- Directed by Turi Meyer
- Written by Turi Meyer and Al Septien
- Starring
- Michael Harris
- Jay Underwood
- Kathryn Morris
- Michael D. Roberts
Ah, yes — this is just what the world is clamoring for: ANOTHER “serial killer with a gimmick gets executed but comes back” movie.
In a nutshell: A mysterious killer called “The Sandman” kills seven-year-old Griffin’s parents before his eyes, and tries to kill Griffin before the cops burst in. Years later (seventeen, to be precise), the Sandman is finally executed — but he comes back to finish what he started with Griffin, as a being of sentient sand.
Actually, the fact that it took seventeen years from capture to execution was terribly realistic — horribly, terribly so. But while Griffin went from seven-year-old to sensitive Gen-Xer, the Sandman didn’t appear to age at all.
Now, Michael Harris, the Sandman, was sufficiently creepy in his pre-executed state, and he had a wonderfully evil laugh. But as soon as they stuck him in that extra-lame sand make-up… I wish they had just given him a dusting-over instead of distorting his facing in crusty latex which hindered his performance and made him look more like an innocent nebbish than the disturbingly lackadaisical murderer he appears as first. I suppose that’s just one man’s opinion, but it’s not just any man’s — it’s MINE, dammit!
The main storyline proceeds just as you’d expect: Griffin’s unfortunate friends gets killed in sand-themed ways, Griffin ends up at the police station sounding like a lunatic (“I know it sounds crazy, but you’ve got to believe me!”), lots of cat-and-mouse followed by a showdown. I understand and appreciate the writers trying to bring in a new twist with Griffin being a writer interviewing a major gang member, but that whole plotline really went nowhere — at best it gave Griffin something to do until he started running from the resurrected Sandman.
A couple of other notes:
- How does a filmmaker get sand to do what he wants? With the state-of-the-art effects technology of filming it upside down and/or running the film backwards.
- I hate cars that won’t start for no reason. Hate ‘em.
- Somewhere in LA there’s a police precinct with such crummy security that they transfer prisoners by leading them by the arm across deserted parking lots (after exchanging their straitjackets for simple handcuffs) so that a single woman with a gun can pull to the curb and effect the prisoner’s escape.
- It takes more heat to fuse sand into glass than that produced by a Molotov cocktail. Lots more.
- And finally –
– SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE AND HOPE TO BE SURPRISED BY THE ENDING, READ NO FURTHER! –
– the ending really torqued my chain. Griffin gets killed before the plot is resolved, leaving platonic girlfriend Megan to figure out how to finish off the Sandman? The protagonist, the character we’re supposed to have invested so much in, dies five minutes before the resolution? Which of the two credited screenwriters (one the director, the other a co-producer) has a lemming in his family tree?
Some Notable Totables:
- body count: 8
- breasts: 0
- explosions: 2
- dream sequences: 2
- ominous thunderstorms: 1
- actors who’ve appeared on Star Trek: 2
- Michael Harris (the Sandman) had a minor role on a TNG episode
- and William Lucking (Bronson Worth, the retired detective) had a recurring role as Furel on DS9
