The premise is a familiar one: grief, trauma, and a home that refuses to stay quiet. But Sleepwalker, the new psychological thriller from director Brandon Auman, takes that framework and twists it into something far more unsettling - a slow-burn descent into madness that blurs the line between mourning and mania. Released on January 9, 2026, this 89-minute Hollywood production has already divided audiences, earning a modest 4.4/10 on TMDb. And after watching it, you can understand why.
Hayden Panettiere stars as Sarah, a mother shattered by the death of her daughter in a car accident - a crash that also left her abusive husband, Michael (Justin Chatwin), in a coma. What follows is less a ghost story than a study in psychological unraveling. Sarah's sleepwalking episodes intensify, and with them come haunting visions of Michael inside their home. Is he truly there? Is she imagining him? Auman refuses to offer easy answers, and that ambiguity is both the film's greatest strength and its most frustrating flaw.
Panettiere delivers a raw, nerve-frayed performance that anchors the film's more surreal detours. Her Sarah is not a passive victim; she's a woman fighting to stay tethered to reality while her own mind conspires against her. Chatwin, largely relegated to spectral appearances, makes the most of his limited screen time, his Michael looming like a half-remembered threat. The supporting cast is equally committed - Beverly D'Angelo brings a brittle warmth as Gloria, while Mischa Barton's Joelle and Lori Tan Chinn's Bai Zhao add texture to Sarah's increasingly isolated world. Eric Lutes as Doctor Henson and Kea Ho as Nurse Alexis round out the ensemble, though their roles feel underdeveloped by the film's brisk runtime.
Auman, best known for his work in animation, brings an unexpectedly visual sensibility to the horror. Shadows stretch too long. Doorways lead to rooms that shouldn't exist. The film's color palette is drained of warmth, all greys and muted blues, as if the world itself has been leached of life. The sound design is particularly effective - a low, persistent hum that burrows under the skin, punctuated by the creak of floorboards and the soft pad of bare feet on hardwood. It's the kind of film that makes you hyperaware of your own house settling.
But Sleepwalker stumbles where many psychological thrillers do: it mistakes ambiguity for depth. The script, co-written by Auman, gestures toward big ideas - grief as a kind of possession, the home as a prison of memory - but never fully commits. The surreal imagery, while striking, sometimes feels like a smokescreen for a story that doesn't quite know where it's going. By the third act, the line between nightmare and reality becomes so blurred that the stakes start to evaporate. When anything can happen, nothing feels dangerous.
That said, there's something admirably stubborn about the film's refusal to explain itself. Auman trusts his audience to sit with the unease, to fill in the gaps. It's a gamble, and for some viewers, it will pay off. The film has the texture of a fever dream - illogical, unnerving, and oddly difficult to shake. But a fever dream doesn't always hold up to scrutiny, and Sleepwalker is likely to frustrate as many people as it haunts.
The 4.4/10 rating suggests that frustration is winning out. It's a shame, because there's real craft here. Panettiere is doing some of her most vulnerable work in years, and Auman's direction shows a genuine eye for atmosphere. But atmosphere alone doesn't sustain a feature, and Sleepwalker never quite finds the emotional core it needs to elevate its chills into something memorable.
Still, for those who appreciate a horror film that favors mood over jump scares - who don't mind a story that leaves them with questions rather than answers - Sleepwalker might just get under your skin. It's not a perfect film. It's not even a particularly coherent one. But it understands that the most terrifying thing in the world isn't a monster in the hallway. It's the suspicion that the monster might be your own mind.
And sometimes, that's enough to keep you awake at night.
