It’s time for another installment of Friday Night Features, your home for the web’s best horror shorts! This week, we’re taking another tour of the archives, going back to 1991 for Paul Berry’s Oscar-nominated horror short, The Sandman. Berry, who animated and directed this stop-motion film based on an 1816 German fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann, later went on to work on The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach before succumbing to a brain tumor at the age of 40.

The Sandman makes full use of its German pedigree, pairing stop motion animation with stark shadows and improbable angles to create a foreboding atmosphere that recalls early expressionist horror like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu. Why is the child in this film so afraid to go to bed? What horrors might the Sandman bring once the boy’s eyes begin to close?  Watch this week’s feature and find out, kittens!

(via filmsshort.com)

Related Posts:

– Friday Night Features: “The Cat with Hands”

– Friday Night Features: “Sebastian’s Voodoo”

– Friday Night Features: “Vincent”

Categories: Friday Night Features

Tags: animation, Cabinet of Dr Caligari, film, Friday Night Features, German Expressionism, halloween, horror, horror short, Nightmare Before Christmas, Nosferatu, oscars, Paul Berry, Sandman, short film