Leofwine_draca SLEEP STALKER is a mid '90s straight-to-video horror flick that borrows heavily from the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series. In it, a kid is terrorised by a serial killer who kills his parents. The guy is sent to Death Row and executed years later, but unfortunately for the now grown up boy, his spirit returns in the literal form of the 'Sandman' and now he wants to finish his earlier job.The similarities between this film's villain and Freddy Krueger are too obvious to ignore, but otherwise this isn't bad at all for an STV horror film. I quite like the look of these mid-'90s horror efforts, with their crisp photography and good use of set locations for lots of action-focused horror. The acting is nothing to write home about, but since when did we watch these films for the acting anyway? Where this film excels is in its use of special effects. I'm normally not a fan of CGI work, but the early CGI in this film is much better than it is in more recent efforts. The villain is literally a man made of sand and the blowing sand effects look great. The kills are pretty creative too, and despite the usual B-movie trappings this turns out to be an entertaining little movie; much better than it should be given the circumstances.

doc8998 While Sleepstalker certainly fails to reach the lofty goals you can see those involved reaching for, it still falls into one of those "guilty pleasure" movies. The acting's weak, the special effects are underwhelming, (even for 20 years ago,) and it overstays its welcome by a bit, but you can see that effort was put in to attempt to create a new Freddy/ Jason/ Pinhead character that might, at the very least, capture some of that audience. While most of the actors involved aren't horrible, you can tell that many were still in the early parts of their careers, and while they give it their best shot, the performances are always on the wrong side of good, but they never fail so profoundly that it makes you want to shut the movie off. You'll recognize the ever-present Ken Foree from his long career in these types of movies in a limited run as a police officer. William Lucking, "Piney," from Sons of Anarchy, also takes a small role as another detective, and a young Giuseppe Andrews, (Deputy Winston from Cabin Fever,) also makes one of his early film roles. The main characters however, have had mostly middling success in front of the camera since- with Kathryn Morris as Megan, Michael Harris as The Sandman, and Jay Underwood as Griffin all gathering more than 50 roles apiece in their careers, you're bound to have seen one of them at some point. Michael Harris as the Sandman is perhaps the best of the three, (although Kathryn Morris is perhaps the most consistent of all of them throughout,) actually making the Sandman reasonably creepy at times with his lullabies that are also inconsistent, with occasional attempts to sing, while other times reciting them eerily. It's a shame, because some of the acting inconsistencies would oh so easily be overlooked if there had simply been a little more money tossed at the budget. The Sandman is not just a name given to the killer- although that is how it begins. Eventually, like all good movie maniacs, the supernatural angle kicks in, and he actually becomes a being of sand. While the look of Sandman is reasonable when he takes form, just not enough is done with this great power with the exception of traversing under doors and through ventilation shafts. They do make attempts within budget to show a few things, ie: accidentally dipping fingers into water, making the tips disappear, or using the abrasive sand as a weapon on 2 occasions, but when they do try for these more dramatical effects, it usually looks, at its best, bad... at its worst, horrible. One thing I did remember after watching this again for the first time in nearly 20 years was just how eerie the lullaby playing (Sleep Baby Sleep, sung by Teresa Straley,) on the record player during flashbacks actually is. I remembered it sticking with me for a long time after I viewed this 20 years ago... I watched it quite a bit- was a favorite fallback B-Movie of mine at the time. And after rediscovering this gem tonight, I know that song will stick with me again. A sorrowful lullaby that fits the tone of the movie quite well. And that's where Sleepstalker, besides the music, hits another high note... As the pieces begin falling in place, this movie becomes a bit more than the sum of all its parts. As the movie begins linking past with present, antagonist to protagonist in multiple ways, it achieves a level of sadness that most B-Movies cannot do- mostly because they make the mistake of trying to force emotion down your throat. Sleepstalker waits until the last 1/3 of the movie to begin giving you everything you'll need to put it all together successfully, (although certainly, it can be figured out before that,) but it allows you to come to your emotions on its background on your own. Will it put you in tears? No. Yet somehow, it strikes a chord much more naturally and, despite its supernatural maniac derivative, full of real feeling that the likes of Freddy Krueger's child killing or Jason's revenge killing just never really achieve. It truly is a shame that this movie didn't quite make the cut. There's so much here that really could have made for a great franchise, but you can tell that the studio wanted a new maniac, they just weren't sure if there was room for one, and the budget suffers at times. After viewing this, I have to believe that the extra budget and time would have proved there WAS enough room for another maniac on the big screen. Still, with the limited resources available, I applaud the filmmakers for still putting out a movie well worth viewing once. This movie seemingly reformed in my memory, much like the Sandman is capable of doing after drifting under a doorway, and I'm glad it did- and I'm glad that it urged me to find a copy on DVD (I'm grateful Lion's Gate ever even put it on DVD,) and after sitting down and watching it tonight, I'm more than happy I made the purchase.

