User reviews

"Sleepwalker" was marketed in Sweden for almost a year with taglines like: "The year´s scariest film takes place in Sweden" and such. When the result finally arrived, "Sleepwalker" feels a bit disappointing and not as scary as promised. But look beneath the hype, and you will discover a surprisingly good Swedish horror movie.

The movie asks the interesting question: "Can we murder people in our sleep?" If the question is answered or not I will leave untold, but I promise that you will be surprised with the film´s content.

The story takes place in a common residential district when family man Ulrik Hansson goes to sleep with his family. When he wakes up, his wife and kids are gone. And the sheets in his bed are covered in blood. He contacts the police, but also tries to solve the case himself. He has had problems with sleepwalking earlier, and now he suspects that he might be responsible for the disappearances.

"Sleepwalker" contains many interesting scenes, especially those when Ulrik straps on a camcorder to his head, then goes to sleep. Later Ulrik watches the tape and sees what he actually does when he´s sleepwalking. This is definitely the film´s strongest moments, together with the suggestive environments, the editing and the scary music.

The movie has weaknesses, and the screenwriter should be held somewhat responsible. The script contains lots of illogical turns, and the film´s formula tends to be a bit repetitive. The acting is doubtful, but leading man Ralph Carlsson does a good job as Ulrik.

Many arguments after the film will definitely be about the ending. I thought it was excellent, and it actually lifted the whole movie. This is the best Swedish horror movie ever, after "Det Okända", which was released the same year.

3/5

Swedish horror is one of those tragic genres that never seems to hit the target. Sometimes i even wonder why they even try anymore. But once in a while, a very LONG while, a movie comes out that actually has quality to it. This is one of those.

Ulrik Hansson (Ralph Carlsson) has trouble sleeping. One night he mixes his sleeping-pills with red wine. When he wakes up his family is gone without a trace, except a huge spot of blood on the sheets. Things point toward him being a sleepwalker and that this might have something to do with his family disappearing. Did he murder his family? The idea in this movie i felt was fairly original without being revolutionary. The technical quality of the movie is good and many scenes are well built up. The acting is also mostly OK. So is it scary? Well sometimes it comes close anyway. The general feeling of disarray is also pretty well built up. And the plot comes with a twist in the end which might not be THAT hard to guess, but that works pretty well.

All in all this is not bad. I wish more Swedish horror movies could be like this. Focusing more on psychology and plot than on trying to create poor and boring shock-effects. I rate this 6/10.

Simple, yet effective Swedish horror/thriller-movie. Ulrik Hansson is 45 years old and lives a secure life in a Swedish residential district together with his wife Monika and their two children. He's got a well-paid job as an architect and builds a new detached house which the family will move to. Everything is just great. He thinks. One morning he wakes up and shockingly discovers that they're gone. The whole family...And he is covered with blood. Did he do it? And does his persistent sleepwalking got anything to do with it? Although the story has been touched some times before in movie-land, this idea feels refreshing and although it's not crafted in the best ways (mainly due to some poor acting), it still bids for an exciting ninety minutes. The ending is a bit cheezy, but hey, many movies are.

The director succeeds at building a murky atmosphere ,probably influenced by David Lynch,particularly " lost highway" and the amateur side of "Blair witch project" .There are very few sleepwalkers in the fantastic cinema and focusing a story on such a character is original.The weakest link is the screenplay which falls apart at every nail ,which the final unexpected twist can hardly redeem ,even if it's repeated twice (the second time,an innovation,in the middle of the final cast and credits).Nothing more than a curio.

A couple of times, I have pointed out the best movie in Sweden in 2000. First I thought that "Tillsammans" was the best, then I saw "Före stormen" and found that one even better. Now I know how wrong I've been and that there can't be any better than this right now - I've seen "Sleepwalker".

Ulrik Hansson lives with his wife Monica and their two children in a house, he has a good job and everything seems normal. But Ulrik has had sleeping disorders and has walked while being asleep, something he takes medicine for. One morning he wakes up covered with blood in his own bed and his wife and his children are missing. What's happened to them? And who has done it? Has Ulrik been doing things to them in his sleep?

Horror/thrillers don't come often in the Swedish film industry and it's a delight that this one is as good as it is. The directing by Runeborg (his debut!) is brilliant, probably the best I've seen in a long time. The script is clever, thrilling and even gets you to the wrong lead a several times. The acting is good, too (Novotny is surprisingly good) and for the first time ever in Sweden, a movie is superbly shot. Sharp photography, interesting camera angles; you name it, this movie has it. Even excellent editing.

