Blood Red Sandman

"Once again there is pain I bring flames, I bring cold I'm the Blood Red Sandman coming home On this unholy night I will make you my own Blood Red Sandman Coming home again I'm coming home again."

- The Blood Red Sandman singing the chorus of his song

The Blood Red Sandman is the protagonist and villain of the song of the same name by the Finnish band Lordi.

Biography
Not much is known about the Blood Red Sandman other than that he is a supernatural serial killer who comes out at night and seems to target children and kill them in their sleep as he invades their dreams. He then turns their dreams into what he calls The Monsterican Dream (which is also the title of the song's album). People who knew of his crimes called him "The Leather Apron" as well as "Smiling Jack". It's implied that his weapon of choice is, or at least similar to, a saw blade. According to him, he is coming back to the town he has haunted before to once again cause as much pain as possible.

Music Video
A music video for the song does not actually feature the character himself, but instead pays homage to the Evil Dead films. During the video, a trio of young people sort through old belongings in a shack, in a similar style to the one featured in The Evil Dead, at night. The door swings open, and they find a box containing a drawing of the lead singer, Mr. Lordi, the doll from a music video for another one of the band's songs, 'Would You Love a Monsterman?' and a tape, which starts to play when they plug it in. The male is throttled by an invisible force, (which is one of the band members, Kalma, who can only be seen through the super 8 film camera the male drops). One of the females is also dragged into the closet to her doom, by the guitarist, Amen. The band then appears, and, magically chaining the second female to a rocking chair, continue to sing the song. Her friends appear again, as zombies (with the female looking somewhat similar to the deadite, Linda), who join in singing the song. The band continues until the second female unplugs the cassette player with her foot. She opens her eyes, only to find the band and zombies have disappeared, and she is no longer chained to the chair. As she gets up off the chair and looks around, Mr. Lordi attacks her from behind (seen through the lens of the camera) just as the camera runs out of film.

Possible Identities
There has been much speculation as to who or what the Blood Red Sandman is:
 * He is a demon who comes to earth from time to time to haunt and kill children.
 * He is a demonic Sandman.
 * He is the ghost of a deceased serial killer who is invading the dreams of the children of the town where he started his killing spree back when he was alive. This may be hinted by the lyrics "I'm coming home again".
 * He is Jack the Ripper- due to him being referred to as "The Leather Apron" and "Smiling Jack".
 * He is Freddy Krueger- this is the most widely accepted theory due to the fact that he targets children and kills his victims in their dreams, just as Freddy did. When describing his weapon of choice (chills of fear like a saw blade cutting deep), it's possible that they may actually be using the saw blade as a comparison to Freddy's razor claws on his glove he often killed people with. Had the song's original title, "Blood Red Santa", been used, it could have still been about Freddy Krueger, possibly as a way of referencing Wes Craven's New Nightmare, in which the character was compared to Santa Claus at one point in the film. Also, given one of his nick names is "The Leather Apron", this could also be used as another term to describe Freddy's glove, considering it was made of leather. There's also the fact that Freddy killed people in ways somewhat similar to how Jack the Ripper killed his victims. So to compare the two would be understandable.
 * Despite the fact that the title of the song was changed, some still believe that he is a demonic Santa Claus, most likely due to the lyrics, "on this unholy night, I will make you my own". This may imply that he kills during Christmas.
 * He is the character of the lead singer, Mr. Lordi- given that he is the one who sings the song in the music video, and the actual Sandman himself supposedly doesn't appear. Though whether or not he was simply just narrating the Sandman's life through song in a first person perspective is up to speculation.

Trivia

 * Blood_Red_Santa.jpgnally, the song was titled "Blood Red Santa", but Asko Kallonen from BMG Finland thought it was inappropriate for a Christmas hit and many people said they would ban it because it painted a violent image of Santa. So Mr. Lordi decided to change the title to "Blood Red Sandman" which he felt worked just as well with the song.