Bloodwank I should have watched this one when I was younger. Around about 14 would have been just the ticket I think. I did see portions of it a few years back, the ending and bits and pieces of the rest deep one dope-haze night in between episodes of Six Feet Under and was pretty intrigued by what I saw, though by then it was a little too late already as some of it fell pretty flat. Still, I did get interested enough to finally see the whole thing and like I say, I should have seen it earlier. Not because its some great work or of any real significance at all, but having grown up on the 90's conception of B cinema this one could have awed the younger me. These days though, not so much. In short, the problem here is a lack of guts. The plot is solid supernatural slasher fare, a serial killer with several dead families to his credit and a penchant for pouring sand in the eyes of his victims gets a new lease of life after his execution, courtesy of a devilish priest. This becomes rather a problem for the survivor of his last slayings, not unexpectedly. There aren't any surprises in the general course of events, but the film gets a great boost from its evil doer, known as The Sandman. Not entirely sure why the film isn't just called The Sandman, but then maybe I'm just not that smart. Anyways, he's a terrific villain, well designed and decidedly unsettling. Freaky scars, inverted cross, artfully ragged clothes and deathly desert pallor plus the physical presence of Michael Harris make The Sandman quite the unnerving figure, but Harris' performance really sells things, soft voice and quiet demeanour perfect vehicle for his creepy rhymes and disturbing justifications. Whenever The Sandman is about the film carries a decent charge and threatens to turn great, the problem is that things are much too tame, there are scant few deaths and only one has any level of grue (and its pretty brief at that). Not that gore is totally necessary, but there aren't many kills and the sequences tend not to be especially well constructed. Its a real bummer as the film ends up repeatedly not quite delivering, even though it never gets too dull, indeed is fairly watchable throughout. As well as Michael Harris other performances are decent enough, Michael D. Roberts is effective as the evil priest (and sports wicked white contacts), Kathryn Morris is an appealing heroine and Jay Underwood is nicely wired as paranoid protagonist Griffin, his mounting terror put across rather convincingly. Pacing is okay and effects are sometimes interesting, sometimes silly looking. The ending is unfortunately part of the silliness, albeit moderately suspenseful and there are a few general plotting issues to chew over, though only one serious. Altogether this is a pretty frustrating watch, but even so it does manage to be fair enough if you have some interest nostalgic yearning in 90's b movies. 5/10 from me, which I guess might seem generous but I'd still say its do-able enough on a real slow night.

Paul Andrews Sleepstalker is set in Los Angeles where 17 years ago the family of 7 year old Griffin Davis (Jay Underwood) was slaughtered by a serial killer known as the Sandman (Michael Harris), the police managed to save Griffin & arrest the Sandman. Now, 17 years later, the Sandman is due to be executed in the gas chamber. He is visited in his cell by a weird preacher (Michael D. Roberts) who gives him a cross made of heated sand & empowers him with some black magic satanic spell or something like that. That night as the real Sandman dies in the gas chamber another Sandman is born in the desert from, surprise, real sand. Stop me if this is too exciting. The Sandman must track Griffin down & kill him within three days to gain eternal life or suffer the consequences of eternal damnation! I think.Co-written & directed by Turi Meyer I think Sleep Stalker is the type of horror film which you always find in supermarket & video store bargain bins where the almost unsellable rubbish ends up in a desperate attempt to get rid of them, yep that just about sums up Sleep Stalker. The script by Meyer & co-producer Al Septien feels like an attempt to create a film along the lines of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) with is sleep obsessed killer, luckily this never turned into a franchise despite the obvious ending which left the door wide open for a sequel. The plot has several holes, the black preacher guy & his stone throne are never really explained, the plot twist towards the end is just rubbish & if Griffin knows that water can harm the Sandman why doesn't he arm himself with a water pistol or a bucket of water or something liquidy along those lines? As a character the Sandman is rubbish, he never does anything particularly exciting or clever, his powers seems to consist almost entirely of turning into sand & travelling through pipes. The kills are few & far between with only four death's in the film & they are all very unimaginative, just think of the possibilities of a killer who can turn himself into sand & then completely forget all about them as Sleep Stalker doesn't have anything even remotely approaching it. The film is slow, the more human character's are poor, the dialogue dull & by the time Sleep Stalker had eventually finished I was on autopilot.Director Meyer tries to inject a little style into the film & isn't entirely unsuccessful, there are definitely one or two nice moments here but it doesn't really make up for the banality of the rest of the production & the fact it's simply not a very good film. There's no scares, there's no excitement, there's no tension, there's no atmosphere & there's no gore, violence or nudity. Enough said, right? The prison the Sandman is held in has to be the most underpopulated prison in all of film history, there doesn't seem to be another inmate anywhere! Hey, it's just an observation...Technically the film is alright, it's a bit flat & forgettable but it's quite well made considering. There are some early Sandman CGI computer effects, they are used sparingly & when you see them you'll understand why. The CGI magnificence of the Sandman from Spider-Man 3 (2007) this ain't! The acting isn't great although it's always nice to see Dawn of the Dead's (1978) Ken Foree in a genre flick.Sleep Stalker is the sort of generic dull horror film which like the title character will send you to sleep & definitely won't be giving you nightmares. Difficult, nay on impossible, to recommend when there are so many more better horror films out there so I won't, if you want to watch a proper Sandman watch Spider-Man 3 instead, hell just watch Spider-Man 3 instead of this full stop.