Sleepwalkers (1992)

Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is about a half-human, half-cat race of shape shifters called, for no apparent reason, sleepwalkers. Hunky Charles Brady (Brian Krause) and his incestuous mother (Alice Krige) are sleepwalkers, and they've come to the small town of Travis, Indiana, where they've somehow acquired a nice house and false identities. They need virgin souls to survive and have fixated on local beauty Tanya (Madchen Amick from Twin Peaks). That's about it for the story--from then on it's a series of chase scenes full of badly done gore. King must have been sleepwalking himself when he wrote this screenplay--the dialogue is terrible, the characters are cardboard, and the plotting is clumsy. Combine that with mediocre acting, thoughtless direction, slapdash editing, and cheesy special effects, and you have Sleepwalkers. Amick comes off reasonably well and there are cameos by King, Clive Barker, and horror directors John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Joe Dante (Gremlins), and Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). But really, if you're interested in were-cats, see the original The Cat People, starring Simone Simon; it's both sexier and scarier. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

It''s interesting however...

This movie is one of the Stephen King's horror films and this movie was interesting. The whole story was cool but some scene was disgusting. I like the cat. However this movie was a little shortage and it's not exciting. March 17, 2008

Cat-Scratch Fever...

Is SLEEPWALKERS the best Stephen King movie ever filmed? No, that would be CARRIE or THE DEAD ZONE I believe. Is it the worst SK movie? Nah, that dubious distinction must go to either MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE or DREAMCATCHER (so far). SLEEPWALKERS is somewhere in between these extremes. Actually, I enjoyed this movie, even with it's silliness and so-so sfx. Why? Two reasons. 1- I know that King was having fun, cramming this movie w/ goofy dialogue and cameos of King friends and faves. 2- Alice Krige (Ghost Story, Star Trek: First Contact), who is ALWAYS riveting (and h-o-t!). She very nearly saves this film on her own. Her final scenes, where she goes completely bananas, are worth the price of the dvd! While I found the story to be sort of lame (though somewhat interesting), I couldn't get Ms. Krige out of my thoughts. She has a creepy / sensual thing going on that is disturbing yet alluring. As for the cats, the corn-cob-killing, and the rest of the nuttiness, it all just adds to the fun. I can watch this beautiful mess over and over again... March 15, 2008

This has that Stephen King feel

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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
January 16, 2007

This is Barely a Horror Movie, but it is VERY Entertaining

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) and director Mick Garris wanted to make a movie that was campy AND scary at the same time. Unfortunately, they failed to deliver with regard to the scares, but they do provide us with some good laughs. Sleepwalkers is a good movie, it's just not as good as it was meant to be. It's almost impossible for a movie to be both campy and scary, but I regard House of 1000 Corpses as a rare exception.

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. August 11, 2006

Unless you are a fan of Stephen King's work, you can ignore this one

I love watching movie adaptations of Stephen King's work. When I came across "Sleepwalkers", I thought it would be interesting. However, I was a little skeptic because I hadn't ever heard of it, but then realized that King directly made this into a movie without making it a book first. After watching the entire movie, I can clearly say that unless you are a die-hard King fan, you can avoid this movie at all costs.

The story is about the Brady family consisting of Charles (acted by Brian Krause, who nowadays is famous for his role as 'Leo' in the hit TV show "Charmed") and his mother Mary (played by Alice Krige), who move to Travis, Indiana. However, we know from the beginning that they are not who they say they are; in fact, they aren't even human beings. They are the Sleepwalkers - shape shifting creatures who feast on female virgins to keep themselves alive. Their only flaw is that they are vulnerable to cats. Anyway, Charles has his eyes on his next victim, who happens to be a high school cheerleader called Tanya (played by Mädchen Amick) and enrolls in the same class as her to seduce her. Will the Sleepwalkers be stopped in time or is it the end for Tanya?

I really wanted to enjoy this movie, but there are SO many holes in the storyline, which makes me confused to enjoy it, such as:

1) In the first scene of the movie, we see a bunch of dead cats hanging around the house, which proves that the Sleepwalkers can fight it and kill it. If that's the case, why were Charles and his mother afraid to even go outside their house to fight the cats off, instead of putting lame traps around them? We know they are not like vampires, and can walk during daylight.
2) When Tanya comes over to see Charles in his home, Charles realizes that the mirror reflects their true appearance, and pushes them to another room. So he knows he should avoid mirrors and other things, but yet in the graveyard, he lets Tanya take pictures of him? What's that all about? Okay, once or twice is fine, but he doesn't even stop her!
3) Thirdly, as Michael R Gates mentioned in his review, what is the point of the incest scenes between Charles and his mother? It doesn't progress the story in any way at all. It's not like they are mating to reproduce another of their kind (which would have made more sense).

There are many more questions, but I don't want to bore you with the details. The point is this movie was too confusing and silly to even enjoy it. The plus point is, the cast acted well, and we get to see King himself make an appearance, along with other horror creators Clive Barker and Tobe Hooper. Unfortunately, even with the cast, the story doesn't get any better. In fact, I felt sorry for the Sleepwalkers, because they are alone and they just need to keep themselves alive.

All in all, you can watch this movie if you have a lot of free time on your hands, but don't rent it in hopes of getting scared, or seeing something interesting, unless you are a fan of one of the cast members. July 24, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...