We have Sleepstalker taking on The Sandman. Before someone misreads this to quickly freak out. I'm talking about the 2017 movie of the same name not the more recent Netflix show. These movies are vastly different with some similarities making this an interesting comparison. So which killer Sandman movie do I think is better well you gotta read on to find out.
Sleepstalker came out first in 1995, it follows a serial killer targeting people because to him spiritually they kept crying. He wanted to stop that by killing them, the main target Griffin Davis. Who was later revealed to be the Sandman's biological brother. Parts of this kinda plays off the concept of Child's Play minus a doll.
He gets caught to later served his death sentence. However this priest visited him prior that led to his resurrection after his execution. Where he is reborn from the very sand he bleed into. Unlike Chucky, he does get even with the same detective who arrested him in a rather brutal matter. At one point, he sneaked into a woman's house to generate enough sand to cause her to drown.
There's some mess up kills like a gangster getting ripped apart by floating sand pieces. The Sandman does end up killing his brother after an failed attempt to kill him. His girlfriend traps him to fully become a glass figure thus killing him in the process. This take on the character comes off being creepy in his own right.
The Sandman came out in 2017, a huge time gap. Before I continue, some characters like Krampus has more horror movies than him. This follows a little girl who created her take of the Sandman. Who can enter outside of her mind to attack as well as kill people. This is a more stranger take on the concept. For most of the movie, she had loose control over the creature.
Later on, it became free from her to start stalking her. There's some notable names attached to this film like the late Stan Lee was an executive producer. Tobin Bell whose famous for his Saw character, John Kramer is a detective in the movie. Haylie Duff was famous for her role as Lizzie McGuire plays the little girl's mom.
This version of the character is more like a creature rather than a person which was the case of Sleepstalker. They do share some similar abilities as shown in some scenes. Both are obviously made out of sand making them difficult to take down or even slow down for that matter. They do some rather brutal kills in their respective movies.
There's a weird connection where in Sleepstalker, the Sandman was spiritually connected to his brother. In The Sandman's case, the little girl mentally created the creature. Sleepstalker is a slasher take of the concept while The Sandman plays more of a creature film. If the little girl were possessed, yes there exists a similar concept movie with that then this would've been different.
You can easily tell the times changed between the two movies. I would say story is more put together in Sleepstalker's case. But if you prefer horror movies with a more notable body count than you may prefer The Sandman more. I confess I have more of a personal connection to Sleepstalker, I do remembered finding this movie on cable back in the day.
Sleepstalker does play a particular Metallica song with a great usage. Sleepstalker's case, the Sandman had help from an evil priest. The Sandman, later in the movie this little girl decides to use the creature directly. We are talking about armed men easily destroyed by this monster. The Sandman's first victim we get to see killed turns out to be the little girl's dad.
So that's already another connection between the two movies. The Sandman does seem higher budget to Sleepstalker that didn't get as funded. Despite that, I do like the actual appearances of the Sandman characters. I kinda prefer Sleepstalker's more because he was a serial killer. Not to mention, he shown creativity within his kills.
He even used his broken glass arm as a stabbing weapon to kill his brother. Yeah the 90s had some unexpected horror stuff. The Sandman was following when more people were into mental horror theme movies. Clearly people love movies like that but video games barely makes any money, what am I missing here?
Honestly, I have slightly more reasons to like Sleepstalker. Neither is the definitive killer take of the character. Although, if you were to search up killer Sandman movies. Often you'll kept getting both these horror movies. I felt I liked the characters a little more in Sleepstalker too. I also preferred how the Sandman character was used.
Yes, The Sandman may went for a bigger body count. But the notable stars within the movies doesn't stand out the way you originally expected. Also, it isn't as focus on story as it's mostly gives the little girl a couple cheap excuses for people to die. A surprisingly great usage of a Metallica song does help a lot.
I did respect what The Sandman attempted to do. It's more believable than those horrible horror Jack Frost movies. Sleepstalker does use it's characters better in comparison. I will be honest, at times I kinda got boring while watching The Sandman. In all honestly, I was more impressed by Sleepstalker in the long run.
To me, the better killer Sandman movie is Sleepstalker.
No comments:
Post a Comment