Sleepwalkers

 

 

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Giant incestuous demon cats who suck the life force from virgins... sure, why not? That's the concept behind "Sleepwalkers," a Stephen King horror movie that rarely actually manages to be scary -- but there is enough entertaining cheez here, as well as brilliant performances by Alice Krige and Sparks.

Charles Brady (Brian Krause) and his mother Mary (Krige) have just moved to a small town. And we soon discover that they are "sleepwalkers": giant incestuous cats who suck the life force from virgins, and are really freaked out by actual cats (who apparently sit outside their house waiting to kill them). Mary is literally starving to death, so Charles has to find a virgin quickly.

Charles soon homes in on the virginal Tanya Robertson (Madchick Amick), and sets about seducing her -- but when he tries to kill her, he ends up horribly wounded by a cop's cat. Now the sleepwalkers are even more desperate to get their hands on Tanya, and are willing to kill anyone who gets in the way of their food.

"Sleepwalkers" has a really cool idea... but honestly it's not very scary most of the time. Director Mick Garris seems to wuss out on some of the potentially scary scenes (like the rapey graveyard scene), with goofy angles and one-liners. I mean, it's hard to be scared when Madchen Amick is popping her screaming fact right near the camera. Instead, it becomes a massive ball of cheesy, over-the-top gore and rubber cat suits.

Fortunately, a lot of the cheesiness is still very entertaining in a B-movie way, especially when the sleepwalkers stop pretending to be human and go all-out in their monstrousness. I will admit, though, some of the scenes late in the movie ARE very creepy, but that's mainly because Krige's character is absolutely insane. The scene where she forces Tanya to "dance" with her half-dead son is chilling.

One big downside: we never learn much about the sleepwalkers. We know the basics, but no backstory or explanations for why cats hate them or whatever.

Unsurprisingly, Krige gives the best human performance of this movie -- she's creepy, weird and inhuman, especially she goes all angry mama-bear/lover. Amick spends most of the movie crying and screaming, Krause is moderately sympathetic as a monstrous creature who wants to save his mother/lover, and Ron Perlman is criminally underused. Keep an eye out for Stephen King in the funniest authorial cameo I have ever seen.

But of course, there's the scene-stealer and a truly awesome actor: Sparks the cat. I am not kidding. This kitty is completely convincing (such as when Clovis views his dead owner), and he kicks... er, claws butt on not one but TWO occasions.

"Sleepwalkers" isn't scary at all, but it is brainlessly, amusingly gory and cheesy -- and the performances by Krige and Sparks are excellent.

Stephen king says what is really scary is when you are just in the realm of reality and possibility. Then the spooky extraordinary seems scarier because this may be taking place next door.

This is a pretty good adoption from print to the screen. Of course the disadvantage is selecting what to show. The big advantage is not having to use the King potty mouth on every sentence. A few descriptive words are needed for the ambiance but King goes overboard in his writing.

Alice Krige the Borg queen and ghost is the perfect person to play Mary Brady as she can be so sweet and forceful at the same time.

If you look close you will see Stephen King as the Cemetery Caretaker. He is a much better token than Alfred Hitchcock

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We all know that there is some truth to fantastic creatures reported through the ages. This is the story of a pair of the last of a bread of shape shifting creatures called Sleepwalkers. They are a very close nit mother and son. They must live on the life essence of good girls and at all costs must avoid cats as cats are the mortal enemy of Sleepwalkers. Watch as they barley escape with their lives and set-up house in a rural community.

Sleepwalkers has all the elements of a horror movie, and yet it isn't one. The first scene is very effective, and sets the tone for a good horror movie. We see Mark Hamill (unrecognizable from his Luke Skywalker days) as a cop checking out some odd goings-on at a house. But I wonder - did the girl scream or was she already dead? Or was it a dead body that screamed? The music and imagery during the opening credits is great. There's a definition of a sleepwalker from an old occult encyclopedia. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and art look really cool. The sketch of a sleepwalker breastfeeding an infant looks scary. The thought that the infant might actually be a human being makes the sketch even more unsettling. Anyway, that first scene and the opening credits create an atmosphere of dread that we would expect to last throughout the rest of the movie. But Stephen King (who wrote the script) wanted to write a movie that was campy AND scary at the same time. I don't think anyone has ever been able to pull that off in the entire history of filmmaking, and director Mick Garris fails in the attempt. But it's a noble effort, and he should be commended - this is a good movie.

I think of Sleepwalkers as more of a comedy than a horror movie, just because there are so few moments that anyone would find scary (even though this movie terrified me when I was a kid). There's a lot of moments when this movie tries to be scary, but falls short, because the suspense is undermined by jokes or humorous incidents. All the murders are amusing for one reason or another. How can a murder be amusing? Watch this movie and you'll see what I mean - a lot of the murders look really silly, like when a Sheriff is bodyslammed on a picket fence. I think this movie works best as a comedy anyway. If the guys that made Sleepwalkers cut out all the funny stuff and just tried to go for the chills, then I think I would have enjoyed this movie a lot less.

