The Sandman

The Sandman is a scary short film made in 1991 by Paul Berry. It was filmed in the UK and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Its 9 o’clock and time for children to go to bed. A small boy is sent up to his room all alone with only a dim oil lamp to guide his way. He trembles beneath his covers, as creaking floorboards and howling winds fill him with a sense of dread. In the downstairs hallway, a strange creature creeps out from the shadows. At first, it cautiously searches the rooms of the house until it hears the sounds of the boy. Sensing the child’s fear, the creature begins loudly approaching his room, relishing the terror it invokes. Upon reaching the sleeping child, the Sandman has a terrible fate in store for the unsuspecting boy.

The Sandman is based on an old German legend called “Der Sandmann”. “He is a wicked man, who comes to children when they won’t go to bed, and throws a handful of sand into their eyes, so that they start out bleeding from their heads. He puts their eyes in a bag and carries them to the crescent moon to feed his own children, who sit in a nest up there. They have crooked beaks like owls so that they can pick up the eyes of naughty human children.”