Dead Sleep [Blu-ray]

Dead Sleep Blu-ray marks the worldwide Blu-ray premiere of a disturbing Ozploitation thriller based on the real-life Chelmsford Hospital scandal, one of Australia’s most infamous true crime cases. Starring Academy Award nominee Linda Blair, the film transforms a shocking chapter of medical history into a tense, morally charged drama that still resonates decades later.

Blair plays a young nurse who arrives at a private psychiatric clinic only to uncover a horrifying treatment regime overseen by a celebrated psychiatrist. Patients are subjected to prolonged drug-induced comas combined with electroconvulsive therapy, a practice that soon spirals into negligence, abuse, and death. As the body count rises, the nurse risks her own safety to expose a system built on secrecy, authority, and institutional violence.

Directed by Alec Mills and written by Michael Rymer, Dead Sleep blends medical thriller conventions with true crime urgency, drawing uneasy comparisons to films like Coma while grounding its horror in real-world atrocity. Severin Films presents the film newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative by StudioCanal, accompanied by thoughtful extras that contextualize both the case and the genre.

directed by: alec mills
starring: linda blair, tony bonner
1990 / 90 min

Language: English
Audio: Stereo
Discs: 1