In a nutshell, a mother and son are demonic shapeshifters called sleepwalkers that feed off the life-force of virgin women. Normally they take the form of human beings, so that they can go about daily life unnoticed. The incestuous behaviour of Mary Brady (Alice Krige) and her son Charles (Brian Krause) is disturbing, but for some reason it doesn't have any shock effect at all once it becomes apparent they aren't human. I suppose it's because I expect non-humans to do things that humankind considers perverse. But I also liked the way this movie made a nice instrumental like Santo and Johnny's 'Sleepwalk' sound evil and creepy. Enya's 'Boadicea' makes for good background music in the opening scene, but not when it shows Charles leaving the theatre - it just doesn't seem to suit the light-hearted nature of that scene. But when it plays at the end of the movie it suits that scene perfectly, and it runs on through the end credits.

I also like how the heroine Tanya Robertson (Madchen Amick) is a klutz, socially awkward, a nerd, and can resort to extreme acts of violence to defend herself. And I like how the teachers use corporal punishment on the kids, like rapping their knuckles with plastic rulers, or dragging them by the ear to the principal's office. The entertaining teacher Mr. Fallows (Glenn Shadix) has a few hilarious exchanges with Charles. Even Mr. Fallows' fatal run-in with Charles is somewhat of a light-hearted moment, thanks to Charles' wit. And the high-speed chase with the stressed out patrolman Andy Simpson (the excellent Dan Martin) is hilarious. I've seen Dan Martin in all kinds of stuff, so why is he still not getting the recognition he deserves?

The scene where Andy gets out of his car and stands in the middle of the deserted highway was good, but it would have been more effective if the viewer didn't know that Charles' car was invisible until AFTER Andy drove away. And that scene would have been more effective if he didn't curse (and say some really goofy words) out loud. A rather chilling scene was when Mrs. Brady puts the rose in Tanya's hair and says "There. It finishes you somehow." The coolest scene of the movie is when it shows Mrs. Brady lying on the ground, completely engulfed in flames. The most disturbing scene is when Tanya's arm gets cut on the broken glass of a police car window. And it was pretty cool when Mrs. Brady blows up the police cars, even if there was no realistic way they could have blown up like that.

I like cats, but all the cats in this movie are annoying. The scene of the cats running down the street to the Brady house is completely preposterous. But if there were no cats in this movie then there would be a problem, because a cat's scratch is the only thing that can harm a sleepwalker. I'm not sure if sleepwalkers are an actual legend or if Mr. King dreamed them up himself. If he did, why would he make a cat's scratch the only thing that can kill a sleepwalker? Something a little less complicated would have been better.

The guys that made this movie deserve a round of applause - it's hard as hell to make a movie that's funny AND scary, but in the case of Sleepwalkers they weren't just trying to be funny - they were trying to be HILARIOUS. Can a movie that's hilarious be scary? Some (but certainly not all) movies work because they don't take themselves seriously, like Sleepaway Camp 2. But in the case of Sleepwalkers it tries so hard to be funny that it can't be scary.

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3.0 out of 5 stars All-Dancing/All-Slashing Cringefest
Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is a fairly-good B-movie. Most of it is enjoyably watchable, due mainly to the easy-on-the-eyes-ability of its lead cast members Brian Krause, Alice... Read more

Published on July 16 2004 by C. T. Mikesell

2.0 out of 5 stars Death by Corn
This gets 2 stars solely for the scene where the police officer is fatally stabbed with an ear of corn.

Published on May 30 2004 by metalhead_joe

1.0 out of 5 stars proof that cats are nothing to be afraid of
Ouch. When the big ones fall, they fall hard. "Sleepwalkers" has the distinction of being the first film Stephen King ever wrote directly for the screen, and much like... Read more

Published on Feb 14 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Horror/Thriller/Drama/and Comedy
This was an ok film about 2 vampire-like beings that can transform themselves into normal looking human beings. Read more

Published on Jan 3 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars You sexy mother
I always had a secret crush on this little movie (secret, maybe because I wouldn't want people to think that I get turned on by mother-son incest! Read more

Published on Nov 24 2003 by MarianaP

4.0 out of 5 stars Stylish and Scary.
Sleepwalkers is not a great film, but entertaining and worth owning, especially if you are a Stephen King fan. Read more

Published on Aug 26 2003 by The Abominable Doctor Phibes

3.0 out of 5 stars A ridiculously cheesy, almost laughable horror film
Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is significant for a number of reasons (all of which added together fail to make this anything more than an average film). Read more

Published on May 7 2003 by Daniel Jolley

4.0 out of 5 stars What's Up
I must say I always have enjoyed this movie and as I was breezing through the reviews it seems like I was one of the few. Read more

Published on Nov 29 2002 by x_opp

2.0 out of 5 stars Not even Alice Krige can save this flick
Charles and Mary seem to have the ideal life - she his beautiful mother, he her handsome and devoted son. Read more

Published on July 21 2002 by Rottenberg's rotten book review

1.0 out of 5 stars This movie was terrible how can anyone give it 2 stars
DO NOT SEE THIS HORRID BAD SORRY EXCUSE FOR A MOVIE

Published on April 17 2002 by mattatut

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