SLEEPWALKERS (1992)

 

(Director: Mick Garris. Screenwriter: Stephen King.)

Review

Two half-feline/half-monster shapeshifters─”sleepwalkers”─move into a small town (Travis, Indiana), so that one of them, sick, can feed on a virgin. These sleepwalkers, Mary Brady (Alice Krige, SILENT HILL, 2006) and her vain, seemingly adolescent son (Charles Brady, played by Brian Krause, PLAN 9, 2015), insinuate themselves into the lives of the townspeople, especially the virginal Tanya Robertson (Mädchen Amick, TWIN PEAKS, 1989-91), whom Charles sets his oh-so-charming sights on. But the Bradys’ well-established and oft-executed plans go sideways in a violent and moderately gory way.

Stephen King’s screenplay, not based on any of his published stories or novels, is a silly, fun, and loopy ride, a mix of 1950s science fiction-horror, shapeshifter terror, familiar King settings and elements (cats, small towns, etc.), with late 1980s and early 1990s elements (e.g., Charles’s heavy metal guitar-wank motif) blended in.

It’s an entertaining flick, if you can appreciate its inherent silliness and occasionally icky EC Comics homage roots and often goofy, oddball characters, played by some fine actors, not the least of whom is Clovis the Attack Cat, who really hates sleepwalkers, especially Charles.

Beyond Krige, Krause and Amick, these players include: Cindy Pickett (DEEPSTAR SIX, 1989) as Mrs. Robertson, Tanya’s mother; Lyman Ward (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE, 1985) as Mr. Robertson, Tanya’s father; Glenn Shadix (BEETLEJUICE, 1988) as Mr. Fallows, a scheming teacher; Dan Martin (NIGHTMARE CINEMA, 2018) as Deputy Andy Simpson, Clovis the Attack Cat’s driver and staff member; Jim Haynie (JACK’S BACK, 1988) as Ira, the town’s sheriff; Ron Perlman (CRONOS, 1993) as Captain Soames, one of Ira’s cynical deputies; and Rusty Schwimmer (CANDYMAN, 1992) as a housewife, seen at the start of this fast-paced film.

Film and book geeks may delight in SLEEPWALKERS’s numerous cameos: Stephen King as “Cemetery Caretaker”; Clive Barker (HELLRAISER, 1987) as a dismissive in-the-field “Forensic Tech”; Tobe Hooper (THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, 1974), an in-the-lab “Forensic Tech,” Joe Dante (THE HOWLING, 1981), another lab “Forensic Tech”; Cynthia Garris (CRITTERS 2, 1988) as Laurie, Hooper and Dante’s fellow “Lab Technician.”

SLEEPWALKERS may prove a worthwhile flick if you’re a fan of King’s MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986) and CREEPSHOW (1982, another EC Comics homage), and don’t mind oddball silliness and characters, with corn on the cob on the side.

BOOKS OF BLOOD (2020)

 

(Director: Brannon Braga. Co-teleplay writers: Brannon Braga and Adam Simon, their work based on Clive Barker’s Books of Blood anthology series.)

This Hulu Original anthology film, featuring a trilogy of tales, is based on Clive Barker’s six 1984-5 horror anthologies, later collected into two omnibus editions. (Quick note for bibliophiles: Barker’s BOOKS series reads like a gory, horrific update of the anthological structure Ray Bradbury utilizes in his 1951 story collection THE ILLUSTRATED MAN.)

The three tales told within the film are. . .

“Jenna”: A young woman with misophonia─ she perceives quiet noises at an amplified, overwhelming volume, causing her much pain and negative emotions─moves in with a couple who, at least initially, help her deal with her constant, increasingly nightmarish hallucinations. Certain shots in this first segment seem to be directly lifted from Jordan Peele’s GET OUT (2018) and its ending is disappointing, but it’s otherwise well-written, well-acted and interesting. (The technical definition of misophonia is “Neurological disorder leading to extremely negative reactions and feelings related to certain sounds.”)

“Miles”: A doctor, a skeptic of the occult, meets a young man who can contact her dead son (via bloody handwriting) and changes her view, taking up with him. This filmic version maintains a twist in the tale, but it’s not nearly as visceral as its source book.

 

“The Book of Blood”: Two professional killers are hired to seek a grisly, mysterious book with supernatural writing. This wraparound story incorporates characters and elements from the other two stories in an imaginative, if not entirely immersive way.

I read that BOOKS was originally meant to be a series, but Hulu opted to go the movie route instead. That’s too bad. It might’ve worked better as streaming/television series, à la TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE (1983-8).

As a television/streaming film, this is an okay viewing experience, with stories that don’t gel into an intuitive whole. If you watch it expecting a true-to-its-book or an extreme horror film experience, you’ll likely be disappointed. Several things are changed in the transition from book to film. It’s mainstream-television creepy and sometimes bloody in places, but little else. I like the way some characters, who would be one-note villains in a straightforward flick, are given other, non-villainous attributes. That said, I doubt I’d want to watch this again anytime soon.