SLEEPWALKERS
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
100 min., R, Horror, 1992 Director: Mick Garris Cast: Brian Krause, Alice Krige, Madchen Amick, Stephen King
Note: Sleepwalkers are "people" who are only half-human. They need to feed on human female virgins.
Brian Krause is the new kid in town. He goes to the local high school and he gets to know beautiful, but unpopular, Madchen Amick. Unfortunately for Madchen Amick, Brian Krause is a Sleepwalker who needs to feed and help feed his mother Alice Krige or she will die.
SLEEPWALKERS is a relatively good horror film. It gets a bit strange in some places, and the film gets very unrealistic at times, but is still fun to watch. The film is sometimes gory which will deter some people from the film. You could definitely do worse than this film, although I don't know whether to recommend that you see this film in the theater. You may be better off waiting to see SLEEPWALKERS when it comes to video. On a scale of zero to five, I give SLEEPWALKERS a four. SLEEPWALKERS is rated R for explicit language, adult situations, and graphic violence.
I saw SLEEPWALKERS on opening night (Friday) and it is not at all what I was expecting. The advertisements that I saw for the film painted a different picture in my head of what the film was going to be like. Sure, I liked SLEEPWALKERS, but it was nowhere near as good as I was hoping it was going to be. By now, I have come to expect a certain amount from the films whose screenplay is written by Stephen King (films based on Stephen King films written by someone else are totally unpredictable as to how good they will be, so I don't expect too much out of them). This is definitely a low for him. From what I have heard, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is *really* bad, so evidently this is not Stephen King's worst screenplay (then again he didn't direct this film).
SLEEPWALKERS is the first full feature film that Stephen King has written exclusively for the screen. I feel the main problem with the film is that it does get very unbelievable at some points. Personally, that detracted from my enjoyment of the film. And, for those interested, Stephen King has a cameo part as the caretaker of a graveyard.
BASIC INSTINCT has stirred up some controversy on it's portrayal of lesbians and bisexuals. Well, SLEEPWALKERS may unearth some trouble with the portrayal of incest between Brian Krause and his mother Alice Krige. This seemed to really disturb some of the people in the theater, so will be likely to offend others. If you feel that this may offend you, don't go to see the film. There are plenty of other good films playing that you can see instead.
Ken J. blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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