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Nightmare Fuel / Inland Empire

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"They all called him the Phantom."
  • After the first hour, most of the film potentially falls into this territory because of how it much resembles an actual nightmare through the usage of unusual scene transitions, borderline Non Sequitur events, Jump Scares, and Nightmare Faces. The strange lighting and the prevalence of drones in the soundtrack do not help. As mentioned under Dream Sequence, the film is quite possibly the closest a film will ever come to emulating a dream, and much of the horror comes from the realistic and striking resemblance of a terrifying dream that you can't escape.
  • One of the "Rabbits" sequences has the lighting become red for no apparent reason. A match is struck and fire burns. Then, one of the rabbits comes into the room holding two glowing lights in her hands as if in a ritual. The scene quickly transitions, but the film never explains what exactly was happening.
  • In one scene, a flashlight is pointed at Nikki, who then proceeds to run up to the camera with a Slasher Smile.
  • The Phantom is The Dreaded antagonist of the movie. As seen above, he has the most notorious Nightmare Face in the film.

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