I like the premise: a group of individuals participate in a double blind test study, and the results turn out disastrous. They end up being unable to sleep, the place goes on lockdown, and they have to stay awake until the lockdown ends
I feel the movie fails in multiple ways. The first is that the movie doesn't adequately capture the tension and horror of their situations. We see the characters develop red marks around their eyes as the movie goes on, they try to look and sound tired, and there are random hallucinations scattered in there. But the terrifying feeling that they've been awake for over a hundred hours and will die if they get go sleep just doesn't sink in to the viewer. That shortcoming is the result of both poor acting and storytelling. Although the movie is listed as horror, I would categorize the movie as straight suspense.
The second weakness in this movie is that none of the characters are memorable or likable. The best character may have been the bubbly Allison infact, who doesn't stay long. Our protagonist starts off as a rude person, and by the end, I don't think the movie suggests she has made an arc or improvement. The other men in the movie turn out to be jerks, and one becomes a psycho killer all of a sudden. One corpulent female character is oddly aloof and randomly atheist. Our protagonist mentions that she signed up because she's broke, yet how or why she turned out to be that way is never explained. And the story involving the pharmaceutical company, including the ending, isn't credible.
Lastly - the plot doesn't reach its full potential. When the place goes into lockout, I expected that they would try to brainstorm and be creative about ways they can get out of their troublesome spot. Instead, they decide to sit down and boringly say, "Yup, let's just try to wait it out." A more fun movie would've involving trying to search for exits or unorthodox methods to stay awake.
