinai. This is a County Hospital and as so, is under-funded and probably only has one ward for "strange cases' Neuro-Psychiatric. Also its sort of hinted that the serial killer was perfectly content where he was until the interloper (Danny) came along. As for the doctor readily giving out information. I was actually in a hospital where I saw something like this happen. Most hospitals are really easy to walk around in and get information if you want it. I have a feeling that we all think things are run much better than they really are. Perhaps people are reacting to the way things should be and not are. Maybe in some way this movie is too realistic.

BTW, I just noticed something in the film that I never saw before. On the TV news broadcasts... one of the banners at bottom of the screen says " local police walk out of wage dispute". Hmmm that could explain how few cops there are to watch this guy. It also seems, by the way the cops talk about this, as if its an old case and Volpe is pretty much a forgotten character lost in the system.... all this = shoddy security. As for Danny falling for Laura. It looks to me like he went to see her quite number of time that weren't on screen... do we really want to see all that? Also as mentioned childhood meetings can be pretty powerful stuff. I think the filmmaker made a wise decision to cut to the chase so to speak. This really is self-described as a Dark Fairy Tale... perhaps we need to watch it with those eyes?

[–] scarylibrary 13 years ago

RotwangsGirl, I appreciate your thoughtful review of this movie. For me, there were too many plotholes given the duration of the movie. I think perhaps if this were parsed out in maybe a miniseries (ala Sy-Fy channel), the director would have accomplished more. I think given the multiple nuances and details that you noticed in repeat viewings could be better developed in a different format.

I enjoyed the film up to a point, but then I just got distracted by too many inconsistentcies. I think the movie had promise, but a full-length movie might not have been the best medium for the director to utilize.

"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places." H.P. Lovecraft

[–] sandifay62 13 years ago

There were tons and tons of plotholes, but the other elements made me enjoy the movie anyway. It was OK. Actually each plothole was funny to me. So I just played along like I was listening to a story from a drunken friend.

Sometimes, when a movie is entertaining enough, I stop expecting the movie to be better than it is and just watch for the things I enjoyed; like the dream sequences, and the villian. I liked the build up of his character and the movie is so out there that it really didn't matter to me if he was psychic, simply creepy, or supernatural. It was all in fun and not very serious.

[–] TheBeardedWonder 12 years ago

"It appears to me that the reason Volpe is in the room next to Laura's is that this is not Cedars Sinai. This is a County Hospital and as so, is under-funded and probably only has one ward for "strange cases' Neuro-Psychiatric. "
-Which is exactly the OP's point. They wouldn't KEEP him there for more than a day or two, until they could get transport to a real ward/prison. It's a hole in regards to the plot, ergo it's a plot hole.

Some of the OP's stuff are nitpicks/not plot related holes, but some of them definitely are...

"You didn't like this movie? Go watch [insert completely opposite movie] instead"

[–] trixietrx 12 years ago

I rarely comment, as I tend suspend disbelief as soon as I read/watch sci-fi, horrors or thrillers. It makes it much more enjoyable for me and after all, it's sci-fi, we're talking about not a real-life drama.

I've been watching on average 1 horror film per night now for the past 2 weeks, and they've been slammed in the ratings, and I actually enjoyed them. So surprise that I come here and this movie is rated way higher and I really, really disliked it and had a hard time suspending disbelief in the ways that was asked of me.

I'll have to read more comments, as I also felt that the "come on we have to go the police are coming" was another plot hole (or if not hole, something which made no sense at all since they're already in an alternate state).

This movie seems too recent for HIPPA laws not to be followed at least a little more than they were. But I also thought the doc said she'd been there since she was born due to being in a car accident (? was her mother preggers and died, and if so, that seems a weird place to keep her, county as opposed to a nursing home), so then what was up with her meeting Danny as kids in dream state? And why did they revert to children in the end.

Sorry, some of these aren't necessarily plot holes, I'm just horribly disappointed because this is one type of movie that seems like it could be done so wonderfully and as something different from all the rest, but instead of keeping it simple, tried to hard to cover all its bases and then left me feeling like the plot holes were unbelievable and much too complicated.

[–] TheBeardedWonder 12 years ago

Hey trix, good to hear from ya, and agree with your post! I can suspend disbelief about a psycho killer being super strong or whatever (I also watch a lot of horror movies, so i'm used to it), but when you try to ground the reason they're connected in reality then make up some silly reason that makes no sense, it just doesn't work.

Also the killer was just too all over the place for him to be scary or entertaining. He was psychotic, but also magical with hypnosis powers in his eyeballs...wtf?

"You didn't like this movie? Go watch [insert completely opposite movie] instead"

[–] shayba75 11 years ago

I saw a preview for this movie on an equally bad DVD "Don't Look Up". The preview hooked me completely and I frantically searched every backyard bargain Bin as well as online streaming sites. Finally ordered it, watched it. And instantly felt the cringe of buyers remorse.
Big time sucky!!!!! The dream sequences were nice but too few to enjoy.

[–] nashknight-1 9 years ago

Those aren't plotholes, those are things you don't understand/dislike. There's a difference.