It’s been almost 30 years since The DC comic The Sandman, and it’s taken all of this time to adapt it for film or TV. Dream (Tom Sturridge) controls the dreams of everyone on earth, and has always wished that humans thought that what worlds they entered when they slept was considered equally with their waking hours. His assistant Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong) tells him that nightmares seem to stick with humans more than dreams. In Berlin, occultist Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) is paid a visit by John Hathaway (Bill Paterson). Burgess promises that, with the spell book Hathaway brought, he can cast a spell to capture the Angel of Death and force him to bring back both of their sons. His son Randall, in front of his youngest son Alex (Benjamin Ainsworth), died in battle and Roderick thinks capturing Death can get him back. Dream is on earth, chasing down The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), a creation of his who is using nightmares to kill people. Dream is about to eliminate him, when an incantation makes him disappear instead. Burgess’ spell worked, sort of: Instead of capturing the Angel of Death, Dream is the one who’s now in captivity, which is where he stays for 100 years, refusing to acquiesce to Burgess’ greedy requests. A decade later, an adult Alex (Laurie Kynaston) has had enough of kowtowing to his cruel father, who orders his girlfriend Ethel Cripps (Niamh Walsh) to have an abortion. But that doesn’t prompt Alex to release Dream, but when he’s an old man, and not only is the circle that keeps Dream captured “accidentally” broken, we also see what happens when he invades people’s dreams.