Sleepstalker

A serial killer, thinking he's the sandman goes on a rampage trying to kill families that match a certain description. He is caught by police just as he's about to kill his intended victim, a little boy Griffin. The sandman is locked away. He later kills himself and upon his reincarnation he takes up from where he left off and sets out to kill a grown up Griffin.

Incredibly low budget and looks very cheap, but it's not the worst film in the world. It is infact moderately entertaining with a pretty good story. The production team make the best of what little budget they have, using some very low budget camera shots in places allowing them to spend a little more money on some bigger effects shots else where.

The acting and direction is fairly average but doesn't lower itself to being bad or too cheesy. The sentimental bulls**t is also thin on the ground which is pleasantly surprising for a film like this where they would try and make up for the lack of budget with sentiment and crap dialogue in the script.

Fairly good, watch it if it comes on TV but don't go out of your way to see it.

7/10

At first glance this looks like a complete rip off of the far superior "Dust Devil" (check out the opening credits). The characters are laughably wafer thin - especially the Hispanic gang banger. But fair play the guy who plays the evil priest hams it up to superb effect (the funniest thing about this movie). I can't believe I actually sat through this and I can honestly say as a long time horror movie fan, there is nothing to report here. Zero suspense and about as scary as a big fluffy bunny!

The basic idea, a killer coming back from the dead as a guy made of sand in order to kill people again, isn't bad, and the movie has a few scary moments, but the effects are far from special. One of the effects that gets incredibly over-used happens whenever the killer turns into sand and defies gravity to pour himself up into air vents or whatever happens to be nearby. At first, it looks pretty cool, but if you turn your head upside down to watch the scene, it's pretty obvious how it was done, and the entire movie looks cheaper. If I remember right, there's a great plot twist towards the end, but it's too little, too late to save this movie. I don't recommend Sleepstalker.

Although the movie reminded me of the "Freddy" films and the movie "Dust Devil," It had enough creepy moments to make it a worthwhile viewing. A repeated flashback/dream sequence was exceptionally disturbing and the Sandman's Lullaby was really chilling. Also, the ending was unexpected. Some thought and creativity went onto the Special Effects and for once the killer was underplayed.

'Sleepstalker' is the rare exception to the oft reiterated internet theorem that most low-budget 90s horrors were pony, as, for me at least, this modestly marvellous DTV doozie rocked a little less timorously than you might have originally thought!! Turi Meyer's mythically menacing 'Sleepstalker' (1995) also features beloved horror icon Ken Foree as Stoic Detective Rolands!!!! Hellz yeah, dude!!!! While ultimately it's a cheap and skeevey 'Shocker' knock-off, it's got a deliciously dusted, hoodoo-voodoo terror-twist in the tale! Right on!!!! 'Sandman's coming to dust more than your phooken eyes, baby!' And, ohhhh!!! Yeah!!! The deliciously rudimentary CGI scene is a legit double-take gasser!! While 'Sleepstalker' is the frequently forgotten fright-flick that can usually be found on a budget DVD collection with 3 other wholly unrelated, infinitely more grot-laden titles, its ignominious relegation to the B-Horror 'dust' bin of DVD doom is not entirely justified!