by: -RoG-

Put simply, Sleepwalkers is a fun movie. No, it's never going to be on people's top ten favorite horror movie lists, but it's still a genuinely fun flick with some nice comedic interjections here 'n there. It doesn't hurt that it also has an impressive number of cameos by cameos by people such as Mark Hamill, John Landis, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, and Stephen King (who also wrote the story). It also marks the only time that Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward (Ferris Bueller's parents) play parents together in another film.

The movie basically centers around a pair of mother and son shapeshifters who are set on literally sucking the life out of humans - particularly the life of Mädchen Amick of Twin Peaks fame.

Picture above is Charles Brady (the son, played by Brian Krause) as he shifts into his half-man / half-monster self. Whenever they do the shifting, I can't help but be reminded of the same facial morphing effects used in Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video. Their true monster forms look kind of like a strange hybrid of a wet, shaved cat and a human being. Interestingly enough, cats are the only things capable of killing these shapeshifting monsters.

Now there are all kinds of moments in this movie that would be worthy of our prestigious "Greatest Horror Movie Moments" title, such as seeing the late Glen Shadix (who I'm sure you all recognize as the guy who played "Otho" in Beetlejuice) having his left hand torn off by Charles and then handed back to him. There's also a great scene where Ron "Hellboy" Perlman has his fingers chomped off and then his arm snapped in half. All these scenes are fantastic in their own way, but if you ask me, none of them hold a candle to what I have to show you today.

Before we get to the gem of a moment, I have to say that Alice Krige absolutely steals the show in this film as the mom, Mary Brady. I'm sure you've already seen her as the Borg queen from Star Trek: The Next Generation and in other horror flicks including Silent Hill, but this is still one of my favorite creepy roles of hers. She's already scary enough with her calm confidence in every line she speaks, but when you throw in the fact that her son clearly has an Oedipus complex, the creepiness factor goes right through the roof.

So, after her son has been badly hurt, Mary decides to pay a visit to the home of Tanya Robertson (Amic) to bring her back home to feed to Charles. However, some cops are at the house to protect Tanya, not knowing what they're up against. One of the cops makes a phone call to some of the other troopers to report the trouble, but he doesn't notice Mary walking right up behind him.

Now this cop was scarfing down some corn on the cob earlier and loving every bite of it, so Mary grabs one of the cobs, walks up behind him and slams it into his back with such force, it actually goes right through him! She then looks down at him as an evil smile overcomes her and she says, "No vegetables, no dessert - that's the rules." Classic.

If only he had kept an ear out for trouble approaching him from behind... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!
What we have here is corn on the cop... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Ahh... corn humor.

Death by cob. DEATH BY COB! You'd think this death would've been something from one of the Children of the Corn films, but no... this is the first time I ever saw somebody stabbed to death by corn on the cob. Amazing! I'm sorry, but this needs to happen more in horror films. You hear me, Hollywood? Make it happen.

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