Mr. Sandman (2024) Movie Script
1
(somber piano music)
(Zoe gasps)
(Zoe panting)
(tense ambient music)
(Zoe groans)
(tense ambient music)
(floor creaking)
(tense ambient music)
(Zoe panting)
(tense ambient music)
(Zoe whimpering softly)
(suspenseful music)
(wind howling)
(wind howling)
(wind howling)
(suspenseful music)
(wind howling)
(suspenseful music)
(lively orchestral music) (chair creaking)
(case claps softly)
(lively orchestral music) (chair creaking)
Half hour more then bed, okay?
(lively orchestral music) (chair creaking)
Hey, so I'm not kidding.
Half hour then bed.
I don't want your cold getting any worse.
(chair creaking)
Yes?
- Okay, Mommy.
- All right.
(lips smacking)
Good night, baby.
Yes, good night to you too, Sam.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
(chair creaking)
[Mother] Night, Mom.
(chair creaking)
Little girls who don't go to bed on time,
they get taken away by Mr. Sandman.
(suspenseful music)
He comes in the night just to make sure
that all little girls and
boys are asleep in their bed.
The ones that are, they get sprinkled
with his magical sand and dream.
The most beautiful dreams you ever saw.
The ones who aren't get
taken to his nether world,
as he stands guard so that
no little children's souls can escape.
Trapped in a nightmare from
which they will never awaken
as he feeds on their souls.
Never, ever to be seen or heard from again.
(walker rattles)
(suspenseful music)
(walker creaks)
(dramatic music)
The witching hour, that's when he'll come.
Don't be awake.
(dramatic music)
(walker creaks)
(door slams)
(suspenseful music)
(wind howling) (leaves rustling)
(hammock creaks)
(door creaks)
(door clicks)
(door creaks)
(wind chimes chiming)
(suspenseful music)
(suspenseful music)
(distant rumbling)
(dramatic music)
(bell chiming)
(suspenseful music)
(dramatic music)
(footsteps pattering)
(switch clicks)
(suspenseful music)
(switch clicks)
(footsteps pattering)
(switch clicks)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(footsteps pattering)
(mysterious vocalizing)
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
(floor creaks)
(switch clicks)
(suspenseful music) (Zoe panting)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe whimpering)
Sam?
(Zoe whimpering)
(foot thumps)
(ominous piano music) (steps creaking)
(ominous music)
(Zoe gasps)
(ominous music) (Zoe groaning)
(Zoe groaning)
(mysterious vocalizing)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(dramatic music)
Baby, it's okay, it's me.
It's okay.
It's okay.
Why aren't you in bed?
You fell asleep downstairs
again, didn't you?
I'm sorry.
It's okay, but come on, Zoe.
Your sister's out and you've
got the room to yourself.
I want you to get a full night's sleep.
But I still have to brush my teeth.
Go.
Go, and then right to bed.
(Mother sighs)
(water splashing)
(toothbrush brushing) (water splashing)
(mysterious whispering)
(suspenseful music)
(toothbrush brushing) (water splashing)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe sighs)
(switch clicks)
(glass thuds)
(lamp hums)
(tense music)
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Amen.
(tense music)
(bed creaks)
(switch clicks)
(suspenseful music)
(lamp humming)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe gasps)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(suspenseful music)
(lamp humming)
(Zoe exhales)
(lamp humming)
(suspenseful music)
(shrill suspenseful music)
(music box music)
(music box music)
(sheets rustling)
(Zoe breathes deeply)
(sheets rustling)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(footsteps pattering)
Mommy, please wake up.
Mommy, hurry up, it's important.
Mommy, please.
- Mommy, the man's in my...
- What, what?
Please can I sleep with you?
Mommy, I wanna sleep with you.
Please, it won't stop, the music box.
Please, Mommy.
Let's go.
Mommy, please don't make me go!
No, Mommy, please stop.
No, no, Mommy, please stop!
No, don't make me please!
Mommy, no!
