THE SANDMAN

Produced, Edited, and Directed by J.R. Bookwalter
Written by J.R. Bookwalter and Matthew Walsh
Director of Photography - Ron Bonk

Gary - A.J. Richards
Maris - Rita Gutowski
Bud - Terry J. Lipko
Mrs. Marrinak - Barbara Katz-Norrod
Sandman - Stan Ritzgerald
Gerald Rivers - James L. Edwards
Ozzy - Matthew Jason Walsh

There’s something about my childhood that I’ve never told anyone outside of my immediate family, not even the women I’ve dated. I grew up in a trailer park. Well, only on weekends anyway. That’s when my father had custody. Gerald never had much money, but after the divorce, the guy couldn’t afford anything more after he finished paying child support and all that.

I never liked the place. As a kid, I thought the people were all wacko Charlie Manson types. Long hair. Bad Teeth. Foul mouths. Full of anger and self-loathing at where they had ended up. At least that’s how it was until I got to know the people. In the end I still thought they were wackos, but in kooky-neighbor-next-door kind of way. The poor can be more eccentric than the rich.

J.R. Bookwalter fills THE SANDMAN with those same eccentrics. The woman who cuts her lawn with a toy mower. The ‘Nam vet who can’t stop talking about the past. I knew them all. That’s more frightening than the title creature itself.

It’s almost a shame that this is a monster movie. There’s so much going on outside of the plot that it’s almost a let down when the Sandman shows. His plan to kill off the entire planet as they sleep is intriguing, but in the end it’s little more than a distraction from the film’s real strength, the characters.

A.J. Richards (no relation to yours truly) is a struggling romance novelist who spends his nights trying to write something substantial. Things are complicated by the arrival of Gary’s porno-junkie cousin Ozzy, who was thrown out by his old man for being an annoying pain in the ass. To make matters worse, Gary’s love life is on the rocks. His girlfriend Maris wants him to stop living his dream and get a real job before she’ll allow their relationship to move to the next level.

It’s Gary’s late nights that let him witness the Sandman at work. It seems the creature is working through America’s heartland before he hits the big cities. With his magic sand, he turns dreams to nightmares and steals your soul in the process. All across American people are dying in their sleep. Somehow Gary must get rid of Ozzy, save the trailer park, and get the girl back.

Ignore the straightforward and substandard plot and enjoy the real strengths of the film. It’s not every micro-budget effort that can effectively flesh out three-dimensional characters. Director J.R. Bookwalter’s THE SANDMAN captures that trailer park feel of my youth perfectly. (Hey, do me a favor and keep that trailer park stuff between us.)

Tempe Video