The Sandman

JR Bookwalter is known for low budget straight to video movies, from No-budget ones like Robotninja to 8mm epics like The Dead next door. The lack of budget (and maybe the lack of talent...) on his movies is usually replaced by good old blood and gore. The problem with The Sandman is that it have no exploitation elements, no blood, no gore and no nudity. The movie is a low, near to no, budget SOV that tries to be "serious" and tries to imitate a Hollywood horror movie. The best of the no budget SOV is that because of the independence, they can make all kind of PI stuff....this is not the case, its a boring no budget movie. Not the best Bookwalter pic.

This was the first film I watched from Tempe (at the time, I ordered two others with it), and wasn't really impressed.

The photography is fine, but the story takes too long to go anywhere, and the music (guitar twangs) kind of repetitious. You have to respect any indie that gives a flick this much of a polished look (nice dolly shots, opening credits montage over the trailer park), but something felt missing. Maybe action (definately not fog - where is this trailer park - England?).

The story deals with folks in a small town where the residents all have a terrible habit of dying in their sleep. The locals in a trailer park start to think a supernatural force...a sandman (with glowing eyes resembling computer-superimposed Christmas lights), is behind it.

Good effort. Mediocre (at best) results. Great packaging.

There is really just a single Word required to describe this movie, and that one word is: wow! "The Sandman" is bad in every possible aspect, spanning from the poor acting to the storyline. The movie is so amazingly slow paced and nothing even remotely interesting ever happened. I ended up quitting halfway through the torment that is "The Sandman". I just couldn't endure anymore of it.

The actors and actresses in the movie were either overacting to the point of becoming ridiculous and where even Jeremy Irons would say 'tone it down a bit', or they were simply performing as if they themselves didn't buy into the movie project.

As for the creature itself, the sandman, well just a single word is necessary again to describe it. And that word is: LOL. The creature was so ridiculous and anything but scary that it was almost embarrassing to witness.

I will never return to finish "The Sandman". It just had no appeal on any level and it was nowhere near entertaining at all. You should stay well clear of this movie by all means, because it is not worth the time, money or effort.

Gary, a rather bad dime-store romance novelist, soon after watching a sensationalist tabloid news show about the recent rash of people that have been dying in their sleep, is worried about his girlfriend who is having trouble sleeping (he's an insomniac himself) So when his war veteran neighbor tells him about the Sandman he's frightened (not by the vet's story, more his demeanor) add to this the fact that Gary's worthless leech of a cousin has just moved in to his trailer. It's no wonder he's on edge. When he starts seeing the Sandman everyone think he's going crazy.....at first.

The pacing of this movie is so extremely slow that it desperately needed a great story to make up for it. Sad to say, the plot is supremely sub-par as well. I quite enjoyed the director's previous "the Dead Next Door" film, however this one is a stinker, and included way too much filler. The filler being so very bad (time spent on Gary's 'kooky' neighbors and a rather idiotic talk show being the chief offenders) To further compound my misery there wasn't any gore, nor nudity to attempt to liven the preceding up.

My Grade: D-

Not to be confused with the same years Sleepstalker this horror is as much comedy despite not being advertised as such.

Telling another story about the Sandman being an evil being that steals your soul while you sleep I found more enjoyment than I expected even if ultimately it is pretty damn bad.

Poorly made, terrible audio quality and advertised as an incorrect genre altogether yet retains a level of entertainment in other ways.

For a start the humour is often on point even though it was entirely unexpected and often not in keeping with the rest of the film. The characters are mostly likable, very much so in fact.

Yes the Sandman looks goofy alike everything else but the film was clearly made with a minimal budget and under the circumstances it probably should have been a lot worse.

Sleepstalker (1995) is a better Sandman tale but this isn't without its merits.

The Good:

Chat show segments are funny

Decent characters

The Bad:

Chat show segments aren't in keeping with the rest of the film