Stan
Lee is the king of executive producers. Just look at his imdb credits. He is
listed as an executive producer on every Marvel production, plus several other
superhero franchises he has helped shepherd along. Awkwardly, he has also lent
his name to a few Syfy original movies. Remember Harpies, with Stephen Baldwin? You also probably missed this TV
horror flick that coincidentally happens to share a title with one of rival DC’s
cult favorites. Try not to fall asleep during Peter Sullivan’s The Sandman (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.
As
a burlesque photographer, Claire Blake is not great parent material, but she is
all her niece Madison has left when her brother Colton dies under mysterious
circumstances. It turns out the late Blake was the prime suspect in a string of
murders, but we know from the prologue it was really the Sandman. Apparently,
it has some sort of connection to Madison, but the cops and social workers just
assume she is the traumatized child of a serial killer, even though the murders
continue after Colton’s death, but whatever.
Eventually,
Claire will start to figure out Madison is connected to something very
dangerous. The shadowy government operative Valentine might be way ahead of her.
In contrast, Wyatt, her formerly cool boyfriend-turned-jerkweed lags way behind
the beat. Yet, there might be hope if Claire can get Madison to child
psychologist Kellyanne Conway for some emergency head-shrinking.
It
is always frustrating when a horror movie is too lazy to abide by its own
rules. Does Madison have to be asleep for the Sandman to manifest itself or
not. Decide yes or no—and then stick with it. Wyatt’s complete personality
one-eighty is also problematic. Of course, the boring central characters do not
help either. Probably the most interesting figure in the entire film is Amanda
Wyss as the good doctor. Frankly, Tobin Bell from the Saw franchise is criminally wasted as Valentine. Still, it should
be conceded, Richard Gleason came to play as the arrogant Dr. Cushing (a hat
tip to Peter?).
Ironically,
the one area where Sandman exceeds
expectations are the monster effects, but that is where we are most inclined to
be forgiving. Nevertheless, the sandy bogeyman is surprisingly impressive. It
looks ominous, but there is no personality to go with it. The people do not
have much personality either. Haylie Duff gives a semi-functional performance
as Claire, but she definitely wasn’t straining herself for this part.
Somehow
Sandman manages to be both predictable
and illogical. The tech team should feel confident putting it on their resume,
but most of the cast and Stan Lee (who has probably never seen it) would prefer
to forget it. Not recommended, The
Sandman is now available on DVD.
