If you look back at the history of most movie genres, you will see that they go through trends and phases where sub-genres and certain subject matter comes and goes. Just look at horror movies, where every year there is a hot new focus from the genre (vampires, zombies, gore, etc.) However, one genre which hasn't changed very much in decades is the thriller. Yes, the sexual thriller has grown more revealing and there is more violence, but the basic structure hasn't changed, especially when we look at the classic "Hitchcockian" thriller, which usually involves a man, a woman, a love triangle, a whodunit, and an "Am I going crazy?" mystery. In My Sleep proves that this genre is alive and well.

Philip Winchester stars in In My Sleep as Marcus, a young man who lives in Los Angeles. Marcus works as a masseur for his best friend, Justin (Tim Draxl) and loves to spend time with Justin and his wife, Ann (Kelly Overton). Marcus also loves the ladies and often hooks up with strangers at night clubs. Marcus has had an issue with sleepwalking for most of his life, but he notices that the problems has grown worse, as he wakes up outside of his apartment. This minor nuisance grows into a true problem when he awakens one morning to find himself covered in blood. Did he hurt someone? Marcus meets his neighbor Becky (Lacey Chabert), and he asks her to help him with his issue. He also seeks help from Gwen (Abigail Spencer), a doctor. Even with Becky restraining him, Marcus still finds a way to get loose at night. Is he a murderer? And is this behavior tied to his vague memories of his childhood?

It's my belief that if you get the opportunity to make a feature film that you should give it your all and put as much into it as possible, and that seems to be the case with Writer/Director/Producer Allen Wolf. With In My Sleep, Wolf has made a movie which, at its core, is a "Hitchcockian thriller". We have Marcus, a seemingly normal man, who is thrown into a situation which leads him to believe that he's killed someone. Marcus has a dark and troubled past which may be influencing his current behavior. He finds himself torn between Becky and Gwen. Wolf throws in some other elements as well. Marcus has some vivid nightmares which look like something from a horror movie (as does some of the blood in the film). While all of these other things are happening, Marcus attempts to deal with his sexual addiction. This issues with Marcus' past don't arrive until the middle of the film and we get a nice cameo from Beth Grant.

Therein lies the problem with In My Sleep. While the movie isn't necessarily brimming with originality, Wolf has created a nice package here which could have yielded a lean and mean thriller. However, at 104 minutes, In My Sleep simply stretches things out for too long and tries to include too much. There are several moments here which could have been cut and I was honestly surprised by the amount of deleted material found in the bonus features section of the Blu-ray Disc. I don't want to say that the movie is self-indulgent, as that wouldn't be 100% accurate, but there is certainly extraneous material here, which keeps us from the heart of the matter. If all of the plot points are mapped out, they work well and there are some things which tie together nicely at the end, but the journey there is cumbersome, reminded me of some of the more bloated Gialli.

In My Sleep was shot in 2009 and it's taken the movie some time to get to home video. This is one of those "I've seen worse" cases -- In My Sleep is far from perfect, but once one gets through the fat, it's a serviceable thriller which includes some nice plot twists and good acting. If Wolf could learn to lose some of the material, he could probably make a top-notch thriller.

In My Sleep puts an odd emphasis on food and cameos on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Freestyle Media. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 18 Mbps. The image is fairly sharp and clear, showing no defects from the source material. The picture does show a mixture of grain and video noise, which is obvious, but not always distracting. The colors look very good, and the image is never overly dark or bright. The picture shows a nice level of detail and the depth is acceptable. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This is an interesting track as it certainly has presence with good surround and subwoofer effects. However, there are many times when the subwoofer effects get out of hand and completely drown out the other audio effects. I found myself constantly scrambling for the volume control, as I was afraid that pictures would be rattled off of the walls. This aside, we get some nicely detailed stereo effects and the music sounds fine.

The In My Sleep Blu-ray Disc contains a number of extras for an indie film. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Allen Wolf. The Disc contains eight DELETED SCENES which run about 9 minutes and can be viewed with optional commentary. Some of these are new, while others are longer versions of scenes from the film. There are no new ideas or subplots here. We also get ten EXTENDED SCENES which run about 17 minutes. As the label implies, there are extended cuts of scenes from the movie. This does give us more of Alexandra Paul's odd cameo. The Disc offers four FEATURETTES -- "The Making of In My Sleep", "Meet the Filmmaker", "Sleepwalking Stories", and "Stories from the Set" -- which run about 33 minutes total. These provide interviews with the cast and filmmakers, with an emphasis on Allen Wolf, who wrote, produced, and directed the movie. This takes us inside the production offices before shooting began and behind-the-scenes as the movie is being shot. "Gags" (7 minutes) offers a GAG REEL and a "Gag Nightmare" which shows a scene which takes a quote from the movie literally. The MUSIC VIDEO for the song "In My Sleep" is included, as well as a TRAILER for the movie.