The Somnambulists (2006)
Article 5503 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-27-2017
Directed by Kevin Lane
Featuring Tara Goudreau, Calvin Green, Jack Redmond
Country: USA
What it is: Horror short

A young woman who lives with her grandfather is tormented by strange dreams. Her grandfather has an idea of what is plaguing her… and the secret she is keeping hidden.

For the second time, a movie on the “Tomb of Terrors” movie set has caught my attention enough to inspire to me to give it a review, and for a good reason; I actually rather liked this one. Oh, it has its flaws; there are a few clumsy script problems, particularly in the way it handles some of its exposition. But it’s the closest of anything I’ve seen on this set to looking like it was professionally made, it’s only about 22 minutes long, and the concept behind it was novel enough to catch my attention. There’s also a few nods here and there to John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN that I liked. But, perhaps most significantly, this short was bereft of any of the annoyances that have plagued all the other movies on this set. There is no slathering of blood everywhere, no loud pulsating metal music with screeching vocals, no gratuitous sex, vomiting, violence or viscera. None of the characters are engaged in cussathons. And there isn’t a single scene of people running through an underground tunnel with lots of ductwork. In fact, I found myself wondering what it was doing on this set.