General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Sleepwalkers

Sleepwalkers is a 1992 American horror film directed by Mick Garris and written by Stephen King, about a mother and son who are the last survivors of a shapeshifting, vampiric species that feeds on the life force of young female virgins. Sleepwalkers was King's first screenplay written exclusively for the screen that was produced as a feature film, and Columbia Pictures released it in United States theaters on April 10, 1992.¹^•¹⁰

Key fact	Detail
Release	April 10, 1992, theatrical, Columbia Pictures; rated R, 91 minutes¹
Writer / director	Screenplay by Stephen King, the first he wrote directly for the screen that was actually filmed; directed by Mick Garris¹
Lead cast	Brian Krause as Charles Brady, Mädchen Amick as Tanya Robertson, Alice Krige as Mary Brady¹
Premise	Incestuous, vampiric werecats who feed on the life force of virgins; cats are their mortal enemies and their bites and scratches are fatal to them²
Budget	Under $15 million¹
Box office	$10 million on 1,862 screens in its opening weekend³
Reception	32% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (19 reviews); Metascore 38 on Metacritic⁴^•⁵

Spoilers

Story and creatures

The final survivors of a fading race of vampiric, incestuous beings called Sleepwalkers are Charles Brady (Brian Krause) and his mother, Mary (Alice Krige). Their survival depends on feeding on the life force of young female virgins, and their mortal enemies are cats, the only beings not fooled by their human disguise, which can see their true reptilian-feline form.² After fleeing California, the pair settle in the small town of Travis, Indiana, where Charles befriends the high school student Tanya Robertson (Mädchen Amick), whom they intend as their next victim; the deputy sheriff's cat, Clovis, interferes in their plans.²^•⁶

The creatures can change shape and become invisible at will.⁷ In the male's monstrous form, the feeding works by breathing a deadly ray into the mouth of a human female virgin and extracting her life force.⁸ The film's weakness mechanic is specific: cat scratches and bites are fatal to Sleepwalkers, which drives the climactic gathering of the town's cats against the monsters.²^•⁹

Production

Producers Michael Grais and Mark Victor, with ION Pictures, outbid two studios to obtain rights to King's screenplay, then chose Sony/Columbia in a further bidding situation between two studios. The production's budget was under $15 million.¹ Principal photography began on June 24, 1991, in Los Angeles, using two soundstages on the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City and a Midwestern-looking street on the Warner Bros. back lot in Burbank; it was completed on September 4, 1991.¹ The family home from the CBS television series The Waltons served as the Bradys' residence, and the coast of Malibu stood in for Bodega Bay, California.¹

Cats on set. A special "cat unit" was created to film scenes involving felines, including one with more than one hundred cats. The role of Clovis is credited to a cat named "Sparks," but production notes reveal that eight cats portrayed the heroic feline, each with its own special talent.¹

Garris, in a later interview, confirmed that the screenplay was King's own: when the studio requested changes, King insisted on making them himself, faxing revised pages overnight. Garris wrote only a scene or two uncredited, including the mirror scene in which the sleepwalkers' true forms are revealed.¹⁰

Cameos

King appeared in a cameo as a cemetery caretaker, as did the horror directors Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, Clive Barker, and John Landis; actor Mark Hamill was featured in an uncredited cameo as a Bodega Bay, California, sheriff.¹ The film began Garris's long association with King, which continued through later adaptations.¹¹

Reception

The film earned $10 million on 1,862 screens in its opening weekend, which the Los Angeles Times reported as a strong start for the Columbia release.³ Critical reception was largely negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 32% Tomatometer from 19 reviews and a 32% audience Popcornmeter score from more than 25,000 ratings.⁴ Metacritic records a Metascore of 38, generally unfavorable, with 6 of 12 critic reviews negative.⁵

Contemporary reviews were harsh. The Los Angeles Times called it "morbid, silly and ultra-violent" and criticized its depiction of cruelty to cats and its gay stereotyping.⁸ A TV Guide review reprinted on Metacritic called it "an unusually stupid and tedious film," while USA Today criticized the dialogue and the convention of making the creatures vulnerable only to cat scratches.⁵ Later assessments have been more mixed, often treating the film as camp: Common Sense Media described it as "wildly campy and often ridiculous," and Flickering Myth argued that its main virtue is that it is "so much damn fun."⁴ A ComicBook.com retrospective placed it among King's more forgotten 1990s films while crediting its "so-bad-it's-good" quality, over-the-top tone, and many meta horror cameos.¹²

Home media and streaming

The film is available on DVD and VHS according to King's official site, and Sony Pictures lists it as available on digital platforms including Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, and YouTube.²^•⁹ Its streaming availability has shifted repeatedly. It left Netflix in the United States on September 17, 2026,¹³ and as of late October 2026 it streams on the Sony Pictures Core Amazon Channel and free with ads on The Roku Channel and Tubi, with rentals from $3.99 on Amazon Video and the Apple TV Store.⁶

Place in King's filmography

Because it was not based on a published King story, Sleepwalkers occupies an unusual position in his filmography: it is an original screenwork rather than an adaptation, and King himself appears in it.¹ A Cinefantastique item from February 1991 described it as King's third original screenplay since Creepshow (1982), written the previous spring, noting that the earlier scripts had not been produced.¹⁴ Director Mick Garris has said that The Regulators, a script King wrote for Sam Peckinpah that was never made, was technically his first screenplay written exclusively for the screen, making Sleepwalkers the first such script actually filmed.¹⁰

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Vampire and werewolf films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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