No, Mommy, please, don't make me go inside.
Mommy, please, no, no, please!
Stop, don't make me go in!
No, please, stop!
See, nothing's here.
(Zoe panting)
- But.
- No buts.
Nothing is here.
[Zoe] Please.
Do you want me to stay
with you until you fall asleep?
Okay.
(eerie whooshing)
(eerie whooshing)
(eerie whooshing)
(eerie whooshing)
(mysterious whirring music)
(nails scratching)
Mommy?
(mysterious whirring music)
(sheets rustling)
(suspenseful music)
(spirit laughs maniacally)
(Zoe panting)
(spirit laughs maniacally)
(nails scratching)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting)
(spirit laughs maniacally)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting)
(thunder cracking)
(latch clicks)
(Zoe panting)
(thunder cracking)
(window sliding)
(glass thudding)
(dramatic music)
(thunder cracking)
(window slams)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(spirit whooshing)
(footsteps pattering)
(thunder cracking)
(sheets rustling)
(thunder cracking)
(Zoe sighs)
(thunder rumbling)
(sheets rustling)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(thunder cracking)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(doorknob clicks)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(thunder cracking)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(Zoe whimpering) (music box music)
(tense music)
(sheets rustling)
(tense music)
(dramatic music)
(door slams)
(sheets rustling)
(door creaking) (thunder cracking)
(thunder cracking)
(dramatic music)
(thunder cracking)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe hyperventilating)
Mom.
(dramatic music) (Zoe hyperventilating)
(spirit laughing maniacally)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe screams)
(suspenseful music) (Zoe panting)
(Zoe groans)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(spirit screams)
(Zoe panting)
(Zoe shouts)
(dramatic music) (nails scratching)
(Zoe gasps)
(suspenseful music) (nails scratching)
(bed frame thuds)
(suspenseful music)
(bed frame thuds) (suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(thunder rumbling)
- Jesus Christ.
- Baby, what?
What?
(somber music) What is it?
Please don't make me go back.
[Mother] Did you have another bad dream?
(somber music)
Mr. Sandman.
(Father groans)
(somber music)
Okay, you sleep with us tonight.
(somber music)
(lips smacking)
(heartbeat thumping)
(brush brushing) (heartbeat thumping)
(heartbeat thumping)
It's not over. (voice echoes)
It's not over. (voice echoes)
It's not over.
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
(Zoe screams)
(Zoe gasps)
(Zoe panting)
(footsteps pattering)
(suspenseful music)
(floor creaking)
(suspenseful music) (Zoe panting)
(ominous music)
(door slams)
(rocking chair creaking)
(eerie instrumental music)
(rocking chair creaking)
(eerie instrumental music)
(rocking chair creaking)
Well, I've always had a fascination
with the dream, nightmare world.
I just think it's incredible,
and I think it's something that's like
extremely underexplored, I should say.
And just not used as much as,
(sighs) not as much as it
should be in the film world.
I mean, it's such a
fascinating topic, dreams.
Now, of course, in the horror genre,
you obviously have like your
"Nightmare On Elm Street" and such.
I just think it should be explored more.
Well, I knew this movie
would bring me back
to my childhood, and I would
be revisiting the nightmares
I used to have as a kid
and the fear of the dark.
Because I know there
was plenty of nights as a kid
where you would wake up
in the middle of the night,
you'd be the last one up,
and you'd have to turn off all the lights.
And when you hit that light switch,
you knew that room would get dark.
And that fear that you had
when you hit that switch,
you just bolted out of that
room and you never looked back.
Because if you looked back,
you always saw something.
And every kid I think from
any culture can relate to that
because we're all scared of the dark.
And you're going from room to room,
you're switching on the lights
because you're scared to be in the dark.
And then you're shutting 'em out
as you're leaving that room.
And you're taking this long adventure
to the safety of your bedroom.
Darkness has a fear of the unknown.
You know, what's in that darkness?
You know, is there a monster in there
that can come out and get you?
