Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0012236124047
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Artisan
Manufacturer: Artisan
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Artisan
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 18, 2001
Running Time: 117 minutes
Sales Rank: 54215
Studio: Artisan
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Nursery Rhyme Killer Needs To Grow Up!
"Sleepless" accurately describes the serial killer in this superb giallo from Dario Argento, the Italian Hitchcock who directed such horror masterpieces as "Deep Red" and "Suspiria." The killer can never sleep because he is constantly waiting for the right moment to begin killing again.
Seventeen years ago, there were a series of brutal slayings that had a pattern. Each victim represented an animal from a nursery rhyme. A children's author, a dwarf, was suspected of being the serial killer; the dwarf committed suicide and the killings ended. Now, the nightmare has begun again and it is believed that the dwarf has either returned from the dead or there is a copy cat. Perhaps it never was the dwarf.
Max von Sydow (Father Merrin in "The Exorcist") investigated the original dwarf killings. He comes out of retirement to help solve the latest murders.
"Sleepless" has numerous scenes involving beautiful women being chased up staircases and through trains. They reminded me of Argento's earlier works, such as "Suspiria," and Mario Bava's gothic masterpiece "Baron Blood." The soundtrack from Goblin was awesome; it helped increase the tension to a fever pitch level. There were many gruesome deaths; the body count was relatively high. It is easy to see that this is when Argento's movies began becoming increasingly more gruesome and gory.
"Sleepless" may never receive the status of classic giallo that Argento's earlier works have ... Read More
Rating:  - Argento's style saves the film from being a complete disaster
An old case from the 80's brings back ex-cop Max von Sydow (Minority Report) who was on the case at the time. The killer was suspected to be a dwarf back then and now as well, so he thinks. Helping Sydow is Giacamo, played by Stefano Dionisi and the two of them are on their own investiagation. While on the investigation, Sydow finally realizes that the killer is using an old childs nursery ryhme in which the killer leaves paper animals and the animals represent the people the killer kills. This thriller's only fuel is Argento's style of direction, although there are a couple unexpected moments and when they reveal the killer but the acting is really bad and some times annoying. The scene where Argento strolls the camera down a carpet, I was waiting for someone to trip and fall in front of the camera. For those Die Hard Argento junkies.
Rating: - Dario does Dario
If you go into this movie expecting to see "Deep Red" or "Suspiria" you probably will be disappointed for it's not on that level. However, with that being said "Sleepless" is a much better film than people give it credit for. While Argento couldn't match the brilliance of his earlier films in the 70's and early 80's this effort is much better than that of his efforts throughout the 90's.
The avid gore hound will be happy with over the top violence in the murders and the soundtrack by the now familiar "Goblin" is insanely pulsating. The first 15-20 minutes are worth the price alone, amzingly gripping and suspensful. After that the middle may fall into the tedious catagorie but pulls itself together at the end.
The story involves Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist) as a retired detective, with memory lapses, who finds that the "killer dwarf" murders he believed he had solved 17 years earlier are beginning once again. Now he must team up with the now adult son of one of the victims from a previous murder.
While this film is a far cry from his earlier giallo's Argento shows flashes of brilliance that dubbed him "The Italian Hitchcock" Well worth an evening for the avid Argento or giallo fan!
Rating: - Watchable, but not really very good
I recently got through watching the core of Dario Argento's work(75-87), and was sufficiently impressed that I decided to immediately check out some of his less acclaimed work. First I viewed Two Evil Eyes, and was surprised by how good his segment was, and felt it was nearly equal to some of his very best work. Next I viewed this film, Sleepless, and well, I think the title of the review pretty much says it all. I don't demand my time back, I may check it out again some day, but as of right now I'm not terribly excited about this film. On the plus side, it's got a really cool soundtrack, and is quite extraordinarily brutal and gory, more so than any of his other films.(It's no surprise that it's unrated) The soundtrack is by Goblin, and is quite reminscent of their classic work, particularly for Deep Red, but with more actual instruments and fewer synths.(and far more natural sounding synths too, for the most part) I've heard them score 8 movies, I believe, and generally find there work to be quite good,(if somewhat flawed), and this is definitely some of there very best work. The rest of the film, however, is either average or subpar.
Sadly, the film is largely lacking in the style department. The set design is fairly conventional, and there isn't a whole helluva a lot of interesting camerawork. (Though a widescreen version would certainly be more impressive in this regard.) Quite a few perspective shots, but not that much else, and those aren't terribly exciting anymore. Furthermore, ... Read More
Rating: - Heeeeere's Argento!
I really couldn't tell you why I have yet to watch every film in Dario Argento's filmography. A few years ago it was easy to claim ignorance of many of this Italian director's important works because it was often so difficult to find any of them anywhere, let alone in an uncut form. Fortunately, DVD arrived on the scene and eager film fans with dollars to spend inspired numerous companies to start churning out any movie they could get their hands. Even Troma, the flagship of flaccid filmmaking, released a so-so version of Argento's "The Stendhal Syndrome." It wasn't too long before practically every Argento film arrived on store shelves, many of them in uncut, unrated formats. Unfortunately, most viewers have most likely never heard of Dario Argento. These days, more people are familiar with the director's beautiful daughter Asia than with the horror maestro himself. What a shame. Argento's films, at least the ones I have seen, are masterpieces of style injected with truly cringe inducing violence. For a few years in the 1980s and 1990s, Argento drifted away from his tried and true giallo formula, only recently returning to some semblance of form with "Stendhal" and this gruesome little shocker, "Sleepless." Starring Max Von Sydow and Italian horror fave Gabriele Lavia, the director once again resurrects the old giallo format and marries it with upsetting scenes of gory violence.
Von Sydow plays the role of a retired detective named Moretti, a cop who had an amazing record of solving murder cases ... Read More
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