This Terrible Stephen King Movie Has to be Seen to be Believed (& It’s Not Maximum Overdrive)

Carrie, Cujo, Christine, Misery, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, It, these are all movies that were based on entries of Stephen King‘s bibliography. And they’re not alone, as over 60 feature films out there are based on a work by the Master of Horror. Toss in miniseries or series adaptations such as Mr. Mercedes and The Stand and that number jumps up considerably. Then there are the screenplays he’s written, including Cat’s Eye, Silver Bullet, Pet Sematary (1989), Desperation, A Good Marriage, and various miniseries such as Lisey’s Story and Rose Red. But there are a few outliers he’s written. Those not based on one of his pre-existing works.

For instance, Creepshow, which was an homage to EC horror comics (and King’s own childhood). Then there was Maximum Overdrive, and adaptation of his short story “Trucks” and the one film King has ever directed. A wild, goofy ride, it’s not a competently made film, but it’s a midnight movie delight, nonetheless. But it’s still not as wild or as goofy as Sleepwalkers, the one movie he’s written that is entirely original. It’s not based on one of his novels, novellas, short stories nor is it based on or even quasi-related to something like EC Comics. It’s wholly original, and the exact type of thing you need to see to believe.

A Troubling Relationship Between the Antagonists

You know werewolves? Well, Sleepwalkers is about werecats. Charles Brady (Brian Krause) and his mother, Mary (Alice Krige, the highlight of the movie acting-wise) are sleepwalkers. They’re energy vampires, though far more dangerous than Colin Robinson in What We Do in the Shadows. Their targets are exclusively virgin women, which allows them to retain a youthful appearance.

They typically remain in human form, but it is possible for them to shapeshift into, well, we already said it, werecats. Not only that, but they also have telekinesis and can toy with the minds of human, such as by making the car they’re driving in turn invisible. But they do have a weakness, and that’s the ordinary standard housecat, which can see through their silly illusions and attack them whenever they get the chance.

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Does all of that sound pretty weird? It is, but not as weird as the fact that Charles and his mother aren’t just nomadic vampires, they’re lovers. They kiss a lot in this movie, and as one might expect it’s never a comfortable thing to watch.

A Bunch of Familiar Faces (& One Changing Face You’ll Never Forget)

You know how the T-1000 was a revolutionary example of early CGI? Well, that was one year before Sleepwalkers, which also has some CGI that is incredibly difficult to forget, but not quite for the same reason. That would be the werecat transformation scene, where a police officer (who is integral to the escalation of the plot) gets into a race with Charles. The officer has a cat, who’s basically just his partner in the field, and the cat freaks out Charles, whose face goes through four different phases of quasi cat-like appearances. It’s pretty bizarre stuff, hovering in an area between jarringly frightening and gut-bustling hilarity.

Speaking of faces, Sleepwalkers has to be the record setter for familiar faces in the horror community. For instance, in the scene after Charles kills the aforementioned police officer, we see King himself as a cemetery caretaker, who approaches a forensic tech to try and make clear that it’s not his fault this carnage took place on the property he was supposed to be overseeing. That forensic tech is played by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘s Tobe Hooper, who tells him to go talk to somebody in charge. King’s character then walks up to another forensic tech and hilariously says the exact same thing, and is once more told to go tell somebody in charge. This time the tech is played by none other than Hellraiser‘s Clive Barker.

And that’s not all, either. We get Beetlejuice‘s Glenn Shadix as an ill-fated teacher who tries to blackmail the werecats. We see Mark Hamill as the sheriff investigating the werecats’ previous abode, which is surrounded by the corpses of hanged housecats, Friday the 13th Part 2 and Christine‘s Stu Charno pops up as a police photographer, and the combo of An American Werewolf in London‘s John Landis and Gremlins‘ Joe Dante play a pair of lab technicians.

If you’re a horror fan and you need a midnight movie this weekend, give Sleepwalkers a shot. You’ll have an eyebrow raised at just how this thing happened, but at least you won’t be disappointed.