Sleep 2024

Soo-jin, a pregnant woman, lives with her husband Hyun-su, an actor, whose nights begin to unravel with alarming signs. He slips into sleep and mutters that “someone’s inside,” while also scratching his face until it bleeds and even craving raw meat from the refrigerator. The couple seeks help from a doctor, who diagnoses a sleep disorder, prescribes medication, and recommends practical steps—like abstaining from alcohol and establishing routines—to steady his nights. The medical explanation sits beside Soo-jin’s growing unease, as her mother, a devoutly religious woman, believes something supernatural is at play and urges divine intervention.

“someone’s inside,” he mutters in his sleep.

As events escalate, the couple faces a shocking act: Hyun-su, while asleep, puts their Pomeranian in the freezer, killing the pet. Soo-jin is horrified by this uncontrolled violence and the sense that something otherworldly might be guiding his actions. Sometime after, Soo-jin gives birth and becomes increasingly convinced that her husband’s condition is not just medical but supernatural in nature.

In search of an explanation beyond medicine, Soo-jin consults a shaman named Madame Haegoong, who declares that Hyun-su is possessed by a ghost. This conviction drives Soo-jin to connect the disturbances to Park Chun-gi, the recently-deceased father of her downstairs neighbor, Min Jeong. The theory deepens her paranoia, shaping a narrative in which a malevolent spirit seeks to inhabit her husband and threaten her newborn.

In a tense confrontation, Soo-jin asserts that the possession is real and lays out her reasoning with a series of observations and coincidences. She reveals that she has abducted the downstairs neighbor, [Min Jeong], and she threatens to kill Min Jeong with a power drill if the ghost does not exit Hyun-su’s body and move on to the afterlife. Exhausted by the ordeal, the two lie down on the floor together, their bodies and nerves spent as the question of possession remains unresolved and open to interpretation.

The film closes with an ambiguous ending, leaving viewers to weigh medical explanations against supernatural ones and to reflect on the fragility of perception when fear and desperation take hold. The story unfolds with a restrained, uneasy tone that blends domestic tension, psychological unease, and a whisper of paranormal possibility, inviting contemplation rather than firm conclusions.