So it's really the fear of
the unknown, especially,
you know, when, you know,
you're laying up in your bed
at night trying to go
to sleep and, you know,
with the horror background as a kid,
I knew all the things that, you know,
could come out and get you.
You know, you didn't look out your window
because you felt a floating
skeleton was out there
tapping on your window.
That was from "Creep
Show," which is probably one
of the scariest scenes of
all time, at least for me.
You know, you didn't want
that rocking chair facing you
because even though
if it was still, you know,
it would always be rocking somehow.
You had that illusion of it moving.
And you know, that
reminded me of "Poltergeist."
So you would always tie these scary things
into certain movies that you watched,
but I think the worst is when
you had that closet door open,
and you just felt as you were laying there
something was like staring at you.
And to me, I mean, that
was definitely the scariest.
Again, I think it's just something
that expands across
generations, across cultures,
that fear of the dark,
the fear of the unknown.
And again, obviously in reality
it's just in our imagination.
But in the movie I was like,
"Okay, what if there's an
actual threat in the dark?"
And that's really what drew me to this idea
why I wanted to make the
movie 'cause I was that kid.
I experienced that.
And it seems like
anybody I talk to about it,
they've experienced
either that same scenarios
or very similar ones.
So that's really why I wanted to make this.
So I previously did
"Tales of Found Footage"
with the guys, and so it was really easy
to say yes to working with them again
because we had a lot of fun on that.
I also come from mostly the theater world,
so I hadn't done a ton of film,
but it was something that
I wanted to do more of.
So when something just kind of pops up,
it's easy to say yes.
Yeah, and I had a lot of fun.
It was very different.
It was very different from
the first film that we did.
This project took some
time and scheduling.
And not only that,
but then it's like I have
to match up my schedule, her schedule,
my producer's schedule.
If I brought in Mackenzie, who
played the mom, her schedule.
When Sherry, who played the
grandma, match up her schedule
with everyone.
You know, scheduling,
time constraints, you know,
like, I mean, obviously when it gets later,
my daughter would get
very tired and I'm like,
"Oh, I just gotta squeeze
out one more shot for."
And she's already like nodding off.
So challenges like that.
There were a lot of
challenges in the movie for me.
So mainly it was late at
night when we were filming,
like I said, 11, 12:30 latest.
I was tired, I had school.
So wake up at six, so
six to 12:30 at night,
then I'd wake up to school
again for the morning.
I think setting up the
shots, there was times that
that was very difficult.
You know, we didn't have a huge crew,
and there was times
where I literally would be
holding like the light with one hand.
I would be holding like a
wind machine my other hand.
I'd be using my feet to
like make the lightning
and thunder go off.
And then you have to
stay in these positions,
you're trying to stay still.
And that could be pretty demanding.
Oh, the worst night of filming by far,
definitely the night with
putting in the contacts
with Mackenzie who played Mom,
those white contacts.
It was brutal.
But the worst was the one time
it went like up into my head.
And we had to try to pull it out.
We thought maybe we
would have to go to the ER.
I'm laughing, but at the
time I was like terrified
because she got the one in perfectly fine,
then she gets the second one
in, and she must have blinked,
and her eyelid must
have grabbed the contact
because it like threw it
back into her eye socket,
like above her eye.
And I hit the panic button.
I was like, "Oh my God."
I'm like, "Well, here we go."
"I gotta take her to the ER right now."
And she was like starting to panic,
and I could see she was getting nervous.
And I was like, "Oh, crap."
I was like, "Oh, no."
I was really scared for her that night.
And then all of a sudden she blinks again,
and it reappears in like perfect position.
I was like, "Okay, stop right there."
And I'm like, "Are you okay?"
She's like, "Yeah, I'm okay."
I'm like, "All right, good."
I'm like, "Quick, let's go shoot this"
"so you never have to do this again."
But I kind of just
closed my eye for a second
and it like fell back into place.
But definitely everything
involving the contacts
was the worst.
I even remember like once they were in,
it was still kind of burning.
