SLEEPWALKERS
[**Spoilers**]
A film review by Chris J. Randall
Copyright 1992 Chris J. Randall
For those of you who don't wish to be spoiled (although not that bad), leave now...
Stephen King's track record is once again affirmed with his latest film, SLEEPWALKERS.
*sigh*
I don't think that I've ever left a movie feeling so disappointed. This movie had such potential, but every chance they had was wasted on something trivial....
The acting, in general, was decent. Unfortunately, they spent no time on any real character development, which I think caused the film to lose a lot. The main characters were competent, and in some cases good. There just simply was no reason to care about what they were doing most of the time.
What the hell are these "Sleepwalker" things? They give us a definition in the beginning, but we get no other explanation other than what we figure out on our own. We don't know where they came from, why they were the way they were, or how they became these things. If they had given fifteen minutes of the film to explain their origin, it would have added much needed depth to the film. Instead, we're left to make up our own theories about the Sleepwalkers.
The effects were good, and in some cases, outstanding. Granted, they weren't up to T-2 standards (what is?), but some things were very eye-catching. The car transformation scenes stand out, as well as the morphing of the faces. Would someone mind explaining what they were siphoning out of the victims? Not a very efficient means of draining someone's "life force" if all they had to do to stop it was close their mouth.
The only bad effect were those using the cats. It was so painfully obvious that some parts weren't real, and it looked as if they just didn't care. They were capable of good cat effects, as witnessed by when the mother caught the cat in mid-air and snapped it in half. At times, the whole thing reminded me of an extended "Toonces the driving cat" skit on SNL, except SNL's cat is a little more realistic.
Holy inconsistencies, Batman! The biggest one in the whole film was the story -- actually, there wasn't much that could be called a story. Like I said before -- there was no background for any of the characters, and points were brought up that could have provided interest, but were quickly dropped. The make a reference to other "Sleepwalkers" around, but they never go any further. Also, the origins would have been interesting, but once again, nothing was said. When the kid gets shot in the back by the cop, notice the placement of the bullet wound. Later, when the kid crawls into his house, look at his back -- no wound of any kind. Just plain sloppy.
I'm not sure what Stephen King wanted this to be billed as. From what I've seen and heard, this is just supposed to be horror. The crowd didn't take it as such. There was more laughter in that theatre than I've heard in movies labeled as "comedies." There are so many moments when we weren't supposed to laugh, but the whole thing was so ridiculous, we couldn't help it. I mean, when the majority of the theatre starts chanting the cat's name when it appears, you know something's wrong. (I've never seen a cat so strong that it could get into a house by breaking a window... :)
All I can say is that I'm glad I saw it for free. Even so, I still feel a bit cheated. King is capable of good stuff, and with a few simple changes in character development and story development, this could have been a really good movie. The potential was *there*, but they failed to capitalize on it. King has no excuses like "Well, it didn't carry over well from the novel." He's responsible for it and has no one to blame but himself. At most, I'd say that this movie is worth matinee prices. If you really want to see it, wait till it hits the $1.50 theatres.
At least we got to see previews of LETHAL WEAPON 3 (Looks Great), ALIEN 3 (Looks Great), and BATMAN RETURNS (Looks Great, but I don't know...). Hmmm. I do believe that I'm going to be going to the movies quite a bit this summer.... :)
Chris
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