Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Aaron1375
Yes, this movie has a man executed and returned as the Sandman a supernatural killer that does in fact have about the same powers as the villain from the Spidey comic books. He must kill now and his main target is his younger brother. Creepy music played, strange truths revealed near the end, and lots of sand and not all that much gore. In fact, he does kill his victims in rather different ways from other movie slasher/monsters. The movie has some good in it, with that it has just to much bad. The whole using sand to kill gets old and is a bit lame, sand is just not all that scary. Well unless of course you are in the desert and in the middle of a sandstorm. There are some interesting plot points, and there is one kill that occurs near the end that makes one who watches this type of movie go "that is not supposed to happen". They try to kill the sandman in differing ways, one of those ways backfires and leads to the death above. I do not know, I think they had an interesting concept going for them, but maybe they needed to do something with the killer perhaps making him more of a supernatural slasher who turned to sand only to get to his victims and not as a means to kill them. I mean that one scene involving that girl in the bed was really over the top.
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.
callanvass
not that bad nothing special but watchable this had some decent acting and a very cool opening sequence but the plot gets too silly for it's own good and the ending is pretty rushed with some weak dialog but we do have a cool looking killer and a good background story to it and the premise is quite neat it also has excellent production values but this only merits a rental because there are quite a few flaws to be had like why did the kill Griffin before it ended they should have let him survive but still this has some witty moments to make this a decent rental so overall i had a decent amount of fun with this puppy but just remember to check your brain at the door **1/2 out of 5
slayrrr666
"Sleepstalker" is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine.**SPOLIERS**Fifteen years ago, as a serial killer attacks and kills a whole family except for the son before the police arrive and catches him. Now in the present day, the same kid, Griffin (Jay Underwood) is a writer trying to catch his big break by getting an interview with a notorious gang leader. He and his girlfriend Megan (Katherine Morris), a photographer, head out on the interview. That night, the same man who attacked his family, the Sandman (Michael Harris) is being put to death for his crimes. He is visited by the Preacher (Michael D. Roberts) and is given a special necklace and the last rites, which are actually a spell used by the Preacher to transfer the Sandman's soul into another body before being sent to death. In order to pass onto the next world, the Sandman must kill the lone surviving member of his last attack, Underwood, and goes after him and his friends, killing them in a variety of methods using sand (Drowning in a sea of sand, creating hurricane force winds with sand, sand projectiles, etc.) Griffin learns that the Sandman is a close family relative who was abused by his father earlier on, snapped, killed him and became a serial killer to silence the pain he felt. Eventually, the search leads him to the Preacher, who gives Griffin some advice on how to stop the Sandman. Now with only Griffin and Megan left alive, the Sandman chases them into an abandoned where house, where Griffin is killed and Megan saves the day by drying up the Sandman in a giant fire when they learn fire can kill him.The Good News: I have to give props to the FX department, as the Sandman's make-up effects are pretty scary. Harris also gives a chilling performance, making the Sandman appear even creepier. Underwood does an okay job, but doesn't get a whole lot to work with. He is basically a hysterical man running from an impossibly created being, so is naturally treated with a crazed man's attitude. Morris is actually better, though like Underwood isn't given a lot to emote. The Preacher fares better than both, due to Robert's dead-on performance and the colorless contact lenses used to turn his eyes white. The gore is, for a change, not blood and guts, but instead having your skin stripped away from being caught in a windstorm, leaving bone, marrow and ragged clothes behind. Several killings are unique and done creatively. Also, the hero is killed instead of barely surviving the ordeal with his girlfriend.The Bad News: When I first heard that the killers name was the Sandman, I had flashes back to an action film several years earlier, Van Damme's 'Death Warrant,' where serial killer in the film is also called The Sandman. This immediately struck me as weird, since it would make no sense that two films, in different genres, would be made so close to each other would have a character of the same name and occupation. Aside from the three leads and the Preacher, the rest of the acting is dull and uninspired. No one came across as convincing, a major no-no in a film where the believability of a character drives the film along. Also, the clichéd part of the Sandman being Griffin's relative (I won't give it away, but based on what I've just said, most of you can immediately know) is, well, clichéd. A dull beginning after the Sandman is caught also dooms the picture to boredom.The Final Verdict: See this one only if you watch horror movies religiously, like me, and have very undiscriminating tastes in your preferences. I mean, I like it, but several of you out there will disagree and say it's dull, boring and without imagination.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Adult Situations and brief nudity
