The Uncanny Reigns Supreme in Stellar Debut ‘Life at Sandy’s’ [Popcorn Frights Review]

Strange as this may sound, Seth MacFarlane’s American Dad features some of the best genre-adjacent, uncanny half-hours of television this generation. There are terrifying, voyeuristic bottle-episodes about motel-peeping, a familial loss of self on account of nuts, and, my own personal favorite, an episode where family patriarch Stan is sucked into a secondhand television set to live among the cast of a 1960s show titled “Nighthawks.” It’s an earnest, wholly serious riff on The Twilight Zone, one that potently augurs the allure and appeal of comfort television and the insidious nature of mass media consumption. Aleksandra Hansen’s Life at Sandy’s reminded me a lot of that episode, and I mean that in the most complimentary of terms.

Heather Cunningham, excellent in the lead, stars as Evelyn. She’s bereaved and isolated in Norway. She doesn’t speak the language, she doesn’t have a job, and after the death of her mother, she’s left listless and largely unprepared to go out into the world on her own. Her Aunt Marit (Marianne Løge) is a pulverizing force, compelling Evelyn to do something with the firm hand of a drill sergeant. In Norway, no one will hear you grieve.

Hansen’s feature debut is largely experimental, an exercise in proximity and character. Life at Sandy’s clocks in at just about 75 minutes, and Hansen, pulling from the greats like Lynch and Kurosawa, makes little effort to expound on how the titular show operates. You see, Evelyn, much like her mother, is drawn to an uncanny Friends pantomime that airs at all hours. Life at Sandy’s is equipped with the sheen of ‘90s multi-camera sitcoms, a lovable cast of goofs, and that enduring laugh track underscoring the antics and hijinks of its main players.