Horror Short Review: Sleepwalker (2022)

From writer and director Alex Magaña, Sleepwalker is a horror short that stars Nick Namu and Jaden Kauhale.

The short opens with a woman called Kim (Kauhale), clearly still asleep, stepping out of her apartment block and walking down the street in the dead of night. It’s certainly an extreme version of sleep-walking! Her partner Marshall (Namu) follows shortly afterwards, concerned about her well-being.

After making a quick call to Kim’s sister Sarah, he tries to find the sleepwalker, seeing her turn into an alley. An alley with an ‘obey’ poster on the wall, for all you They Live fans.

He follows her in and is startled to find she is not the only sleepwalker that has ended up here. There are countless people milling about but before he can take it in, he spies Kim in the distance so gives chase.

As he goes deeper in, more and more ‘obey’ signs appear until he eventually catches up with Kim amongst a large group of sleepwalkers. He reaches out to wake her and if you want to now what happens next, you’ll have to check it out yourself below.

This is a short filled with atmosphere, enhanced by the lighting and music. At just 3 minutes long, the expectation is that it will end in classic jump-scare fashion but Sleepwalker chooses a different and much more satisfying path. It’s interestingly mysterious but also very chilling.