Antonis (Dimitris Theodoropoulos) might just be the happiest man on earth, he's successful at his job, makes a good living, has quite a bit of money on the side, and only today he has finally chatted up the girl of his dreams, Maria (Athanasia Karavia) to find out the attraction is mutual, and she seems to be a very likeable person on top of that. And nobody could be more deserving than Antonis mind you, he's a humble person who always cares for other, and is in a likeable way religious on top of that.But all's not great as on the day of his first date Maria, his doctor Alexandros (Yannis Zafiropoulos) tells him he suffers from terminal brain cancer and has mere months to live. Coming home, he's full of rage, denounces God, and - these evening keeps his date with Maria and acts as if nothing has happened. Only for some reason, he lies about every aspect of his life. The date goes very well, but doesn't lead to anythig more as like Antonis, Maria's very religious (and in fact a virgin). Only later that night, Maria has a dream that Antonis stops by to rape her, a dream that feels all to real. And on top of this, it's a recurring dream, only the more she enjoys the company of the real Antonis, the more she learns to enjoy her erotic dreams - after all, nothing could be more innocent than a dream, right? Problem is, this dreams not quite that innocent, as denouncing God has turned Antonis into an incubus, and he actually visits her in her dreams, quite physically in a way. Meanwhile, Antonis has also found another hobby, killing people, including a bun (Grigoris Kanellopoulos) and the landlord of his favourite pub (Dimitris Mantellos), all as a part to feed his soul-hungry alter ego. Things go well for Antonis though ... until Maria's best friend Anna (Chrysoula Sgarda) invites both her and Antonis over for an Easter dinner hosted by her and her husband - who just happens to be Antonis' doctor Alexandros, the only man who knows about Antonis' condition, and knows enough about Antonis' life and situation to blow his lies to Kingdom Come ...

Dreaming of the Unholy is a pretty clever horror drama, one that uses its slowburn build-up that even incorporates love story elements to hit the audience all the harder when terror strikes, that just gets tenser and tenser the longer it goes, and that really hits hard with its third act plottwist. And thankfully the directorial effort manages to match the clever writing, being restrained for the most part but not looking away when it hurts, while a solid ensemble cast keep things grounded and relatable, to help make this a very fine piece of genre cinema.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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