Sleepwalker, 2026.
Written and Directed by Brandon Auman.
Starring Hayden Panettiere, Justin Chatwin, Beverly D’Angelo, Mischa Barton, Lori Tan Chinn, Eric Lutes, Kea Ho, Laird LaCoste, Corinne Sweeney, Cathy Salvodon, Gene Dante, and Chris Everett.
SYNOPSIS:
A grieving mother is haunted by the tragic loss of her daughter in a car accident that left her abusive husband in a coma. Plagued by haunting visions, she grapples with the blurred lines between reality and nightmare.
By itself, sleepwalking is a frightening condition posing several possibilities for endangerment and is generally a solid idea for basing a horror film on. That’s one way of saying Sleepwalker doesn’t need all the absurd nonsense writer/director Brandon Auman has in store, culminating in a predictably dumb ending that not only raises more questions than answers, but also renders most of what is actually happening here, including the very concept of the film, laughably pointless.
Before that, we are treated to a seemingly never-ending barrage of nightmare sleepwalking sequences built around generic jump scares and logistical ridiculousness; how does one get into a car and start driving while sleepwalking? It’s one of the film’s questions I’m glad doesn’t necessarily have an answer, considering that everything involving the sleepwalking aspect only gets more ludicrous, reaching comical proportions.
From the very beginning, there is even a question of who is the one doing the sleepwalking. An introductory sequence shows Sarah (Hayden Panettiere, passable as a mother exhausted and on the verge of a psychological breakdown) calming her young daughter, Aimee (Corinne Sweeney), after a nightmare, and instilling the rule that if one counts to five in a dream, no matter how terrifying, surreal, or lucid it is, they will wake up. In one of the film’s only bright spots, this adage is also used for a visual scare, with a hand morphing into one with ten fingers, or what appears to be two hands melded into one on the same limb. Nevertheless, it is made clear that Sarah is the one dreaming and that her daughter is actually dead, still grieving and feeling guilty over the incident.
Sarah is counseled by everyone from her happy mother (Beverly D’Angelo) to therapists and specialists, while attempting to be present in reality raising her son Holden (Laird LaCoste), who mostly sits around playing child-friendly games on a tablet and, although he misses playing with his sister, also doesn’t show much emotion to the point that one would never know he had lost a sibling. This stressed-out, separated single mother had also been routinely fighting with her ex-husband, Michael (Justin Chatwin), an emotional terrorist who gives many reasons to believe Sarah in her claims that he was also physically abusive. Currently, Michael is in a coma, with his sister blaming Sarah for everything.
Michael is also a presence in Sarah’s nightmarish sleepwalking episodes, appearing as a demonic entity resembling a dopey version of Michael Myers if the ashy face was more paint than a mask. As such, some of these dreams are also used as flashbacks, which could be considered mildly clever ways to blur the lines between reality and whatever hell she is being pulled into. However, Justin Chatwin’s performance is so overcranked that it’s difficult to buy into the domestic trauma element of the narrative.
Sleepwalker contains so much annoying misdirection (including graphically detailing multiple ways Aimee could have died) that it is a frustrating experience, where one waits and waits for the grand reveal. Shockingly, that truth comes in an exposition dump that is practically the final scene of the movie, before one more cherry on top that is insultingly dumb, further cementing that for all the tricks and ideas the story has on its mind for dreams and sleepwalking, it is a sleepy, empty bore itself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
