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Marilyn Coleman, Kristin Cummings, Tim Haldeman, Valerie Harper, Robin Ignico ... see more see more... , Claudette Nevins , Oliver Robins , Dennis Weaver , Robert Webber , Ruth Gordon , Ned Wynn , Haven Earle Haley , Ross Porter

Little Mary (Robin Ignico) is haunted by the guilty memory of her sister Jennifer, who died in an auto accident not long ago. Jennifer had always been more adored by their parents, and Mary can't help... read more read more... thinking that her jealousy was behind Jennifer's death. Soon, Mary begins to imagine that there's something, or someone, hiding under her bed, and it becomes apparent that the nocturnal visitor is her dead sister. The apparition, who is only seen by Mary, is not satisfied being the only member of her family to have crossed over; she wants the rest of her family dead. Soon, to Mary's horror, her dead sister is orchestrating the deaths of the other members of the family, one by one. Ned Wynn wrote the screenplay for this TV-movie thriller, which first saw the light of day on December 10, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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63% liked it

306 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 33 min.

Directed by: Richard Lang

Release Date: December 10, 1982

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DVD Release Date: June 12, 1991

Stats: 37 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (37)

  • 3niR
    January 15, 2010
    3niR
    Pretty old movie. Not that bad. I watched this at night but wasn't scared at all. But I have to admit that the ending was scary.
  • matertenebraum
    July 17, 2009
    matertenebraum
    I stumbled on this movie purely by accident. (I'm glad I did) I don't usually find many movies that "scare" me, but there are exceptions "In Possession", "The Grudge" (Japanese version), "Ghostwatch" and finally "Don't go to sleep".

    The story centres on a family who a year befor... read moree has a car accident as the father has had one too many drinks and their eldest daughter gets killed due to a prank done on her by her younger siblings. The family move in with their grandmother so they can look after her. (Played by Ruth Gordon)

    She then later comes back as a ghost and haunts the younger sister who after a while becomes friends when Jennifer the older sister reveals herself to her, but this friendship becomes sinister when the sisters (mostly Jennifer who is out for revenge) decides to kill off other members of their family.

    The grandmother gets killed when the brother puts his pet Lizard under her sheets, scaring her to death. The second member is the brother (played by Oliver Robins from Poltergeist), he gets killed when he is trying to retrieve a Frisbee which gets stuck on the roof of the house, while he is climbing on the roof gets knocked off when an invisible force opens the window. The third member who gets killed is the father, (played by Dennis Weaver) while he is taking a bath and a radio falls into it.

    Later on, because the younger sister is labelled mentally unstable, she is sent to a lunatic asylum and Jennifer leaves her behind. Later on while her mother is sleeping, (played by Valerie Harper) Jennifer appears in front with a very evil grin on her face. When her mother screams, the movie ends.

    Although this was a very low budget TV movie, the storyline is the main theme which makes this film creepy and very scary. Don't underestimate it, although very similar to "The Grudge". "The Grudge" concentrated more on special effects in order to make it scary. Don't go to sleep concentrated more on the story. This is a brilliant ghost story and I recommend you see it.

    I must congratulate the entire cast and the director and I wish ABC would release it because it is very rare movie to find and if you do find a copy, you're extremely lucky.
  • creepfreak
    May 10, 2008
    creepfreak
    Don't Go To Sleep (1982) is a very hard movie to get a hold of. There is no DVD release yet for this movie, but there are copies floating around the internet. This was a made for TV movie and let me tell you, this scared the crap out of me back in the day. What a creepy ass movie... read more this was.

    The movie is about a family of four, the parents and their two children, who move into a new home and try to start their life over after the death of their oldest daughter Jennifer, which resulted from a freak car explosion. The two other young kids, who happened to survive the car explosion, are Mary and her brother Kevin. The house that the family moved into belongs to Bernice, which is Mary and Kevin's grandmother. Everything seems fine at first but the terror begins when Mary starts hearing her deceased sister Jennifer calling for her from underneath the bed. Of course it turns out that Mary's parents don't believe her and they even blame her younger brother Kevin for scaring Mary. Little did they know that Kevin was indeed an innocent bystander and the voices that Mary was hearing might actually really be coming from her dead sister Jennifer.

