However, this tale inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman’s novella ‘Der Sandman’, where a devilish birdlike man steals children’s eyes during the night.
A few films that also inspired the movie were ‘Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari’, ‘Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens’, and the sound and camera were obviously inspired by Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ and ‘Vertigo’. The music and sound effects throughout ‘The Sandman’ are creepy and eerie to tense and scare the audience (although the sandman does that anyway, even without the music!).
The movie was directed by Paul Barry, who has also worked on ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’ and ‘James and the Giant Peach’ which have all been a huge success.
The stop motion movie took three years to make, and was funded by the filmmakers and done cheaply with a tiny crew in their spare time.
The film had not won itself a short stop motion film award for nothing. The effects used in the film were very simple but had an incredible affect to the audience. Paul Barry creates a spooky atmosphere through the lighting and shadow, not forgetting the sound effects. Also the low angled shots are used to show the little boy’s innocence and make the boy seem smaller especially when the child is walking up the stairs, the camera is low angled and there is a piano playing, all to show how naïve the vulnerable child is. The tension is created by increasing the beat of the music at scary moments, like when the sandman is making his way up the stairs.
‘The Sandman’ was great, full of frights and had the right ingredients for a horror movie. I loved the resemblance of the Sandman with the moon that gave it a spooky effect, and the fact that there is no dialogue makes the story seem better as it was of a high quality. Although the colours used in the movie were blacks, greys and brown, the character the sandman was blue and yellow so was the brightest character in the film. Ironic isn’t it?
However, I thought that the movie was a bit too short and relates too much to ‘The night before Christmas’. Although the movie was terrifying, it didn’t scare me for long which a really good horror movie is supposed to do. But is the right the movie to watch at Halloween and is a fab film for horror lovers. The movie is a bit nightmarish so we recommend it to people with strong hearts and not to young and easily influenced children.
If you think this is your type of movie then check it out for yourself.
