Sleepwalkers (1992)

Easily one of the most loathed Stephen King-movies out there, but what can I say? Sleepwalkers is a good movie, with an original build-up and probably a bit to uncommercial for the big audience out there. Brian Krause and Alice Krige plays Charles and Mary, son and mother on the run. They are some kind of creatures called Sleepwalkers. They kill humans and such the energy from them, and the only thing that can hurt them is... cats! After coming to a new little town Charles get interested in Tanya (Mädchen Amick), and feels that she's the best food for him and his mother...

The best part with Sleepwalkers is the (incestuous) relationship between Charles and Mary. They live for each other, and even if we all think that Charles might be interested in Tanya for real... he's not. An plot twist like that would very boring. Charles just want to eat and make his mother stronger. The movie also focuses on this relationship, which makes a movie without a real hero. Sure, Tanya could be a heroine, but she's never that important. Other characters are just killed off quickly, and those we root to is this slightly dysfunctional monster/alien family.

I totally forgot that it was Mick Garris that was the director, and it's a pity that this is one of his most forgotten movies. The script isn't perfect, and a little bit more work on the other characters would have been great. But on the other side, they're only there to be food anyway. There's a lot of cameos and guest roles all over the movie: Mark Hamill, Clive Barker, John Landis, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, Ron Perlman and Stephen King himself in his normal hillbilly-part. A nice surprise is the gory killings, which is more graphic than I could remember. The cat-scenes are also very well made, and might not be for those that can't stand getting a lot of cats getting their necks twisted! Digital effects is good, but a bit primitive compared what we can see today. Monster-make up is cool and a bit eerie.

Maybe I'm reading to much into this movie, with it's dark and bizarre incest-twist between mother and son, but I actually think that part is very, very good. It's more arty, with long takes and always with good dialogue - which is strange, because the rest is more of a normal monster-of-the-week feature. Nothing bad with that, I like it, but it's an odd combination.