SLEEPWALKER

Sleepwalker sadly represents the most tired attempt at making a horror film, trivializing domestic abuse and the psychological effects of it on its victims to produce cheap jump scares that are rarely shocking and wasting the talents of Hayden Panettiere and Beverly D’Angelo in the horror film you sadly expect of a January release date.

Trauma is often used as a catalyst in the horror genre, with the main character’s past being personified into the terror that haunts them over the course of the film. While commonly used, it can be an effective narrative tool as it both allows for character to be developed as the individuals come to terms with their past trauma as well as giving birth to a more physical evil that can be used to create terror. But for this to be an effective storytelling tool, the writing has to understand the trauma it is basing the terror around and how it affects individuals, and Sleepwalker does not have this grasp on domestic abuse.

With the ghost of Sarah’s abusive ex haunting her as he lies in a coma as Sarah must decide to remove life support or not, the elevated horror element is obvious, but it never captures the reality of surviving domestic abuse or being faced with the power to pull the plug on one’s abuser. While the ghost is haunting Sarah and her family, threatening their lives at every turn, from a character perspective you never feel that Sarah is truly affected by this traumatic portion of her life she has survived. She has a fight that strong women have to possess to stand up and save themselves in such situations, but it feels disingenuous as it never supplements her empowerment as Sarah’s actions give the petty impression that she is merely getting even with her ex, rather than overcoming her past and healing as an individual. As it misses the true trauma of those who have undergone domestic abuse with a severe lack of emotional depth to Sarah as a character, it feels like the film is designed to continue the cycle of abuse and merely torture Sarah, which is not the proper way to handle such delicate subject matter.

Beyond mishandling of the domestic abuse narrative, the scares that Auman deploys are lacklustre to say the least. Despite the tricks that Auman uses to attempt to scare the audience being regularly within the genre, such as having the ghost of Sarah’s abusive ex conveniently appear behind her at all times, a loud bang, poorly lit scenes to tease something hiding in the background or a grimacing smile from the ghost, they carry little effect in this film as they are delivered with the requisite showmanship to make them pop. Instead, Auman’s direction feels tired and gives the impression that he is merely going through the motions according to a “how to create a jump scare” handbook, rather than living in these moments to know exactly the second to unleash the jump scare on the audience to create moments of genuine terror. On top of that, the “is this a dream or reality” gimmick is used too frequently, to such an extent that the audience is not even questioning whether they should be watching for this as there is no indication that what Sarah is seeing could be a dream by the film’s last act. It sadly has the result of making the film’s final twist to feel nonsensical as the rug is pulled out from under the audience while explaining an important part of Sarah’s past, cheapening any character development that could have come from such a moment for no purpose other than to end the story on a shocking and cruel note.

Due to the problematic writing and direction of the horror elements, it unfortunately leaves the cast little to work with. It is hard to blame Hayden Panettiere who is trying to develop a fight within Sarah as she attempts to protect her son and mother from the ghost that has latched onto her family, bringing her signature moments of strength that has defined many of Panettiere’s most iconic characters over her career. There are moments where she tries to tap into Sarah’s trauma, but with the writing of Auman that emphasizes cycle of abuse and with its emotional shallowness, prevents Panettiere from finding an honesty in her performance to emotionally ground the story. Beverly D’Angelo, while delivering a joyful campiness that lights up the film, feels tonally out of place in what is meant to be a more intense character driven horror film despite her great commitment to the bit. Watching her cleanse the house is an unintentionally hilarious highlight of the film, and her pairing with Lori Tan Chinn is delightful as their banter is wickedly fun, teasing a far more entertaining ghost hunting spinoff I never knew this film would offer. At least Justin Chatwin is on point as Sarah’s ex Michael, creating the frightening abuser and a disturbing ghost to constantly pop up and terrorize Sarah, even if the film itself cannot figure out how to truly harness the energy he is bringing to the entire production to create something that will rattle audiences.

As a concept, Sleepwalker sounds promising for a psychological character driven horror film, but its execution sadly results leaves far too much to be desired. There is no denying that Auman struggles to transition his short film to a full length feature, failing to capitalize on its potential with poorly crafted jump scares and a misunderstanding of domestic abuse, which not only removes any stakes from the film, but causes the film to commit the cardinal sin of never truly scaring its audience. While Hayden Panettiere and Beverly D’Angelo struggle their way through a muddled screenplay, at times not certain of what film they are actually in, Sleepwalker is never the frightening horror film it wants to be but instead a tonally confused and narratively shallow experience that unfortunately will only frustrated viewers.