An opening tracking view of a mountainous lunar landscape and the title card (“The Sandman”), both accompanied by menacing musical cues, dissolve into an unearthly crescent moon and an establishing exterior view of a nighttime household which could be (based upon details like a round tower, half-timbering and mullion windows) medieval Europe. Inside, a woman sews by the fireplace and a small pale boy, perhaps her son, beats noisily on a toy drum. A cuckoo clock strikes 8:00 (the “cuckoo” is a skeletal death figure) and the woman sets down her sewing, takes the boy’s drum away, gives him a small oil lamp and, with a pat on the head, dispatches him off to climb a dark and ludicrously lengthy series of staircases to bed. The child's tremulous ascent is attended by every sort of scary, creakin