    Things get even worse from here and the ghost of Jennifer now actually becomes visible to Mary. Jennifer's ghost becomes Mary's new playmate, and there's nothing or nobody that will stand in their way because Mary will make sure of that. After a few days of hanging out with her deceased sister, Jennifer tells Mary of a new plan that she has. She tells Mary that she must kill her family off one by one, or else they can no longer be together. Mary, scared to loose her older sister again, decides that this plan might just be a good idea and from here on is where things start becoming very deadly. Mary's family start slowly dropping like flies, but in the beginning it's not really visible to who is really killing them. And here's where the question lies...is Mary the one actually killing her family off one by one, or is it really the ghost of her dead sister Jennifer?

    This movie was very eerie. There is no violence or anything like that, being that it was a made for TV movie, but the things that they suggested I'm surprised that they got away with that much. The acting isn't the greatest, but what do you expect from a made for TV horror movie? It was good enough for what it was and it never gets too unbearably cheesy. The voices that came from underneath Mary's bed were scary as hell, and Jennifer's ghost was truly spine tingling. The story was also very well told, and what's even creepiest out of the whole thing was the ending that left me sleeping with the lights on (of course I was younger at the time), but it still packs a punch.

    This movie is very hard to find and as I said it isn't officially released on DVD yet. If you really want to see this movie just look around for a copy on the internet, but good luck finding it. The only reason why I have it is because I bought a copy from a horror convention, and luckily it was very good quality. Anyways, you should really try to see this movie.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    August 27, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    Hilarious made-for-TV horror flick which has a family moving into a new home after the death of one of their girls. The dead girl haunts her sister and seems to compel her to kill off the entire family. There's some fun creative death scenes in this movie. I loved the banter betw... read moreeen the two sisters. Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper do not seem like a good match. Ruth Gordon makes a decent Grandma appearance. Oliver Robins plays the brother, and similar to his "Poltergeist" character. Don't expect any major gore or frights. It's a lot of fun, and considered an 80's cheesy classic.
  • John2223
    December 21, 2008
    John2223
    The direction and acting is good, as well as, the script.
    There´s not gore or violence in this movie. all is through suggestion but the movie succeeded at creating some creepy and tense moments specially by the end.
  • ileo
    July 16, 2008
    ileo
    A memorable one!
  • BenRogers84
    September 7, 2011
    BenRogers84
    Very eerie but enjoyable early 80's made for tv horror about a family who move into a new place to try and forget their dead daughter.
    Turns out she wants her sister to know that she's still around in spirit, so she likes to hide out under her bed and freak her right out by sayi... read moreng her name in the middle of the night.
    I've heard really good things about this and it lived up to the hype somewhat, I kinda felt like the movie was a little too long for the subject matter.
    I think it would have played better in a twilight zone type anthology show personally, but those are small sour grapes...the film in general is very good for what it is.
    Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver do a great job as the parents, Ruth Gordon was an amazing actress and does the stubborn old bitchy grandmother perfectly.
    Robin Ignico who played Mary did a great job looking terrified and Oliver Robins as Kevin (The little boy in Poltergeist) did a good job as the snot nose brat brother.
    The dead sister Jennifer played by Kristin Cummings was beautiful and creepy all at the same time, which is hard to do especially for a child actor.
    The family unit in this is very believable for a made for tv horror and I strongly suggest you watch this if you can find it, because I heard its out of print. This is a pretty good middle of the week watch and you could do alot worse as far as tv horror movies go.

    This also makes a good family horror movie because its not overly scary, no foul language and isn't really graphic...but is just creepy enough to be really enjoyable.

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