So once I had them in, we
had only like a certain amount
of time that I could handle
having these contacts
actually on my eyes.
So that kind of made
the worst part of this.
The best night of filming
was probably the first
night when we had Sherry,
Sherry Hoffman, who played Grandma.
But on that night, everybody,
my grandma was getting into
the story about Mr. Sandman
and what he does with the little girls.
But Mackenzie, she was great.
She was really welcoming.
Same with the grandma.
I just loved them both.
They were really sweet people.
I think what I do as
an actor being scared
for anything that just
does just a little bit.
I mean, if we're rolling and
somebody says something
that is kind of like sticky,
I'd like just like roll over it.
And I just think that it's a great idea.
You know, I had written
this monologue for her
where she's talking about, you know,
Mr. Sandman and stuff like
that, and we just set the shot up
and it's this nice, slow, you
almost have to look closely
to see it, but you know,
I think you might absorb
it more than you see it.
But this nice, slow zoom
in as she's telling the story.
And she just, she
knocked it out of the park
on multiple takes.
So she gave me that gift when I got
to the editing phase to
be able to basically just like
mix and match the takes as I saw fit.
But she just, it was,
it was the night where I really felt like,
and that was one of the
first nights of shooting too.
And I really felt, I'm like,
"Wow, okay, this, I feel like
this is gonna come together."
And as you're going, you'll see that
so much more is there than what you
thought that it was or is.
And as you talk about it
and see it in your
head, it's gotta be great.
I think this movie compares
to other horror movies by,
it has basically the same
elements of surprise.
You know, there's certain fear factors.
And I think, you know,
always having a movie
that has the dark in it,
that unknown is always gonna be scary.
And especially for all audiences.
I mean, kids will be able
to relate to this movie
because they understand the fear.
I think adults,
it will definitely bring
them back to their childhood.
And it's something I would
like to revisit in the future.
Maybe even like at feature length.
(somber piano music)
(Zoe gasps)
(Zoe panting)
(tense ambient music)
(Zoe groans)
(tense ambient music)
(floor creaking)
(tense ambient music)
(Zoe panting)
(tense ambient music)
(Zoe whimpering softly)
(suspenseful music)
(wind howling)
(wind howling)
(wind howling)
(suspenseful music)
(wind howling)
(suspenseful music)
(lively orchestral music) (chair creaking)
(case claps softly)
(lively orchestral music) (chair creaking)
Half hour more then bed, okay?
(lively orchestral music) (chair creaking)
Hey, so I'm not kidding.
Half hour then bed.
I don't want your cold getting any worse.
(chair creaking)
Yes?
- Okay, Mommy.
- All right.
(lips smacking)
Good night, baby.
Yes, good night to you too, Sam.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
(chair creaking)
[Mother] Night, Mom.
(chair creaking)
Little girls who don't go to bed on time,
they get taken away by Mr. Sandman.
(suspenseful music)
He comes in the night just to make sure
that all little girls and
boys are asleep in their bed.
The ones that are, they get sprinkled
with his magical sand and dream.
The most beautiful dreams you ever saw.
The ones who aren't get
taken to his nether world,
as he stands guard so that
no little children's souls can escape.
Trapped in a nightmare from
which they will never awaken
as he feeds on their souls.
Never, ever to be seen or heard from again.
(walker rattles)
(suspenseful music)
(walker creaks)
(dramatic music)
The witching hour, that's when he'll come.
Don't be awake.
(dramatic music)
(walker creaks)
(door slams)
(suspenseful music)
(wind howling) (leaves rustling)
(hammock creaks)
(door creaks)
(door clicks)
(door creaks)
(wind chimes chiming)
(suspenseful music)
(suspenseful music)
(distant rumbling)
(dramatic music)
(bell chiming)
(suspenseful music)
(dramatic music)
(footsteps pattering)
(switch clicks)
(suspenseful music)
(switch clicks)
(footsteps pattering)
(switch clicks)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(footsteps pattering)
(mysterious vocalizing)
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
(floor creaks)
(switch clicks)
(suspenseful music) (Zoe panting)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe whimpering)
Sam?
