Movie Review: Mr. Sandman

Mr. Sandman Movie Review by Matt Boiselle

Mr. Sandman – directed and written by Matthew I. Schmidt and starring Hailey Kate Schmidt, Sherry Hoffman & Mackenzie Newbury

Synopsis: A young girl’s nightmarish journey through one night of disrupted sleep leads the question: what if there really is someone watching us in the dark?

I don’t know about any of you readers out there, but the core of Matthew I Schmidt’s abbreviated feature, “Mr. Sandman” resonated with me on a cellular level – I was a young child that had crippling bouts of sleep paralysis and intense night terrors, some to the point where you’d almost lay catatonic for the duration, and if there just happened to be a thunderstorm added in for effect? Forget about it – I’d take residence under my covers and sustain on my own hot air for what seemed like an eternity until the sun came up.

The shortened film (runtime of approx 35 minutes, give or take) centers around a young girl who falls asleep while watching television one night, and when she awakens, she’s beset on all sides by darkness & emptiness – the atmosphere where nightmares thrive, and she’s left to her own devices to get back to her room where another dimension of frights await – welcome to the wonderful world of nightmares, kid. It’s akin to suffering one of those fever dreams that never seems to break, and around every corner their is something to etch its existence upon your psyche – it really is terror in a small package, but when that package is unwrapped, the effects can last for an indeterminate amount of time. If the child’s inexorable hallucinations aren’t enough to make those hairs on the back of your neck do an early morning salute, let’s throw in an uber-creepy grandma into the mix, simply to unfurl that last shred of your waning sanity during this ordeal.

Performances are solid, with Hailey Kate Schmidt reeling in a gold skull with her portrayal of the terrorized young girl – when she shows the dismay and trepidation on her face, it reigns in a sense of authentic apprehension that drives the sentiment of foreboding home, wholeheartedly. Visually, the film is shot in such a way that the viewer is almost attached to the hip of the small child, leaving any chance for separation or distance in the middle of this nightmare an unanswered plea. When the lights came back on (wishful thinking, actually), Schmidt takes something that affected damn near every one of us as a child and shines a very luminous, almost torturous light into our eyes until we feel the heat searing our pupils – and that’s looking on the bright side of things. If you like your fear to be manifested organically, then perhaps you need to schedule a visit from “Mr. Sandman.”

The film is currently available to be watched on Tubi.