Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. Typically I watch films with audio description, though this film has no known audio description.

I barely move when I sleep. I’m not in danger of becoming a sleepwalker. After this film, I’m glad of that, and sympathetic to anyone who is. I’ve heard of sleep paralysis too, and that sounds crazy. For me, my dreams are mostly fun, and I can see in them. The problem with that is, it keeps bringing in people it remembers from way back when, so someone I haven’t seen in 30 years since we were kids pops up, and my brain is trying to figure out how to make that a reality. It’s like everyone just stopped aging.

I bet the main character of Sleepwalker would trade me in a second. Hayden Panettiere stars in this nightmarish thriller as a mother who often slips into an altered state, without even knowing it. The film stars off pretty simple, with her helping her sleepwalking daughter. She reminds her daughter that you can’t count in your dreams, so if she tries counting to five and can’t, it is a dream, and she can wake herself up. Everything seems fie, and her daughter wants to finish the night in bed with her mom. Except, none of this is real.

Maybe at one point it was, as Hayden is a mom, but she’s a mom who is the sleepwalker. She’s the one with the problem, and she’s also actually dealing with the loss of her daughter, and her husband (Justin Chatwin) is in a coma. She relies on her mother (Beverly D’Angelo), but how do you actually rely on anything, if you can never tell what is real, and what isn’t?

What is so great about this film, is how in each scene, you wait for the shoe to drop. is this real? Is it a flashback? Is this a nightmare? Is she sleepwalking? the film loves toying with you and its premise, and I was actually quite captivated by it, even with no audio description. There were clearly some scenes that were perfectly normal, and then a little something would change, and you get that sinking feeling that none of this was real.

It is so weird, and I feel so old, knowing Hayden can now play a mom believably. I still remember when she was a child actress. I remember when she gave Denzel Washington a what for in Remember The titans just 25 years ago. Save the cheerleader save the world. It wasn’t that long ago she defied her fate in scream 4 by becoming a fan favorite. How did we come to this? But, she is a mother in real life. I’m just old now.

I’ve never really been blown away by Chatwin, but perhaps he’s in need of a Jai Courtney style reinvention. Courtney gave a stunning, uncharacteristically so, performance in Dangerous Animals last year, and turned into a bad guy for that. Here, Chatwin. Is a complex, but mostly emotionally abusive, and pervasively angry. It suits him. I don’t know what that says about him, but he’s chilling here. Again, he’s also often playing a version trapped in a nightmare.

D’Angelo is stuck in one of those woo woo roles, where she is the mother into all those new age things. She’s had more interesting roles, with more to do, but she certainly doesn’t distract. I just want better for her, as I do most actresses in her age range. our actresses in the above 70 crowd are full of immense talent, but they rarely are used well. Take Kathy Bates in Matlock. Before that, she had mixed film roles, from the terrific Are You There God It’s Me Margaret, to the awful Summer Camp. She is an Oscar winner, and should have never been offered Summer Camp. So, if Bates is stuck with roles like that, D’Angelo, who does not have an Oscar, is relegated to less impressive offers. Here, she’s in a good film, just not a great role.

it doesn’t have AD, and I know I was missing some things, but much like the recent Obex, this was on the side of being confused, and enjoying it. there’s an element here to intentionally. Confuse, and smoke screen, and the film is better for it. No, it isn’t an Oscar contender, but it is way better than it has any right to be.

Sleepwalker is packed with enough thrills and surprises to keep you awake, at least during the film.

Fresh: Final Grade: 6.6/10