Promising to the future. I hope to see more movies created by this crew.

Rating: 8.5/10

This movie has a bunch of bad actors and the plot have a bunch of holes. The end is pathetic and people where laughing in their seats during the movie. It has some scary moments but in the end it doesn´t mesure up to a total for a good "scary-movie".

Sleepwalker has ben advertised for over an year her in Norway, and of course the expectations rise. But the result is an ordinary film. No actors are impressive, none of them suck either. The story is often boring, but the end is the biggest goof. You understand the the point of watching this movie was to understand a mans dream, and that isn't fun to pay for...I'm glad i saw it on a preview, cause this could easily have been a great movie...if it had a bigger fright and better story.

This is definitely one of the best Swedish horror films of the recent years. (Not that there are that many)I found it quite scary actually from time to time, and I was hooked as soon as the film started. Being the horror freak that I am, I was surprised to find out I actually could be scared by ANY movie, so I was almost religious at the end of this. It is so thrilling and exciting it won't let you breath until it's over! The actors were all great, and the whole style of the film the director has given it is stunning! The music also adds to the atmosphere in the most genius ways. I love this movie!

I was hoping the story would have an exciting, real plot. "A man murders people during his sleep". "Someone murders people while another man sleeps and makes him believe he did it". I even agreed on buying hard-to-believe situations or coincidences, such as "he's a suspected runaway murderer BUT his house isn't even looked after by a cop". But what comes at the end of this film will really make you regret you stepped into this. At least, if what comes during the whole film doesn't, already, make you want to walk out the theater, or turn the T.V. off. Nonsensical event after nonsensical event, the director expects to raise some interest in the spectator with a bunch of dead fish, some "nightshot" camcorder pictures painted red, or the lame acting of all the actors (who, by the way, aren't even nice to look at). If it's too late and you have already bought the seats, or rented the videotape, well, you might as well watch it. But you'll be warned: the effort of going through this clearly stupid and ugly movie will not be rewarded at the end, it will be punished because watching it is VAIN and painful (for any serious film aficionado, that is).

This is a thriller like you haven't seen before... The basic idea is a man who realizes he is sleepwalking, and who fixes a camera to his shoulder to find out what he's doing at night, and where his wife and children have gone. Not before very long, dead bodies are found, and the sleepwalker is on the run. Along the way, there are a lot of twists and turns, and a finale you'll never guess! I bet they're gonna remake this film in the US within the next five years, but I think there is little to improve. Don't walk out or rewind or unload the disc before you've seen the very end!

So this is the kind of movie that gets financial support from the

Swedish Film Institute. It´s a quite good idea completely wasted.

The dialogue and acting is for the most part beyond bad. The

directing is terrible, unexciting. With a couple of more rewrites and

a good director, this might have turned out allright. And why does

most of the Swedish movies look so ugly nowadays? Faded

colours and unrealistic, overstaged lighting, especially in night

scenes, don´t we have any good craftmanship in the movie

business anymore? The music is terrible, repetitious and

annoying. And some takes are completely out of sync, very

embarrassing. The ending is completely destroyed by an added

on sequence which insults the intelligence of the audience. Not

recommended, other than as a example of how not to make a

thriller.

I had noticed a commercial preview for this movie on TV4, since I'm danish, TV4 is one of the few swedish channels I can get by satellite, this is why I'm thankful TV4 send this movie.

The movie in itself is fastpaced some places, and yet slowed down in others for dramatic effect(and it works), it was shown in swedish with no subtitles, and I think this the only way to watch such a movie, and since Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian people rather easily understand each other, it was no problem keeping track. I must say, I think this movie fully live up to the high standard set by the Beck movies. Really worth watching

This is the greates Swedish horror movie ever ! I agree with the previous speaker ! I've heard that USA will make a copy of the movie!

I hope that they will make a movie like this!

I was really scared when i saw it and liked it very much.

The ending is surprising but also very good !

Ralf Carlsson is brilliant as tha many character that suffers from sleepwalking. He usually just plays nice dads in other movies.

I am looking forward to the US-version!

I'll give it 5 stars out of five !!!

Olle P

I just saw the trailer about this movie, and i rented it yesterday. and i got to say...if you havent seen it, go see it. its a very genial and exciting thriller on a theme and thought i never seen a movie has been about. the main thought is that a guy is going in his sleep and he thinks he murderes in his sleep whitout knowing it when he is awake.

very good movie.