The Sleeper (2012)
Directed by Justin Russell
The Sleeper is a low budget throwback to early 80's style Slashers. I read a comparison to Ti West's House Of The Devil (2009), and decided to give it a watch. Like House Of The Devil, The Sleeper is a loving homage to horror movies of the early 80's, though it's by no means as effective.
The film starts strong, with a pre-credit kill set in 1979, then a stylish title sequence featuring the creepy synth based score by the group Gremlin. Then the setting switches to 1981, and we meet a young collage student named Amy. Amy is invited to a sorority party, and encouraged to think about joining up. Her roommate thinks it's a terrible idea, but agrees to come along to the party for moral support. At the party we meet the other sorority sisters, as well as a couple of their boyfriends. We also learn that someone has been making harassing phone calls to the sorority house. One of the girls sneaks her boyfriend (Bobby) up to her room where they have sex. Because this is a traditional Slasher that means as soon as the dude leaves, the milky eyed killed shows up and caves in her face with a hammer. The killer must have taken the body when he left, because it's not in her room the next morning when Bobby calls. Everyone just assumes she went out early. By that night though Bobby has started worrying, and other girls have disappeared.
As I said, the film starts out strong, but eventually starts to drag somewhat. Mostly this just seems to be the usual problems of a low budget movie. Stiff acting, an unpolished script, and although the gore effects are quite good, the kills themselves are a little awkward. Another issue it the killer. He's kind of bland, and his motivations (if any) are never adequately explained.
IMDB say's the budget for this film was $30'000. If that's so, I feel like cutting these folks some slack. The movie looks pretty good, and has a great score. Hopefully director Justin Russell keeps learning and growing as a film maker. If you like old Slashers, and you go in with realistic expectations, this is a fun little movie.
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