Year of Release: 1992
Director: Mick Garris
Screenplay: Stephen King
Starring: Brian Krause, Alice Krige, Mädchen Amick
Running Time: 91 minutes
Genre: Horror
Teenage Charles Brady (Krause) and his mother Mary (Krige) move into the small town of Travis, Indiana, where Charles quickly attracts the attention of local girl Tanya (Amick). However, Charles and Mary share a disturbing secret: They are "Sleepwalkers", nomadic, shapeshifting vampiric creatures who feed off the life-force of virgins, and whose only weakness is the scratch of a cat. Tanya is their latest target.
Full disclosure, I am a big Stephen King fan. I have read most of his books, and seen most of the film adaptations, and this film was promoted as the first film that King had written exclusively for the screen. There is the seed of what could have been a dark, scary, sexy horror film, but it quickly falls apart. The Sleepwalkers are an interesting idea for a monster, and the incestuous relationship between Charles and Mary is disturbing even for a horror film, but it quickly falls apart into a ridiculous, campy mess. There is very little suspense here, we know what the Sleepwalkers are right before the film even begins, with a short text prologue, and know within the first couple of minutes that Charles and Mary are Sleepwalkers. They also are not particularly good at keeping themselves hidden. Charles basically tells Tanya everything she needs to know about Sleepwalkers, including how to defeat them, in a helpful short story he reads to the class, and, after killing a predatory teacher, Charles almost immediately goes straight out and has a car race with the first cop he finds, during the course of which he shows the cop his monstrous true face. It also turns out that the Sleepwalkers shapeshifting powers, extend to their cars, which they can make invisible (however heroic cat Clovis can see through the disguise in red-tinted "cat-vision"), and even change them into completely new cars, which would probably save them a fortune when they fancy an upgrade. Brian Krause is kind of bland as Charles, Alice Krige gives the best performance as Mary half-crazed with hunger and love for her son, Mädchen Amick, who was very good in Twin Peaks (1989-1991), at times seems to act as if she is in a broad comedy. Ron Perlman pops up briefly as an obnoxious state trooper. One of the fun things for horror fans with this film is the opportunity to play "spot the director" because it is littered with cameos including King himself, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper, John Landis and Joe Dante, there is even an uncredited appearance by Mark Hamill. Not much happens for much of the film, the murder of the teacher has absolutely no relevance to anything that happens later and just seems to be in there to liven up a dull midsection of the film. I got the feeling that Stephen King seemed to be getting bored with his own script as the second half just falls apart with explosions, rubbery monsters and wisecracks. In one scene towards the end, Mary kills a cop with a corn of the cob and makes a Schwarzenegger style wisecrack that seems completely out of character. A word of warning, while cats are the heroes here, the Sleepwalkers kill many cats, albeit offscreen. In fact the premise of a heroic cat battling a monster that is trying to steal a girl's life-force is very similar to a plot point in the film Cat's Eye (1985), which was also written by King. Mick Garris, a veteran of horror TV in the 1980s, does his best to inject some life into the proceedings. The were-cat monsters that are the Sleepwalkers true form are pretty good, but the film's use of CGI really dates it, which is of course not the fault of the filmmakers. Bad or outdated practical or model effects can have a goofy to old-fashioned charm, but bad or outdated CGI just looks bad. You can have fun with it if you are in the mood for a cheesy '90s horror film, or if you feel that your life isn't complete until you have seen and read everything with Stephen King's name on it, but otherwise it is best avoided.
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