My quick rating – 5.2/10. Sleepwalker opens on a familiar but immediately unsettling note, showing a young girl screaming in the night, her mother trying to gently talk her back to sleep after another episode of…what else – sleepwalking. In a thriller or horror film, that kind of opening is basically a warning label that things are not going to stay simple for long. And sure enough, they don’t.

We’re quickly introduced to Sarah (Hayden Panettiere), a mother trying to come to terms with a horrific car accident that has left her young daughter dead and her abusive husband, Michael (Justin Chatwin), comatose. A smooth drone shot across a quiet neighborhood introduces us to a story with obvious intentions of showing how things can seem perfectly normal on the outside, while in reality, something can be horrifically wrong. The film quickly becomes a dissection of the lines between reality and dreams, and how in reality, sleep isn’t anywhere near a SAFE place to be.

Panettiere delivers a dedicated performance, and she and Beverly D’Angelo, as her mother, Gloria, share a strong chemistry, and their dialogue in regards to the accident is very natural. But when it looks as though the film will go floating headlong into abstraction, the memories work to reel it back in. These memories will help fill in the blanks for a marriage that is far from loving, and these moments work very hard in rewriting how one views Sarah and her fear and guilt.

Visually, the film shows its limitations. One particular driving scene stands out as rough, clearly constrained by budget, and the overall production often carries a made-for-TV movie vibe. That doesn’t totally sink the experience, but it does keep Sleepwalker from ever feeling truly cinematic. Director Brandon Auman does a respectable job shaping the haunting elements, though, especially when it comes to atmosphere rather than outright scares.

I really got a kick out of the sequences involving a medium named Bai, played by Lori Tan Chinn, who brings an eerie calm to her role. It’s an effective, creepy scene that briefly sharpens the film’s edge and hints at how unsettling Sleepwalker could have been if it pushed harder in that direction. That and Bai was so much fun in between the supernatural chaos. The film ultimately walks a careful line between psychological thriller and restrained horror, never fully committing to either.

But then things get really dark in the ending, and it was kind of refreshing to see that. And I was glad to see it. On the other hand, when it comes to so many dreams and nested dreams, it’s hard to rely on what happens in front of your eyes. By the time it finishes, you are still trying to figure out how many things are real and how many are only in your head or symbolic in some way. An interesting name I caught in the producers’ credits, and it’s none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. I guess he saw promise in what Auman is doing here.

That said, pacing is a real issue. The film drifts at times, and maintaining attention can be a challenge if you’re not fully locked into its slow-burn rhythm. Sleepwalker requires attention, specifically from its viewers, and is very easy to spoil if discussed too specifically. Curdle your expectations, accept its limitations, and you may find it a decent, if unremarkable, watch.