Friday, March 3, 2023

Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare

Beck is still at large spending his days working at a greasy diner bussing tables somewhere in the southwest.  An opportunity presents itself one day when he notices an esteemed sleep psychiatrist sitting at a table.  He ambushes him in his car (with a syringe naturally), finds out the guy’s on his way to start a new job in New Mexico, has no family, no social media presence and applied for the job by phone.  To boil it down, no one knows what this fucker looks like and no familial relationships means Beck can impersonate him no problem.  Amazing luck!

The first new patient Beck sees, Michelle (Emilie Ullerup), has an issue of being sexually active while sleepwalking but since she’s in her mid-thirties, i.e. too old for Beck, he isn’t terribly interested.  And she has a bonkers backstory involving her husband killing someone and trying to pin it on her.  When she laid this intensely emotional shit out I was stunned.  Later I learned that this movie is actually a cross over sequel to Stalked by My Doctor and another Lifetime thriller called Sleepwalking in Suburbia.  Ok, her story checks out then.

Michelle’s teenage niece, Katie (Angeline Appel), is staying with her because she also has a sleepwalking disorder during which she does anything someone tells her to do.  This is Beck’s next target.  He uses Katie as a sleepwalking Manchurian candidate to do his bidding and to make her fall in love with him, but only while she’s asleep.

Wow, kinda nuts concept for this installment.  It’s by far the most interesting of the sequels due to the distinctive setup and Beck’s continued spiral into developing multiple personas that he talks to (his Hawaiian shirt wearing, Mai Tai swishing conscience is back for more).  He gets his hands dirtier than ever before by upping his body count in a grisly manner.  But like all the other films it doesn’t take long for someone to notice he acts pretty damn odd and figures out he’s a sinister asshole within days or even moments of encountering him.

I did want to point out the mental hospital (for the criminally insane!) sets used here because they’re straight out of a horror movie.  Dim lighting, grimy ass cells, filthy conditions, outdated equipment, deviant guards, the whole nine yards.  It’s so out of place with not only this picture but the series.  Weird choice especially when they’ve depicted hospitals completely normally in the other ones.

Another strange thing is when Michelle opens her eyes to start sleepwalking they use a *shing* audio cue like oh shit! a killer has awakened.  She’s not the villain though.  Nor does she physically harm anyone in her sleepwalking state so I don’t understand that choice at all.

This has more satisfying thrills than the other sequels.  I mean it’s fuckin’ totally ridiculous that borders on horror just a hair a few times but hey, that’s not necessarily a knock.  Eric Roberts’ continued enthusiasm in the role along with enough unique elements make for a fun time.

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