Before I Wake

Director Mike Flanagan repeatedly objected to the film being marketed as a "horror movie," instead calling it a "fable" or a "supernatural drama."

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None of the butterflies seen early in the film have antennae. After a classmate draws antennae on Cody's butterfly drawing, all the butterflies and moths in the film have antennae — a small detail showing how childlike Cody's imaginings are, and also how easily he is influenced by others.

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The film's original title was "Somnia," which would have made it Mike Flanagan's third film with a single Latin word in its title, after Absentia (2011) and Oculus (2013).

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It is one of three films directed by Mike Flanagan released in 2016, along with Hush (2016) and Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016).

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Annabeth Gish appeared in the X-Files episode "Sunshine Days," in which the character under investigation has the ability to imagine things and bring his imagination to life, making it real. Receiving the love he remembered from his childhood ended this phenomenon and saved his life.

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It was shot in the same location as Mike Flanagan's horror film "Oculus" (2013): Fairhope, Alabama.

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The film Jessie and Mark watch is House on Haunted Hill (1959).

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The girl sitting next to Cody in class, who draws antennae on his butterfly, also played the youngest child of the Perron family in another horror film, The Conjuring.

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There is a 14-year age difference between Thomas Jane and Kate Bosworth, who play the husband and wife in this film.

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Annabeth Gish also appears in Mike Flanagan's series The Haunting of Hill House (2018).

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It is revealed that the villain, the "Canker Man," is Cody's childlike, nightmarish vision of his mother when she had cancer — hence the name Canker, and why he appears sunken and gaunt.

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It is Hali Everette's debut.

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There is a scene in which Cody looks under the bed for the monster, does not find it, and then pulls himself back onto the bed, only to see the monster (the zombified bully Tate) always sitting beside him, there in a moment of terror. In the next shot we see the monster/Tate pull Cody under the bed. All of this is probably a tribute to the original Poltergeist, in which Robbie fights the evil clown toy in his room.

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Both Annabeth Gish and Jay Karnes appeared in Sons of Anarchy (2008) as members of law enforcement: Karnes as an ATF member in season 1 (the abbreviation for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and Gish as chief of police in season 7.

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Thomas Jane is famous for the role of Frank Castle in the 2004 film adaptation of the Marvel comic The Punisher (2004). In 2008, Dash Mihok played Martin Soap in Punisher: War Zone (2008), the Punisher reboot.

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Jacob Tremblay and Thomas Jane appeared in The Predator.

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