(Zoe whimpering)
(foot thumps)
(ominous piano music) (steps creaking)
(ominous music)
(Zoe gasps)
(ominous music) (Zoe groaning)
(Zoe groaning)
(mysterious vocalizing)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(dramatic music)
Baby, it's okay, it's me.
It's okay.
It's okay.
Why aren't you in bed?
You fell asleep downstairs
again, didn't you?
I'm sorry.
It's okay, but come on, Zoe.
Your sister's out and you've
got the room to yourself.
I want you to get a full night's sleep.
But I still have to brush my teeth.
Go.
Go, and then right to bed.
(Mother sighs)
(water splashing)
(toothbrush brushing) (water splashing)
(mysterious whispering)
(suspenseful music)
(toothbrush brushing) (water splashing)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe sighs)
(switch clicks)
(glass thuds)
(lamp hums)
(tense music)
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Amen.
(tense music)
(bed creaks)
(switch clicks)
(suspenseful music)
(lamp humming)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe gasps)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(suspenseful music)
(lamp humming)
(Zoe exhales)
(lamp humming)
(suspenseful music)
(shrill suspenseful music)
(music box music)
(music box music)
(sheets rustling)
(Zoe breathes deeply)
(sheets rustling)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(footsteps pattering)
Mommy, please wake up.
Mommy, hurry up, it's important.
Mommy, please.
- Mommy, the man's in my...
- What, what?
Please can I sleep with you?
Mommy, I wanna sleep with you.
Please, it won't stop, the music box.
Please, Mommy.
Let's go.
Mommy, please don't make me go!
No, Mommy, please stop.
No, no, Mommy, please stop!
No, don't make me please!
Mommy, no!
No, Mommy, please, don't make me go inside.
Mommy, please, no, no, please!
Stop, don't make me go in!
No, please, stop!
See, nothing's here.
(Zoe panting)
- But.
- No buts.
Nothing is here.
[Zoe] Please.
Do you want me to stay
with you until you fall asleep?
Okay.
(eerie whooshing)
(eerie whooshing)
(eerie whooshing)
(eerie whooshing)
(mysterious whirring music)
(nails scratching)
Mommy?
(mysterious whirring music)
(sheets rustling)
(suspenseful music)
(spirit laughs maniacally)
(Zoe panting)
(spirit laughs maniacally)
(nails scratching)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting)
(spirit laughs maniacally)
(suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting)
(thunder cracking)
(latch clicks)
(Zoe panting)
(thunder cracking)
(window sliding)
(glass thudding)
(dramatic music)
(thunder cracking)
(window slams)
(Zoe panting)
(suspenseful music)
(spirit whooshing)
(footsteps pattering)
(thunder cracking)
(sheets rustling)
(thunder cracking)
(Zoe sighs)
(thunder rumbling)
(sheets rustling)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(thunder cracking)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(doorknob clicks)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(thunder cracking)
(music box music, "Swan Lake")
(Zoe whimpering) (music box music)
(tense music)
(sheets rustling)
(tense music)
(dramatic music)
(door slams)
(sheets rustling)
(door creaking) (thunder cracking)
(thunder cracking)
(dramatic music)
(thunder cracking)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe hyperventilating)
Mom.
(dramatic music) (Zoe hyperventilating)
(spirit laughing maniacally)
(dramatic music)
(Zoe screams)
(suspenseful music) (Zoe panting)
(Zoe groans)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(spirit screams)
(Zoe panting)
(Zoe shouts)
(dramatic music) (nails scratching)
(Zoe gasps)
(suspenseful music) (nails scratching)
(bed frame thuds)
(suspenseful music)
(bed frame thuds) (suspenseful music)
(Zoe panting) (suspenseful music)
(thunder rumbling)
- Jesus Christ.
- Baby, what?
What?
