Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written/Directed by Justin Shilton & Rob Zazzali
A fun found footage mash-up of Paranormal Activity (2007) and The Amityville Horror (1979) with some DIY home renovation YouTubers thrown in for good measure.
Sleep Stalker: The Players
- Josh Gilmer [Seduction & Snacks (2021)]: Shane, one half of the Do It Yourself influencer duo.
- Gabrielle Montes de Oca [Shark Girl (2024)]: Abby, the other half of the renovating team.
- Alexandra Corin Johnston [Dead List (2018)]: Madison, a friend of the industrious home improvement couple.
- Brian Guest [The Oath (2018)]: Joe, Madison’s husband and a helpful electrician for the Do It Yourselfers.
Sleep Stalker: The Breakdown
Synopsis
Social media influencers with a DIY home improvement channel, “At Home with Shane and Abby”, have just bought a house sight unseen. The plan being: post all of their renovation videos online to keep their viewers happy. Content is king!
What they didn’t count on is Shane suddenly coming down with a severe case of Get Up In The Middle Of The Night And Do Freaky Shit. Also known as parasomnia. Somnambulism. Sleepwalking.
As Shane’s mysterious nightly adventures become more disturbing, the couple finds themselves at odds about how to proceed. Medical science or something more paranormal? Either way, it’s obvious something needs to be done.
Things are only getting worse.
Production
Sleep Stalker is an indie horror project through and through. Shoe string budget, limited cast, minimal locations. Just the sort of thing that lends itself to that bastion of tight purse strings: the found footage sub-genre. An audience can be much more forgiving when all the camera work’s being handled by the actors themselves.
And, for the most part, this works great in Sleep Stalker. All of the filming inside Shane and Abby’s home is convincing and well done. However, the movie’s found footage conceit does falter now and then. For example, when the couple goes for office visits at the local sleep clinic. Nobody’s holding a camera, but we’re given multiple camera angles. Not a deal breaker by any means, but it’s a noticeable hiccup.
Happily, regardless of how the scenes were shot, lighting and sound are consistently excellent. With night shoots, interior, exterior, and even in the crawlspace under the house that’s no mean feat.
Editing-wise, the Sleep Stalker cruë made some interesting choices. As the paranormal momentum builds, that build-up is routinely interrupted with cuts to Abby trying to continue their home improvement videos. Obviously, this is by design and it does help to showcase Abby’s desire to maintain the status quo. . Additionally, it shines a spotlight on Shane’s increasing obsession with his own weird happenings. But it takes some getting used to.
However, one of the what-to-cut choices is mildly annoying. When the character who’s being tormented by paranormal forces finds a mysterious box full of interesting things under the house, we want to see what’s in the box! Instead, it’s never seen or talked about again. Oh, well. That box was probably sour anyway.
Cast and Story
While it treads familiar ground, the story behind Sleep Stalker is a fun one and every member of the cast does a great job moving it along. Josh Gilmer in particular easily carried the lion’s share of the story line and didn’t seem to mind that there wasn’t enough money in the budget for shirts.
Having Alexandra Corin Johnston and Brian Guest show up now and then as friends of the YouTube duo also works very well. For one, it’s good to have some “normies” around reacting to news of the weirdness. They also serve as an excellent conduit for more explanation since it can be difficult to understand the otherworldly sleepwalking voice.
Summary
While it might not be the most original and some of the technical choices take some getting used to, Sleep Stalker is a solid entry in the found footage influencer horror sub-sub-genre. Every member of the film’s small cast pulls their weight and it’s clear they — and the team behind the scenes — poured their hearts into this one.
Sleep Stalker will be released to streaming platforms (Prime Video, Apple TV+, etc.) this coming August 5th.
Review by Robert Zilbauer.