Film Road to Halloween: Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers (1992)

The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 30 days to go.

It’s the time of year when horror fans enjoy their favorite films and some guilty pleasures. For me, one of those is 1992’s Sleepwalkers. The twenty seven year old movie marked the first time Stephen King wrote a screenplay directly for the screen. (As opposed to an adaptation from one of his many novels.) While it got bad reviews, over time the film has developed into somewhat of a cult classic. Even if it is what we’d now call ‘dated’. How could it not? It features grave-rubbing dates, killer corn, and (in a theme ahead of its time) heroic cats.

As we celebrate the Halloween season, let’s look back on Sleepwalkers and what makes it a unique horror movie.

Charles and his mother Mary are werewolf like, supernatural monsters called Sleepwalkers who feast on virginity in order to survive. Once they’ve depleted an area they move to the next, and they’ve just arrived in the small friendly town of Travis, Indiana. This time however, things will go differently. 

For one, Charles actually likes his intended victim for what may be the first time. When he crosses paths with a fellow student, the beautiful and innocent Tanya, he’s drawn to her. Immediately, he’s torn between fulfilling his needs and indulging in an impulse typical of any normal high school boy. 

Charles’s feelings present a few problems. He needs to feast on Tanya in order for his family to literally live. But it also poses a threat to the relationship with his mother. Because they’re not just parent and child, they’re also lovers. Mary quickly becomes jealous of his affections for Tanya, creating an interesting dynamic between villain and final girl.

Secondly, Tanya proves to be a worthy adversary. When Charles arrives for their date, he impresses her mother with his knowledge of their supposedly shared hobby, grave rubbing. They’ll be venturing out to the cemetery to do some (because that’s totally normal). The day begins sweetly enough, but Charles’s murderous sleepwalker side soon appears. He’s not just scary physically, but with a vicious demeanor. As if to clarify that sweet, school boy was in fact just an act. Tanya manages to escape. But only with the help of the (bumbling) police sheriff’s shot gun riding cat, Clovis. The one true nemesis of the sleepwalkers. 

Once Clovis gets involved and attacks Charles, he races home to try and recover. When Mary sees him, angry, and grieving, she sets out to avenge her son. This leads to the final showdown of the film, which includes some great scenes. Including some classic, but corny one liners, and a murder featuring one of the funniest weapons in horror. 

Sleepwalkers isn’t an instant classic. It’s problematic, has some stereotypical horror tropes, and is corny at times. But it also features topics (though some taboo) that manage to keep it uniquely memorable. 

Motherhood, especially single motherhood plays a big role in horror movies. Halloween, The Exorcist, Psycho and countless other classic horrors including this one tell the story of a single mother. Sleepwalkers takes that theme a step further, pushing the boundaries and creating a dynamic that is super awkward but also interesting. 

It also tackles virginity. Normally, (in the past) a woman’s virginity in a horror movie is her saving grace. The one thing to save her from certain death. In Sleepwalkers, it’s the opposite. The film also infers gay undertones between a high school principal and student, in the most unrestrained, inappropriate of ways. It might not fly today, but it still makes for a pretty great horror scene.

Lastly, there’s the cats. Felines are a big theme in Sleepwalkers, and Clovis is the unsung hero of the movie. It’s not the first time a female character’s connection to a cat has played an important role. Stephen King also did this with Cat’s Eye. And in one of the most classic (and obviously non-horror) movies of all time, Breakfast at Tiffanys, a woman’s relationship with a nameless cat also defines her character. 

Sleepwalkers breaks a lot of rules, but it has a lot of fun doing it. And that makes it high on my guilty pleasure watch list.