Sleepstalker (1995)

Really Surprised!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This was playing over at my friends's house recently, so to be fair I missed the first twenty minutes but what I did see was a movie that had a lot in common with Freddy Krueger and Horace Pinker. For a knockoff, it had relatively solid pacing. The casting was slightly off but all the performers could act. I wouldn't say it's a horrible way to waste a evening. So much 90's-ness in it too.

When a serial killer returns from the dead only now in an immortal body composed of sand to finish off the lone survivor of a massacre, he tries to get his friends together to stop him before he can complete his mission of revenge.This one actually turns out a lot better than it initially should be, due in large part to one of the more creatively-imagined killers as it manages to combine a somewhat goofy-in-concept killer with one that maintains an aura of creepiness as he does here, with the creepy physical look that actually does a decent job of melding human characteristics onto a base of human sand, creating a great look and a clever concept that works well. In addition, it also works well in the gore department as, for a change-over, it's not blood and guts but instead a variety of sand-based concepts, having your skin stripped in a vicious sandstorm leaving just bones and ragged clothes, projectiles and such make for a good time, even if they're overall effect is undeniably campy and goofy. There's also some pretty tense scenes here and there, from the opening where the killer's caught in a family's house, a couple decent stalking scenes amongst his friends and a rather enjoyable finale, where the original tactic of having the killer accomplish his task before being finished by an integral plot member is a lot of fun. All-in-all, this here is a pretty decent slasher.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity

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.

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits As a child, Griffin (Jay Underwood) was sent to sleep by his parents who rested his troubled little mind and told him there was no such thing as 'the Sandman.' On that same night, a serial killer going by that very name breaks into their home and 'puts them to sleep.' Now, seventeen years later, he's executed on death row and Griffin, now a successful writer, is able to lay his past to rest. Or so he thinks-the 'Sandman' just made a pact with the devil to be resurrected and come back to finish the task and kill Griffin. But, as the story progresses, twists and turns occur that shed a different light on the whole topic...I've been in a horror kinda mood all of this week, and so, out of the many films I've had piled up to be watched, I selected this little horror piece.I can't say it succeeds in being really scary in any way, and the soundtrack is kinda irritating ('sleeeeeeeeeeep, baby, sleeeeeeeeeep'-I'd turn into a serial killer if I heard that all the time!) And some of the character motivations and dialogue shed a whole new light for me ('I've heard all the serial killer excuses in the world...ate too much fast food...', never heard that one before!!!) As for the performances, they're generally all pretty terrible with the exception perhaps of Michael Harris as the Sandman, even though he kept reminding me of Henry Silva out of Nico and Morty out of The Fear.But, there is a clever twist at the end of it, I suppose, and some okay effects in places. So generally not much to write home about, but not a completely wasted horror experience.'Ate too much fast food...' **