The Sleepless Unrest (2021) Horror Movie Review

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We have yet another addition to our low budget Tubi horror movies feature to look at today. We will be reviewing Found Footage Mockumentary The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home. This movie has virtually no plot. It simply follows a bunch of paranormal YouTubers investigating the real house from the Conjuring series of films. That’s it, no story, no progression, just simple paranormal investigating. Let’s take a look.

Another Awful Title

Christ! I thought yesterday’s movie “Something Walks in the Woods” had a bad title. Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home makes that one look positively inspired. Aside from Sleepless Unrest sounding like a Japanese Role playing Game. Adding “The Real Conjuring Home” to it just makes it sound like you are capitalising on a much more popular franchise. Funnily enough, that is exactly what this movie is doing.

The Sleepless Unrest (2021) Horror Movie Review

I actually quite like the idea of a found footage paranormal investigation. Let’s be real, Grave Encounters proved that you can do this exact thing and make a great movie. The one caveat is that something has to happen, there needs to be consequence or something to invest in. You can’t begin and end at “paranormal investigation”. That doesn’t make for an interesting singular premise but that’s exactly what we have with Sleepless Unrest.

Full disclosure. I had to watch this movie over two sittings. We were lying in bed falling asleep as the characters rambled on about something inconsequential. I checked the runtime left and was horrified to realise the movie had only been on 30 minutes. We decided, for our own sanity, to postpone it to the next night for fear of falling into a terrible horror induced coma.

Another Awful Found Footage

I think I am starting to recognise some of the signs of terrible found footage. I know many of you will find this statement a little bizarre. Probably making the safe assumption that most found footage horror is terrible but I genuinely love the style. The cheap, D.I.Y, aspect of it is something I find endearing.

The Sleepless Unrest (2021) Horror Movie Review

The only problem is, I seem to be watching awful movie after awful movie. Sure, the cycle is occasionally broken up by some decent flicks here and there. Butterfly Kisses and Host being a couple of them. But the vast majority seem to be a group of friends grabbing a camera, writing a basic outline for a horror movie and setting out to disappoint. 

I think there is an element of aposematism at play, here. Much like the Poison Dart Frog has bright colours to warn potential predators of its toxicity. Bad found footage horror has terrible titles, poor cover art and a cast playing “Themselves” rather than characters. I should have known Sleepless Unrest would be bad, it has all three of those things. Lesson learned, I guess.

Utterly Boring

Before I start, I should clear something up. This question pops up on Google so I think it needs answering. No, Sleepless Unrest is not real. Yes, Sleepless Unrest is fake. It is just a horror movie, none of the things seen here actually happen. Which really makes me wonder what people were actually watching. Virtually nothing happens in this movie. I am assuming the inclusion of investigators from the awful recasting of the TV show Ghost Hunters is responsible for that. They really go out of their way to present the things as low key and believable, much to the detriment of the film.

The Sleepless Unrest (2021) Horror Movie Review

Like yesterday’s Tubi horror Something Walks in the Woods. Sleepless Unrest tries to get by purely on horror tropes. Never actually delivering on anything truly scary. It has the distinct feeling of a YouTube video, only without the hyperactive personalities that tend to come along with that medium. And set in a location that definitely wasn’t made famous by a pair of fraudsters who managed to deceive a worrying number of people.

The movie plays out in a very predictable pattern. Something strange happens, the investigators set up a toy to confirm the spooky goings on. The strange thing happens again for confirmation, rinse and repeat with a completely different strange event and a new ghost investigation toy. It’s bland and completely repetitive. Night vision cameras and dark attics offer a dim hope of something interesting happening. Only, nothing ever comes of it. Just more minor horror tropes and a group of people acting like they were just groped by the frosty hand of Annabelle herself.

A Wasted Opportunity

The fact that the film-makers here don’t actually manage to do anything with the source house is a big issue. There are no real references to hauntings associated with the Warrens, they aren’t chasing Annabelle around the house, the Enfield poltergeist doesn’t pay them a visit to borrow a cup of sugar. It is just generic, haunted house, horror fodder that goes nowhere.

The Sleepless Unrest (2021) Horror Movie Review

The worn out paranormal found footage devices at play are likely to inspire eye rolls, as well. From pointless scenes of the cast chatting, to mockumentary style interviews and night vision. We are presented with a menagerie of found footage tropes, each of which is predictable and rather worn out. There is very little in the way of innovation here.

A Competent, Yet Annoying, Cast

Although I am rather tired of seeing casts playing “themselves”. It is, likely, a product of people who are really not actors playing roles in movies they help produce. But it would be nice to see developed characters and some actual acting in movies like this. The cast here do an okay job. Most of them are from the crappy re-imagining of Ghost Hunters that everyone is hating at the moment, meaning they have experience on camera.

The Sleepless Unrest (2021) Horror Movie Review

They are enthusiastic, if nothing else. There is a distinct vibe of “friends making a movie together” about the whole thing. Making the group dynamics feel, at least a little, organic. They are going to annoy the hell out of you, though. Especially with the shouting and general infantile shenanigans. 

The character’s exaggerated excitement at the menial and mundane things taking place really starts to get old after awhile. I wish I could share in their excitement. This really adds to the low rent YouTube vibe of the movie, robbing the material of authenticity and gravity. The lack of consequence to everything that happens doesn’t help, either. Obviously this is retro-scripted as characters are supposed to feel like they are reacting organically. Cinematography is fine, this is an experienced documentary making crew, after all.

Should You Watch The Sleepless Unrest?

Sleepless Unrest is not at all worth watching. Despite having a fairly interesting premise, as well as a link to a wildly popular horror franchise in The Conjuring. Sleepless Unrest doesn’t manage to bring anything to the table. Feeling like a YouTube paranormal investigation video for much of its length. This is a movie content to lazily bask in tired and worn out found footage horror tropes. Literally nothing happens and while that might be expected, as a movie, it just isn’t at all interesting. People who enjoy online paranormal investigations may find something to like here. Everyone else should stay away from the Conjuring house.. Not for fear of demons or poltergeists; but for fear of horrifying boredom.

By Richie