The Sandman

I first saw The Sandman during a screening of numerous short films from around the world on TV one night.

Haunting music introduces us to a shot of the moon, and a house, where a young boy is being sent to bed by his mother. The unique animation and direction captures the small child's fear as he walks up the creaky stairs and runs hurriedly down the corridor into his room.

The Sandman appears at the bottom of the stairs, a lanky figure with a huge, crooked head - not scary so much as BLOODY SPOOKY!

As the child is more and more frightened by the noises inside and outside his room, we see the Sandman approach, closer and closer until...

An amazingly captivating film which has great animation, direction and music - one of the most memorable and "effective" short films you will ever see - extremely sharp and shocking...

Wait 'til you see the end!

I saw this in one of the Spike & Mike festivals years ago & would say that this is probably my all time fave short. Very simple & short, but quite devastating. I have been trying to track this down on DVD..... The story of the creator is tragic, had he lived longer, I'm sure he would have rocked the animation world. The story is the classic, oft told tale of a kid afraid to go to bed because of what might lurk under his bed. It is told (if i remember correctly) without proper dialogue (I think there are mutterings by the characters, but not of an intelligible language). I assumed from the dark tone & detailed sets & figures that this one came from Eastern Europe, but was quite surprised to find it was not the case. Think Quay brothers, but with real characters in clay & in color.

The Sandman is every child's nightmare- going to bed with a unknown horror lurking in the shadows. Paul Berry directed this animated screamer, and the characters are Tim Burton-esquire in the design. (Not surprising, as a few years later Paul worked on the Nightmare before Christmas with Tim) The film is very short, clocking in at a mere ten minutes, but it's disturbing enough to play a part in your nightmares. This film may seem to be aimed at children, as a young boy is the main character and it's a animation, but beware against showing it to any child below the age of about ten. Even that might be pushing it, as we watched this film in our Year 8 English class and we were still sufficiently creeped out.

The film starts off happily enough, just before the boy's bedtime. When he makes his way up to his bed, he enters the world of the Sandman.

The trippy '92 animation only adds to the atmosphere and the music is pure genius- a chord sounds every time he takes a step.

Several false alarms lead you to believe that maybe all is well and the Sandman will not be visiting that night. Unfortunately, not all stories have a happy ending.

A slight criticism- was it really necessary for the Sandman to dance? And the weird elbow thing- it made it more laughable which didn't set in with the mood of the film.

Therefore, I give this film 9/10.

I saw "The Sandman" at an animation festival several years ago, and just saw it again. Pretty creepy - and well done - short. Sort of like something that Tim Burton would do. I interpreted it as a look at the fear of going to bed that many children have. And if your opinion is that the final scene was too horrific for children, just remember that animation is simply another type of filmmaking. "The Sandman" shows that animation can be as dark as a typical horror movie.

Director Paul Berry died of a brain tumor in 2001. Too bad. I bet that he would've gone on to make a number of clever shorts just like this one. In the mean time, I recommend it. One of the cleverest shorts out there.

Along with Nightmare Before Christmas this short shows that stop-go-animation isn't just for kids. Dark, Haunting tale of a boy's journey up the stairs to bed.

Don't watch this before going to bed yourself!!