(somber music) What is it?
Please don't make me go back.
[Mother] Did you have another bad dream?
(somber music)
Mr. Sandman.
(Father groans)
(somber music)
Okay, you sleep with us tonight.
(somber music)
(lips smacking)
(heartbeat thumping)
(brush brushing) (heartbeat thumping)
(heartbeat thumping)
It's not over. (voice echoes)
It's not over. (voice echoes)
It's not over.
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
It's not over!
(Zoe screams)
(Zoe gasps)
(Zoe panting)
(footsteps pattering)
(suspenseful music)
(floor creaking)
(suspenseful music) (Zoe panting)
(ominous music)
(door slams)
(rocking chair creaking)
(eerie instrumental music)
(rocking chair creaking)
(eerie instrumental music)
(rocking chair creaking)
Well, I've always had a fascination
with the dream, nightmare world.
I just think it's incredible,
and I think it's something that's like
extremely underexplored, I should say.
And just not used as much as,
(sighs) not as much as it
should be in the film world.
I mean, it's such a
fascinating topic, dreams.
Now, of course, in the horror genre,
you obviously have like your
"Nightmare On Elm Street" and such.
I just think it should be explored more.
Well, I knew this movie
would bring me back
to my childhood, and I would
be revisiting the nightmares
I used to have as a kid
and the fear of the dark.
Because I know there
was plenty of nights as a kid
where you would wake up
in the middle of the night,
you'd be the last one up,
and you'd have to turn off all the lights.
And when you hit that light switch,
you knew that room would get dark.
And that fear that you had
when you hit that switch,
you just bolted out of that
room and you never looked back.
Because if you looked back,
you always saw something.
And every kid I think from
any culture can relate to that
because we're all scared of the dark.
And you're going from room to room,
you're switching on the lights
because you're scared to be in the dark.
And then you're shutting 'em out
as you're leaving that room.
And you're taking this long adventure
to the safety of your bedroom.
Darkness has a fear of the unknown.
You know, what's in that darkness?
You know, is there a monster in there
that can come out and get you?
So it's really the fear of
the unknown, especially,
you know, when, you know,
you're laying up in your bed
at night trying to go
to sleep and, you know,
with the horror background as a kid,
I knew all the things that, you know,
could come out and get you.
You know, you didn't look out your window
because you felt a floating
skeleton was out there
tapping on your window.
That was from "Creep
Show," which is probably one
of the scariest scenes of
all time, at least for me.
You know, you didn't want
that rocking chair facing you
because even though
if it was still, you know,
it would always be rocking somehow.
You had that illusion of it moving.
And you know, that
reminded me of "Poltergeist."
So you would always tie these scary things
into certain movies that you watched,
but I think the worst is when
you had that closet door open,
and you just felt as you were laying there
something was like staring at you.
And to me, I mean, that
was definitely the scariest.
Again, I think it's just something
that expands across
generations, across cultures,
that fear of the dark,
the fear of the unknown.
And again, obviously in reality
it's just in our imagination.
But in the movie I was like,
"Okay, what if there's an
actual threat in the dark?"
And that's really what drew me to this idea
why I wanted to make the
movie 'cause I was that kid.
I experienced that.
And it seems like
anybody I talk to about it,
they've experienced
either that same scenarios
or very similar ones.
So that's really why I wanted to make this.
So I previously did
"Tales of Found Footage"
with the guys, and so it was really easy
to say yes to working with them again
because we had a lot of fun on that.
I also come from mostly the theater world,
so I hadn't done a ton of film,
but it was something that
I wanted to do more of.
So when something just kind of pops up,
it's easy to say yes.
Yeah, and I had a lot of fun.
It was very different.
It was very different from
the first film that we did.
This project took some
time and scheduling.
And not only that,
but then it's like I have
to match up my schedule, her schedule,
my producer's schedule.
If I brought in Mackenzie, who
played the mom, her schedule.
When Sherry, who played the
grandma, match up her schedule
with everyone.
