Last Updated on August 26, 2025 by FANGORIA Staff
Oscar-winning titan of Korean cinema Bong Joon-ho called Jason Yu's Sleep the smartest debut he'd seen in ten years – and we're inclined to agree with him. Now streaming and playing in select theaters, Sleep is a twisty-turny thriller perfect for those Halloween watchlists, and we've got an exclusive clip for you today of one of the film's most chilling scenes…
Starring the late Lee Sun-kyun of Parasite (who was just posthumously bestowed the Korean Cinema Award at Busan International Film Festival) and Train to Busan‘s Jung Yu-mi, Sleep follows:
…newlyweds Hyun-su (Lee) and Soo-jin (Jung), whose domestic bliss is disrupted when Hyun-su begins speaking in his sleep, ominously stating, “Someone’s inside.” From that night on, whenever he falls asleep, Hyun-su transforms into someone else, with no recollection of what happened the night before. Overwhelmed with anxiety that he may hurt himself or their young family, Soo-jin can barely sleep because of this irrational fear. Despite treatment, Hyun-su’s sleepwalking only intensifies, and Soo-jin begins to feel that her unborn child may be in danger.
The clip we're pleased to bring you today gives you teaser of the scene detailed above, with Hyun-su's ominous utterance being enough to make your hair stand on end. Fans of Korean cinema know that horror from the country doesn't skimp on chills, and Sleep is no different.
In a recent interview with FilmHounds, Yu (who worked with Bong as Assistant Director on Okja and also with Lee Chang-dong on the 2018 drama Burning) expanded on his inspiration behind the eerie story which examines our vulnerabilities while we're unconsciously dreaming:
I have some bad sleep habits — a severe case of sleep apnea. In my experience, people with these sleep disorders don't really know that they're going through them, but their loved ones do and it terrifies them. My wife would wake up in the night to find me not breathing and it would terrify her to no end. I thought that was terrible, obviously, but also quite interesting. Even a harmless sleep disorder of me not breathing well created such tension and fear, and I guess a natural progression as a storyteller was to consider what would happen if it was harmful and if that person was to become a threat.
Sleep was shot during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, after which it was released in its native South Korea on September 6, 2023, where it grossed US$10,671,474.
For more on Sleep read our exclusive interview with Jason Yu in FANGORIA Vol. 2 Issue 23.
