Sleepless

Rating

Director

Dario Argento

Screenplay

Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Carlo Lucarelli

Length

1h 57m

Starring

Max von Sydow, Stefano Dionisi, Chiara Caselli, Gabriele Lavia, Rossella Falk, Palo Maria Scalondro, Robert Zibetti, Roberto Accornero, Barbara Lerici

MPAA Rating

R

Review

PREFACE:
In the early 2000s, I was writing reviews for an outfit called Apollo Guide Reviews. That website has since been closed down.

Attempting to reconstruct those reviews has been an exercise in frustration. Having sent them to Apollo Guide via email on a server I no longer have access to (and which probably doesn’t have records going back that far), my only option was to dig through The Wayback Machine to see if I could find them there. Unfortunately, while I found a number of reviews, a handful of them have disappeared into the ether. At this point, almost two decades later, it is rather unlikely that I will find them again.

Luckily, I was able to locate my original review of this particular film. Please note that I was not doing my own editing at the time, Apollo Guide was. As such, there may be more than your standard number of grammatical and spelling errors in this review. In an attempt to preserve what my style had been like back then, I am not re-editing these reviews, which are presented as-is.

REVIEW:
A bizarre nursery rhyme forms the inspiration for an unusual serial killer in Sleepless, a film from Italian horror master Dario Argento.

When a hooker accidentally steals a valuable folder containing a killer’s newspaper clippings and an unpublished book, the psychopath reawakens to continue the sequential murders he started years earlier. An insomnia-ridden detective, Moretti (Max von Sydow), who was responsible for bringing a perpetrator to justice in the earlier case, is drawn into the crime again and won’t stop until the murderer is brought to justice. Giacomo (Stefano Dionisi) is a young boy who witnessed his mother’s gruesome murder and who received Moretti’s promise of absolution.

The crimes are based on a nursery rhyme from a children’s book called Animal Farm – not exactly the George Orwell novel. Six animals cause farmer headaches as he’s trying to sleep early one morning and he kills each of them in a different way. The serial killer, having access to the poem and an unpublished novel detailing murders committed consistently with the rhyme, is killing in a style befitting each animal. One of his victims performs as a kitten in a dance club. One is nicknamed bunny and another is dressed like a swan. Each is viciously slaughtered at the hands of a madman and Moretti and Giacomo are on the case.

Much about this production is disappointing, however there are some rewarding moments, as well as many that are frustrating. The worst of these – for those watching the movie in its dubbed English language version – is the poor voice dubbing. The actors’ lips mouth what they are saying – more or less – but the sound is completely off the mark. The success of many of the performances hinges on pivotal voice intonations that – thanks to the awful dubbing – come seconds after the reaction, thereby causing viewers to become disoriented.

Another of the aggravating problems is Argento’s obsession with gore. The great suspense directors all knew that gore was not necessary to exhibit terror. Films like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others are great examples of horror derived from psychological tortures without need for physical violence. Argento shows little regard for viewer sensibilities, which also plays into the film’s style. The psychological torture is visible, but often hidden behind unrewarding graphic violence.

As writer and director, Argento has created a viable horror film with many of the staples of the genre – but there’s more to Sleepless than clichés. The story is truly unusual and quite inspired. The killer remains hidden until the very end and you really can’t be sure who it is.

Outside of von Sydow and Rossella Falk, the performances leave a lot to be desired. Dionisi does his best, but his starry-eyed expressions seem unfitting at times. Other performers provide caricatures with little emotional depth. As a result, they very seldom reach out and touch you emotionally.

Overall, Sleepless is a satisfying film with plenty to engross the horror enthusiasts, but a lot of its visuals go well beyond what’s necessary to create horror. The technical quality of this production is minimal and the performances aren’t outstanding, but a stellar plot lifts it from its potential obscurity.

Review Written

April 5, 2002