You know, scheduling,
time constraints, you know,
like, I mean, obviously when it gets later,
my daughter would get
very tired and I'm like,
"Oh, I just gotta squeeze
out one more shot for."
And she's already like nodding off.
So challenges like that.
There were a lot of
challenges in the movie for me.
So mainly it was late at
night when we were filming,
like I said, 11, 12:30 latest.
I was tired, I had school.
So wake up at six, so
six to 12:30 at night,
then I'd wake up to school
again for the morning.
I think setting up the
shots, there was times that
that was very difficult.
You know, we didn't have a huge crew,
and there was times
where I literally would be
holding like the light with one hand.
I would be holding like a
wind machine my other hand.
I'd be using my feet to
like make the lightning
and thunder go off.
And then you have to
stay in these positions,
you're trying to stay still.
And that could be pretty demanding.
Oh, the worst night of filming by far,
definitely the night with
putting in the contacts
with Mackenzie who played Mom,
those white contacts.
It was brutal.
But the worst was the one time
it went like up into my head.
And we had to try to pull it out.
We thought maybe we
would have to go to the ER.
I'm laughing, but at the
time I was like terrified
because she got the one in perfectly fine,
then she gets the second one
in, and she must have blinked,
and her eyelid must
have grabbed the contact
because it like threw it
back into her eye socket,
like above her eye.
And I hit the panic button.
I was like, "Oh my God."
I'm like, "Well, here we go."
"I gotta take her to the ER right now."
And she was like starting to panic,
and I could see she was getting nervous.
And I was like, "Oh, crap."
I was like, "Oh, no."
I was really scared for her that night.
And then all of a sudden she blinks again,
and it reappears in like perfect position.
I was like, "Okay, stop right there."
And I'm like, "Are you okay?"
She's like, "Yeah, I'm okay."
I'm like, "All right, good."
I'm like, "Quick, let's go shoot this"
"so you never have to do this again."
But I kind of just
closed my eye for a second
and it like fell back into place.
But definitely everything
involving the contacts
was the worst.
I even remember like once they were in,
it was still kind of burning.
So once I had them in, we
had only like a certain amount
of time that I could handle
having these contacts
actually on my eyes.
So that kind of made
the worst part of this.
The best night of filming
was probably the first
night when we had Sherry,
Sherry Hoffman, who played Grandma.
But on that night, everybody,
my grandma was getting into
the story about Mr. Sandman
and what he does with the little girls.
But Mackenzie, she was great.
She was really welcoming.
Same with the grandma.
I just loved them both.
They were really sweet people.
I think what I do as
an actor being scared
for anything that just
does just a little bit.
I mean, if we're rolling and
somebody says something
that is kind of like sticky,
I'd like just like roll over it.
And I just think that it's a great idea.
You know, I had written
this monologue for her
where she's talking about, you know,
Mr. Sandman and stuff like
that, and we just set the shot up
and it's this nice, slow, you
almost have to look closely
to see it, but you know,
I think you might absorb
it more than you see it.
But this nice, slow zoom
in as she's telling the story.
And she just, she
knocked it out of the park
on multiple takes.
So she gave me that gift when I got
to the editing phase to
be able to basically just like
mix and match the takes as I saw fit.
But she just, it was,
it was the night where I really felt like,
and that was one of the
first nights of shooting too.
And I really felt, I'm like,
"Wow, okay, this, I feel like
this is gonna come together."
And as you're going, you'll see that
so much more is there than what you
thought that it was or is.
And as you talk about it
and see it in your
head, it's gotta be great.
I think this movie compares
to other horror movies by,
it has basically the same
elements of surprise.
You know, there's certain fear factors.
And I think, you know,
always having a movie
that has the dark in it,
that unknown is always gonna be scary.
And especially for all audiences.
I mean, kids will be able
to relate to this movie
because they understand the fear.
I think adults,
it will definitely bring
them back to their childhood.
And it's something I would
like to revisit in the future.
Maybe even like at feature length.