Sleepwalkers (1992)

I was 9 when I first saw this movie; a friend recorded it from TV with his VCR and then brought it to my place (it was ages ago, as you can see). It was pretty scary, or at least that's what the nine-year-old me thought.Last night, I saw it again for the first time in centuries. It went well, kinda.For some reason, I forgot about the relationship between mother and son and found myself a bit disturbed by it through the whole movie, it was probably because of how they portrayed it. The story was actually pretty interesting, although I felt they didn't explained it that well (the rose for example, why the dead girl at the beginning had one and why did the mother gave one to Tanya?). The acting was good, everyone gave their best with what they had; but, as much as I love Mädchen Amick, she wasn't that convincing as the leading/final girl. It's like they wanted her to act as dumb as possible.The effects were great, they might look dated nowadays but they were cool for the period. The sleepwalkers were menacing, but they kinda looked like a giant Sphynx cat; the scene where Tanya is at the Brady's house and they reflect on the mirror killed me, I screamed.The film's length was OK, not too long but not too short, and the pace...well, it was good for the most part.Everything was fine until Charles attacked Tanya and killed the officer in the cemetery, it went completely apeshit from there. It's like they thought ''OK, the movie started an hour ago and we haven't had enough action so let's do it all together RIGHT NOW''. It was non- sense; the mother went to Tanya's house, killed the officers, blew some cars up, killed Tanya's father, threw her mother through the window (I laughed, a lot) and stabbed the other officer with an ear corn (no vegetables, no dessert!); I couldn't catch a break, to be honest, it was all too much in so little time.And then, the final showdown; it was hysterical, for reasons unknown to me I found the fight scene with the cats really funny, with the neck snapping and everything. I gotta admit I was really scared when the mother told Tanya to dance with the dying Charles.Oh, I almost forgot about the cameos! I loved Stephen King's scene.All in all, it was a pretty entertaining movie and I would definitely watch it again.

Well, well, well, what have we here? Yes, that's right, yet another average Stephen King film. This one is slightly different from the others in that King actually scripted the film, instead of it being an adaptation of one of his stories. And sad to say that the plot of this film is very poor indeed. We are offered no explanations of what these 'sleepwalker' creatures are, how they came to be, or why they turn into big rubber suited monsters when they get near cats. Also, like other King films (for instance PET SEMATARY) the film is very glossy and slick.The acting ranges from adequate to poor, especially in the case of Alice Krige, who seems to think she is in some kind of melodrama instead of a cheapo horror film. The rest of the actors are just not taking the film seriously, which is something I don't like much. This means that you laugh at the film, and there is no chance of identifying with any of the characters. Other than that, it's your typical "monsters disguised as humans" film, with a few twists in the tale to differentiate it from all of the others we've seen in the past. The use of cats is quite original, and at least the cats are realistic in this film (unlike THE UNCANNY). They're the good guys too, so expect to see a lot of them broken in half, thrown about, and caught in bear traps before the credits roll. The film does boast some good special effects work in its favour. There are a number of clever post-TERMINATOR 2 morphing scenes which are nice to look at. Unfortunately only the first, unexpected morph is shocking and then you simply wait for the next one to happen.The film also has a high gore level, which surprised me a bit seeing as it's a mainstream film. There is lots of hand violence: hands are a) cut off b) slammed in doors c) have their fingers bitten off and a lot of blood everywhere, with people being stabbed in the eyes. There are also a number of cameos to look out for, from Joe Dante to John Landis to Clive Barker. Even Mark Hamill pops up as a policeman in the opening scenes. Stephen King also puts in his expected 'comedy' appearance. The film is entertaining with all the violence and gore on offer, but it's not exactly involving or intelligent in any way. If you're looking for cheap thrills then you've come to the right place.

Stephen King's Sleepwalkers has a reputation as one of the lesser quality adaptations of his work, which led me to put off watching it for years. Well I don't know what film the critics saw, cause the one I watched was wicked good. Nestled in that perfect area of 80's horror where the blood was corn syrup, the flesh was latex, there wasn't a pixel or rendering in sight and atmospherics mattered more than excessive violence, this is one serious piece of horrific eye candy with the backbone of King's wicked imagination to hold it steady. The story tells of a small Midwestern town (is there any other kind in the man's work?) That falls prey to a pair of vampire werewolf hybrid creatures who subside off the blood of virgins and morph into slimy behemoths that conveniently show off the impressive prosthetics. Brian Krause is one of said creatures, drifting into town with his creepy mother (the wonderful Alice Krige) and setting his sights on severely virginal schoolgirl Madchen Amick, by dialing up the charm past eleven. People and animals start to die all over town and the suspicions arise, but the pair are cunning and have most likely been doing this for centuries almost unnoticed. It's nothing too unique as far as the concept goes, but the fun of it lies in the gooey special effects and one demon of a performance from Krige, a veteran stage actress. She is one part beautiful seductress (even to her son, in one unsettling scene) and one part volatile banshee, setting your nerves on edge time and time again throughout the film. Krause does the demonic James Dean thing nicely and Amick shows blossoming reilience beneath the required mantle of terrified scream queen. The three of them run amok in a beautifully realized fever dream of psycho sexualized terror, small town atmospherics and a classic old school horror climate. This film loves it's cameos, so watch for Clive Barker, Ron Perlman as a grouchy state trooper and King himself as the world's dumbest graveyard caretaker. Baffles me why this was panned upon release. It's actually one of the best films I've seen based on King's horror work, and there's a lot to compete with.

Story Synopsis: Mother & son Mary & Charles Brady arrive in a small town, intending to stay there. But what the townsfolk don't know is that the pair are actually 'sleepwalkers' – human / feline hybrid polymorphs who subsist on the lifeforce of female virgins. As Charles courts Tanya Robertson, intending to feed her to his mother, the police begin to suspect their intentions. The town's cats – whose scratches are the only way to kill the creatures – mount an assault on the pair.Film Analysis: Today's horror fans might know Mick Garris as the producer of the Masters of Horror TV series – a series of short films made by legendary genre directors. But Garris is also a director who had obtained a bad reputation among Stephen King's followers thanks to his consistent botching of King's novels by making subpar adaptations. The problem is that King, who seems to be a friend of Garris, doesn't seem to notice the harm that Garris is doing to his works. Sleepwalkers, one of King's original film scripts, was among the first of Garris' botch-jobs.Sleepwalkers, at least in script form, is King's attempt at reinventing the vampire film. At first glance it seems an interesting & well-thought-out story. But Garris, who seems incapable of making a decent film, ruins the story to the degree that it becomes quite unwatchable.I have always hated Garris' films, due to his ineptness. Garris' primary fault is the use of his trademark clumsy humour that he injects into his films. Not to mention that he mishandles the script badly, with his characters acting like total idiots at times. King has been known to have the occasional scripting flaw – his only directorial outing, the killer machines thriller Maximum Overdrive is a good example – but it seems that even his skills can't withstand Garris that well. When you have the monster off a police deputy by ramming a corncob into his ear, you know the film's in trouble.Having said that, Brian Krause & Alice Krige make a good team of shapeshifting monsters (even if their characters' incestuous relationship is a bit off-putting). This, along with King's original ideas & the glorious image of several film directors making cameos during the graveyard crime scene analysis makes me give the film a slightly higher rating than I would have given it otherwise.