Have you ever woken from a deep sleep, totally lucid but unable to move? Devil in the Room explores this space between dream and reality, explaining the science and history behind sleep paralysis, a mystifying and often terrifying phenomenon in which dreams intrude upon waking life. Through evocative stop-motion animation and puppets, the film recreates these waking dreams, bringing vividly to life spiders that seem to crawl out from under the bed, and the feeling of a monstrous presence lurking just out of sight.
Director: Carla MacKinnon
Producer: James Mullighan
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Consciousness and altered states
How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head
6 minutes
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Medicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
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Film and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
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Illness and disease
Humanity eradicated smallpox 45 years ago. It’s a story worth remembering
25 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
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Cities
A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county
3 minutes
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Work
A Swedish expat in the Philippines wonders: what’s up with people sleeping at work?
14 minutes