A young woman’s sleepwalking leads to some very dangerous consequences in this thriller that features some 80s icons in major roles.

Since the death of her closest friend, Jordan has been suffering from nightmares in which she constantly wakes up screaming. However, she also has been sleepwalking more since returning home from school. Her mother Danielle is extremely worried while her dad Jeff seems to be more carefree and only hopes it will go away on its own. When Danielle catches Jordan in one of her sleepwalking nights with a pair of scissors, she is sent to see Dr. Doolin, who offers Ambien to see if it will do the trick.

However, despite the efforts of the medicine, they begin to make things worse. When Jordan believes she is sleeping, she learns that someone has died nearby. When the police come to investigate, Danielle doesn’t want to believe it at first. However, she soon discovers Jordan may be responsible. Soon enough, another night ends up resulting in another death. Could Jordan in fact be the one responsible?

Filmed in 2018, this mystery horror film is finally seeing the light of day and it has some great talents in front of the camera to help drive things along. The film has some 80s icons in the cast alongside Pitch Perfect 3’s Shelley Regner in the lead role of Jordan, who from the beginning we see having a nightmare. Regner is excellent in the lead role as we get to see a dual side of her. When she is with her old friend Zoey, played by Every Heart, she is happy and excited even when she is shocked that Zoey is with local yokel Randy, played by co-director Brian Farmer.

Her dark side comes when it comes to her sleepwalking. Her mother, Danielle, is played by one of the three 80s icons in the cast. In this case, it’s the great Diane Franklin, who is great as the overprotective mother. Her dad, Jeff, is played by The Lost Boys’ Jamison Newlander, who comes off as more carefree, mindful, and looks for anything to get away from Danielle’s overprotective manner. The third 80s icon is the American Werewolf in London himself, David Naughton, who makes the most of his role as Dr. Doolin, who prescribes Jordan Ambien to hopefully stop her sleepwalking.

There aren’t many death scenes, only a few at the minimum. In an ironic twist to the story, the victims are those who totally deserve it. However, the final ten minutes in the 75-minute runtime are perhaps really shocking as they have a twist that is totally unexpected and not what it seems.

Waking Nightmare is a great horror gem that brings nostalgia and some shocking twists driven by great performances by Shelley Regner and 80s icons Franklin, Newlander, and Naughton.

WFG RATING: A-

Terror Films presents a Final Kill Pictures production. Directors: Stephen Craig and Brian Farmer. Producer: Scot Dyer. Writer: Brian Farmer. Cinematography: Seth Wessel-Estes. Editing: Patrick Kennelly.

Cast: Shelley Regner, Diane Franklin, Jamison Newlander, David Naughton, Every Heart, Brian Farmer, Yan Birch.

The film is coming to Digital on August 18.