SLEEPWALKERS

Sleepwalker's are Cat like vampires that shift shape and have power. They're main goal is to feed on young virgin girls by literally sucking the life out of them. Their weakness however is Cats. That's practically you're plot. It's strange and unusual.



Let's talk about the Sleepwalkers. Well the plots description explains who they are which is again very odd and unusual but lets explore them a little bit more. First off, I like to know where they came from, what their past is, why is a Cat their kryptonite and more importantly what happened to the other Sleepwalkers since the only two survivors are a Mother and her teenage son. Sadly it's never explained which I find really disappointing and believe me when I say I'd like to know more about these different types of vampires then what we were given since these aren't just different kinds of vampires but they also have a past. The concept to these vampires are creative but like I said before, we learn nothing about them which turns the creativity to these characters into something confusing and stupid. What also confuses me about the film is, are we supposed to love or hate these characters? They're our protagonists and focus but then the film decides that our victim is our focus now and the creatures we who spent half of the movie with are our antagonist. My biggest problem with these creatures is their relationship. For some weirdos out there "A boy's best friend is his mother" but for these creatures "A boy's best girlfriend is his mother". I'm not kidding, these two creatures who are mother and son are in love affectionately. They go from passionately dancing together, to making out, to making love! MAN DO I NEED A BARF BAG BADLY! My huge question is NOT why do these creatures do it, my huge question is WHAT WAS STEPHEN KING THINKING WHEN HE WROTE THIS?! I don't care if these Sleepwalkers are not human, having a love story between mother and son of any kind of species is just gross and messed up, END OF STORY! Sure Riff Raff and Magenta who are brother and sister were in love in "Rocky Horror" but at least the film didn't go far as this, this film is showing what Riff Raff and Magenta do alone!


Now the acting. Despite the Sleepwalkers being very confusing creatures, the acting from Brian Krause and Alice Krige is good. The scenes when the mother and son are together, NO, it's disgusting and disturbing! The scenes when they're scary and off killing people, YES! I'm not saying they're horrifying but they really are fun to watch and can sometimes be a tad bit frightening. I also give Brian Krause credit for trying to make the useless and ignored sub plot of him loving the victim stand out as something emotional. Mädchen Amick as the victim is a bland character but she makes her likable and boy is she cute and pretty in this movie. The rest of the characters and cast are really just actors making cameos but to be honest I really don't mind that at all, in fact I find them enjoyable. We have Mark Hamill as the head cop at the beginning of the film, the parents of the victim are played by the same people who played the parents in "Ferris Buller's Day Off", John Landis as the lab technician, Tobe Hooper and Clive Barker as Forensic technician, Glenn Shadix as a perverted blackmailing English teacher, Ron Perlman and Jim Haynie as cops, Dan Martin as a cop who loves to play with his Cat (Which the Cat is the film's hero) and of course Stephen King himself. Like I do with Hitchcock, let's play a game called...

WHERE IS STEPHEN KING?

HINT: I'm not responsible for what happens after I lock up the place I caretake and I guess Tobe Hooper, Clive Barker and Jim Haynie don't care about me.  

The cinematography and lighting for the film is actually creative, it's not "Citizen Kane" but you can tell that the Director is trying to make it look good, which he succeeds in. The music, well while not having a very memorable score it still is nice. The opening music, the credit music, the chase music, the waltz music and the random scene when our victim is dancing to "Do You Love Me" at a Movie Theater is really good and each piece of music fits each scene. The special effects are a mix bag. Most of the time you'll get some creative images and effects while other times epically during murder scenes the effects look fake. The designs for Sleepwalkers along with the special effect and make up is creative. As for the murder scenes, while looking phony half of the time, some can be creative and gory which towards the end of the first act to the end is one big gorefest! The film's highlights are the death of the Glenn Shandix character, the car chase, the opening scene, the Cat attacks, the Mother's killing spree and the confrontation between the son and the victim. My favorite killing in the film is when the Mother stabs a cop in the back with corn on the cob and says a cheesy one liner "No vegetables, No dessert, those are the rules". It's so cheesy and insane, and yet so fun to watch.

While mostly being confusing and really really disturbing which leads to most of us thinking what Stephen King was thinking, smoking or snorting when he wrote this, the film is still worth a watch. You can tell a lot of creativity was put into the film even if the concept and premise makes no sense at all, the acting is over the top but decent and the film has all the fun and gore that we enjoy from watching in a Stephen King flick. It's not one of Stephen King's greatest, in fact I'm convinced that it's his lowest not to mention the fact that the story was never even published, it's still an entertaining horror film for crazy and overblown it is.

RATING 2/5