14 December 2024
Don't Go to Sleep (1982)
96 min.
Directed by Richard Lang.
With Valerie Harper, Dennis Weaver, Ruth Gordon, Robert Webber, Robin Ignico, Oliver Robbins, Kristin Cumming, Claudette Nevins.
Nicely paced, nicely acted ghost story.

Husband Weaver, wife Harper, their two kids Kevin and Mary, and grandmother Gordon move out of Los Angeles into the northern California countryside.

The hope is that the rest and relaxation of their new surroundings will be enough to help the family heal from recently losing their eldest daughter, Jennifer.

But once in their new digs, youngest daughter Mary starts to believe that the ghost of Jennifer is speaking to her directly. Worse yet, Jennifer's spirit seems to be telling Mary that she wants to kill off the rest of the family!

Hodge podge, right? Soon, the family begin to meet with untimely deaths, one by one, just as Jennifer has intoned. Could it all really be the work of Jennifer's restless spirit?

Ignico is that rare breed, a believable child actor. As the younger sister with a sixth sense, she's quite good.

The always terrific Harper is wonderful as the mom trying to make sense of it all.

This creepy TV-movie is only slightly undone by a silly conclusion.

Featuring game support by Ruth Gordon in one of her last roles. Still spunky at the time, if she seemed a little slower than usual, you might chalk it up to the fact that she was 83 at the time.

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