Sleep Stalker review
All the pieces matter. But can you put them together in time?
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Sleep Stalker
Directed by Justin Shilton & Rob Zazzali
Written by Justin Shilton & Rob Zazzali
Starring Josh Gilmer, Gabrielle Montes de Oca, Terryn Westbrook, Brian Guest, John Griffin, Alexandra Johnston and Yvans Jourdain
Sleep Stalker Review
In last year’s review of Shark Girl, the previous film from Sleep Stalker writers/directors Justin Shilton & Rob Zazzali, I wrote a lot about the importance of matching the scope of your independent movie to your means of production. I write about that often…usually because a well-intentioned filmmaker attempted to push beyond their reach. Everyone who attempts to, and far fewer who succeed at making a movie have different advantages and disadvantages going in. I don’t like to think of it as a box because that sounds too uniform…but the accepted analogy for creativity revolves around the concept. You’ve no doubt heard the concept of thinking “outside the box”. It’s a fine saying. But it relates more to storytelling techniques than independent film production. Thinking outside the box is about breaking rules, usually in a narrative way, to make your story stand out.
Take Christopher Nolan’s Inception. It thinks outside the box. Nolan probably puts more time and energy into thinking outside the box than anyone. Most of his movies involve a unique narrative design. Since he made his Dark Knight Trilogy he can also walk into any film studio in the world and get whatever budget he wants. When production begins…his box is far too big to ever think outside of. It’s something that matters more to what’s on the page than what’s on the screen. There’s nothing he can write or choose to film that extends beyond his production reach at this point. Nolan’s Memento, and to an even bigger extent his debut feature Following, came at a time when that wasn’t the case. They’re good examples of what I want to talk about more than thinking “outside the box” …and that’s thinking “inside the box”.
Independent film production takes place inside the box. They may be different sizes or shapes…but they are finite. Nolan made Following for practically nothing…because that’s all he had. If you’ve never seen it…it’s a non-linear (go figure) black and white neo-noir film about a man who likes to follow people. There’s obviously more to it than that…but it’s enough to get us to the point.
Everything in the concept of the film is something that Nolan was able to produce. He had access to a 16mm camera and shot it in black and white so that the lighting he couldn’t afford wouldn’t be as big an issue. The story of a man following people might not pop in an elevator pitch…but that now famous Nolan screenwriting trickery made it pop. He used local actors and previous collaborators…and shot in locations owned by friends and family. It sounds so easy, doesn’t it?
That brings us back to Shark Girl…and eventually Sleep Stalker. Shark Girl understood thinking inside the box better than most independent horror movies do. Instead of pushing for things it couldn’t do…it strengthened the things that it could. There was an economy to the scriptwriting that established its characters without dragging the pacing down…one of the biggest mistakes a movie you watch to see a girl eat people with her shark teeth could have made. The eternal struggle in low-budget filmmaking is between “what do we want to do” and “what can we do”. The stories that succeed are the ones that not only understand that the latter is what matters…but sit down and ask the follow up…”how can we make what we can do work better?”. The number of movies that can’t figure out the first part, let alone get to the second part, is astounding.
Which brings us, finally, to Sleep Stalker. Sleep Stalker doubles down on that final question which Shark Girl answered so well for itself. Its inside the box thinking extends to every level of production. It informs the why of everything that it’s doing. First, it utilizes a found footage format so beloved by indie horror these days. If you thought Nolan didn’t have to worry about expensive lighting on the streets of London with a black and white camera…imagine telling your story with cameras that are supposed to look like they’re capturing natural light. But Sleep Stalker isn’t found footage without purpose. There’s a genuine reason for the cameras to be rolling. Yes…it’s our old friend influencer horror.
Shark Girl was headlined by an influencer character too…but it refreshingly didn’t follow the usual idea of what that means. Instead of being a phony and a horrible person…its lead was genuinely decent. Which makes her transition into…you know…a killer shark girl a sad arc instead of just something that happened. Sleep Stalker also doesn’t follow the basics when it comes to influencer characters. Shane (Josh Gilmer) and Abby (Gabrielle Montes de Oca) are DIY home improvement influencers whose channel shows them transforming properties. This story revolves around a house they purchased sight unseen to explore and remodel for their channel. That idea sounds so good that I briefly wondered if anyone had actually done it before realizing that if a reality show said they did they’d just be lying about it.
We watch footage collected before the channel went dark. This gives the cameras a reason to be running…even if the movie is going to fudge a bit in the context of what would and wouldn’t be uploaded to their channel. I can buy that some of the paranormal strangeness would be put up for views…but there’s a narrative piece of business that contradicts anyone seeing some of footage. But it’s a gateway and a reason to accept the world as presented. It also allows Sleep Stalker to play with an interesting storytelling device as it unfolds. Since the story is being told through several unconnected clips…the movie gets to decide between two equally valid ideas. “Reality” vs “Fiction”.
Now…you might be saying…it’s all fiction…this is a stupid question. You’re right on a macro level but I’m talking about the choice between ways to relay that fiction to the audience. Since the clips themselves don’t have to tell one continuous story…Sleep Stalker could choose to lean into the “reality” version of the story…where we watch a couple renovate a house and occasionally something weird happens. Or it could use the format to cut out the stuff we probably aren’t interested in and ramp up the weirdness.
2023’s The Outwaters committed to the former for so long that you could believe you were watching tapes someone found and never edited down. It worked…but you’re signing up for 45 minutes of watching fake home movies before things get rolling. Sleep Stalker teases the former for a much shorter amount of time. After a few scenes of the couple settling in…Shane starts sleepwalking.
From here a kind of dual story unfolds. Abby grows increasingly concerned with Shane’s habit…the cameras catching his every weird nighttime move. Shane is convinced that the house is haunted. He’s sure that someone is trying to communicate with him. Their journey involves a sleep institute (with a reason for more camera setups) and a medium. The fact that the couple can’t get on the same page about what’s happening allows Sleep Stalker to examine it from multiple angles. This is Sleep Stalker’s best idea. Pieces of story dispersed through pieces of video.
Unexplainable things are happening in the house. Doors are opening and closing…things are falling off the walls. Something is wrong with Shane. He sleepwalks with the determination of a man on a mission. That mission seems to be involve going outside and digging up a patch of dirt. The sleep institute reveals things about Shane’s past. The medium reveals things about the house. Everything matters. The pieces are all here. They’ve been purposely presented in non-straightforward way. A subtle mystery that will come together the way all mysteries should. Just as the script doles out its information. Just as the movie presents its footage. In pieces.
Scare Value
With a single location, a unique narrative design and an interesting method for relaying information…Sleep Stalker explores every inch of the box it exists in. There’s a reason for its format and a method to its seemingly disconnected nature. Everything matters…but we aren’t always seeing the full picture. It isn’t until the climax of Sleep Stalker that we understand how all the pieces of information we’ve been learning fit together.
3/5
Sleep Stalker Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Fandango at Home and Apple+
