Sleepwalker Review: They Snooze We Lose

Sleepwalker stretches a nightmare premise too thin. Only Beverly D’Angelo makes this forgettable thriller worth staying awake for.

That sincerity makes the final product even more frustrating, because whatever worked in his 2024 short film of the same name becomes stretched thin across 88 minutes that feel considerably longer.

Sarah Pangborn (Hayden Panettiere, Scream VI) is a grieving artist reeling from a car accident that killed her daughter and left her abusive husband in a coma. As her sleepwalking episodes intensify, visions of her husband begin appearing in her home, and the boundaries between nightmare and waking life start to dissolve. It’s a premise with genuine potential, touching on night terrors, PTSD, domestic abuse, and the supernatural. The problem is that Auman approaches each of these elements with the depth of a Wikipedia summary, name-checking ideas that sound authoritative without ever committing to any of them.

Panettiere brings visible commitment to the role, though her energy often feels mismatched with her surroundings. Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds) plays husband Michael as a one-note bully, all gaslight and victimhood with nothing underneath. Mischa Barton (The Sixth Sense) appears intermittently as Michael’s sister, her motivations shifting so abruptly between scenes that it’s difficult to track what she actually wants. Child actors Laird Lacoste and Corinne Sweeney fill their roles adequately. The film’s saving graces come from its veterans: Lori Tan Chinn (Orange Is the New Black) adds welcome levity as a quirky spiritualist, and Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s Vacation) delivers dryly hilarious work as Sarah’s mother, finding sly humor in every eye-roll. Their single shared scene hints at a far more entertaining film.

Technically, Sleepwalker struggles to distinguish itself. Sebastian Evans’ score leans heavily on stock “eerie shock” cues, while Marcus Friedlander’s cinematography alternates between effective visual tricks and unflattering compositions. Production designer Sean Hoschek and art director AJ Cardoza work to make the Rhode Island locations feel varied, with mixed results. The film repeats its tricks relentlessly: the same jump scares, the same “Am I dreaming?” refrain, the same visual of Panettiere’s hand sprouting extra fingers.

There’s a version of this story that could have explored parental grief with real weight, something almost European in its willingness to let loss transcend the boundaries of life and death. Instead, Sleepwalker settles for surface-level scares that never land. Even the choice to feature Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead playing on television feels telling. Both are public domain films that cost nothing to license. It’s fitting, then, that Sleepwalker seems destined for that same free-streaming afterlife, drifting past viewers who’ve already fallen asleep.

Sleepwalker will be released in select U.S. and Canadian theatres on January 9, 2026.