Written and directed by Brandon Auman, 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. Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Justin Chatwin, Beverly D’Angelo, Mischa Barton, Laird LaCoste and Lori Tan Chinn.
Jumping into Sleepwalker, you’re going to get a good idea of whether this is for you or not pretty early on because it’s cheesy and cliché in a very classically horror way, and that doesn’t work for everyone. So, really if you can’t move forward taking things with a grain of salt and giving it the benefit of the doubt, you’re likely not going to enjoy it. Also, using that plot of abuse to blend the lines with the supernatural, may be fairly triggering for some. It’s a tricky line to walk, even though that type of aggression, fear and pain does work well with horror, it takes a sensitive hand to do it right and Brandon Auman doesn’t always perfectly have that.
Although, one of the most realistic aspects of an abusive relationship that it has to offer surprisingly comes in the form of Mischa Barton’s Joelle, Sarah’s (Hayden Panettiere) former sister-in-law. In an unexpectedly strong, consistent performance, she captures how relatives of abusers can be in deep denial and struggle to accept that their family member is a bad person. That leads them to then put their blame on the partner, and allege that they somehow had an influence on that abusive behaviour. It’s a very sad reality but undeniably something that will have been experienced by countless women. Unfortunately, the rest of its portrayal of an abusive relationship feels rocky.
Part of that is the performance from Hayden Panettiere, it’s hit and miss. She’s great in some moments but forced in others, choosing the wrong tone at times, although part of that is due to Brandon Auman’s writing and the dialogue missing the mark. Laird LaCoste on the other hand for such a young actor gives a great portrayal, and hits the emotional levels all throughout Sleepwalker right on the nose. Beverly D’Angelo’s Gloria feels extremely familiar of a lot of other roles for D’Angelo, but it undeniably works and adds a bit more personality into the mix, when that’s not the film’s strong suit.
Visually it’s straight down the line for this type of film, the style is standard but solid. It’s not particularly memorable but it does its job. The pacing is decent, and there is a good amount of tension in the atmosphere. There was some interesting potential in the mix, but as is so often the case with films like this, the finale and ending are very disappointing. Auman leans on a quintessentially divisive scenario to wrap things up, and it may leave viewers frustrated, confused or rolling their eyes.
Sleepwalker is a middle of the road outing, it has some potential here and there but tends to take at least one step back for every step forward. The choices are hit and miss, Hayden Panettiere struggles in the more intense moments, and the story isn’t really giving you that much to get invested in. Although, if it had, that may have made the ending choices all the more disappointing. It works, there’s some solid elements but it doesn’t quite come together strongly enough.
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