Category Archives: Stephen King Films
MISERY
MISERY-United States-1990
James Caan as Paul Sheldon
Frances Sternhagen as Virginia
Richard Farnsworth as Buster
Lauren Bacall as Marcia Sindell
Directed by Rob Reiner
Screenplay by William Goldman
Based on the novel by Stephen King
“Misery” is a movie that I’ve watched only twice in the twenty-two years since its release. I don’t hate the movie; in fact I thought it was actually one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel at the time of its premiere and I still think that’s true. I believe that King played off of his own fears as a best-selling author in meeting his fans. There are people out there who are very much like Annie Wilkes; people who take everything that is written to heart and don’t take too well to drastic changes in their favorite characters. Some even go so far as to not understand the line between reality and fantasy.nuttymadam3575 and her “H0w could you do this, Kristen?” rant comes to mind. If you don’t believe me just check out her YouTube channel. Trust me, she’s not the only fan (atic) and “Twilight” is not the only movie with fans who have more crackers and less cheese.
But I digress a bit. Let’s get on with the story. Paul Sheldon (James Caan, “The Godfather”, and “Rollerball”) is a highly successful novelist of the Misery Chastain Victorian romance novels. You’ve seen the type of books; a heaving beauty of bodacious décolletage graces the cover and inside is a plot that is interchangeable with any of the other books in the series. Sheldon crashes his car, and himself, and is rescued by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates, “Primary Colors”, “About Schmidt”), a former nurse who takes Paul in to her home because she’s his ‘number one fan’. Every time Annie says this you can see that there are lot of big honking bats in that belfry of hers. She’s not so much a fan of Paul Sheldon as she is of his creation, Misery Chastain. In fact, when she discovers that Paul has killed Misery off; she goes completely over the edge. She wants him to bring Misery back and will stop at nothing to see that he does just that. Do you remember I said I’ve only seen this movie once? There’s a reason for that; I happen to like my ankles and do not wish to cause them harm, imaginary or otherwise. If you’ve seen the movie you know exactly what I’m talking about.
“Misery” succeeds as an adaptation for two reasons: strong performances from the leads and a strong adaptation of the novel from screenwriter William Goldman (“Marathon Man”). James Caan is excellent as Paul Sheldon. I’ve liked the guy ever since he was Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather” and he has never disappointed me since.
But it is Kathy Bates who is the centerpiece of this film. A relative unknown when the film was released, Bates made Annie Wilkes her own character and gives one of the most terrifying performances in the history of cinema. No character she has portrayed since then has held a candle to Annie Wilkes. The Oscar for Best Actress wasn’t given to her, she earned it.
I also must give mention of Rob Reiner and the admirable job he does behind the camera. “Misery” is a movie that could have easily slipped into parody and Reiner never allows that to happen. Also, Richard Farnsworth is good as Buster, the near-solitary voice of reason and sanity in the film.
Revisiting “Misery” brings a smile to my face. That seems weird to say, but it’s true.
TRIVIA
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- Kathy Bates recovering from double mastectomy (metronews.ca)
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THINNER
THINNER-United States-1996
Robert John Burke as Billy Halleck
Joe Mantegna as Richie Ginelli
Michael Constantine as Tadzu Lempke
Kari Wuhrer as Gina Lempke
Directed by Tom Holland
Screenplay by Michael McDowell and Tom Holland
Based on the novel by Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman
THE FAT
Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke, “Robocop 3“, and “Limitless”) is a small town lawyer with a big appetite and the girth to show for it. He’s so fat, in fact, that his wife worries for his health and is continually monitoring his caloric intake. After Billy successfully defends crime boss Richie ‘The Hammer’ Ginelli (Joe Mantegna, “The Godfather Part III“, “Criminal Minds“), he takes her out to dinner to celebrate. On the drive home, she does something for Billy to help take his mind off of food. I don’t want to be crude, so let’s just say it starts with the unzipping of his pants and you can use your imagination for the rest. It’s kind of sad, though; Billy forgot car sex rule number one: keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel*. Caught up in the moment, Billy runs down an old gypsy woman, killing her. One mock trial later, with his friend the judge residing and his pal the traffic cop testifying (lying), Billy walks away without points even being taken off his license. If only it were that easy. With the stroke of his hand on Billy’s cheek and the whisper of a word, “Thinner”, the old gypsy king Tadzu Lempke puts a curse on Billy. As the days go by, Billy loses weight at a rapid pace. Not wanting to believe that Lempke put a curse on him until it’s too late, Billy does what any normal red-blooded American asshole would do; he blames his wife and her ‘oral talent’ for his predicament. Suspecting her of infidelity, first Billy wants the curse removed. Then he wants revenge.
THE SKINNY
“Thinner” is not a movie that I would include in my top ten list. It’s not even a movie I would want if I were stranded on a desert island. By all standards it’s not even a good movie. It’s overacted and directed with too much emphasis on tongue in cheek humor than on the main message of the story; revenge is a dish that is best served cold, but it should never be served at all. Revenge is not justice and it will not bring the dead back to life. Add all that to the fact that you don’t feel sympathy to any character in the movie and you have a recipe for disaster. With all that said, why do I find myself coming back time and again to this movie? It can’t be because I’m a Stephen King fan because I’m not. I like the majority of what he writes; but I don’t go bonkers every time the guy puts out a new book or movie. I can’t even call “Thinner” a guilty pleasure because I don’t feel one bit guilty about it. Despite everything my brain tells me, I like this movie. End of story.
TRIVIA
Director Tom Holland wasn’t happy with the ending; the producers changed the original one (which was faithful to the novel) because every test audience hated it.
Stephen King: the author appears as Dr. Bangor (Bangor, Maine, is where King lives).
UNRELATED TRIVIA
Robert John Burke (Billy Halleck) spent several days at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, assisting with search and rescue. He has since become a certified New York State firefighter.
*My apologies to Jim Morrison and The Doors for lifting from ‘Roadhouse Blues’.
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STEPHEN KING’S SILVER BULLET
STEPHEN KING’S SILVER BULLET-United States-1985
Gary Busey as Uncle Red
Everett McGill as Reverend Lowe
Directed by Daniel Attias
Screenplay by Stephen King
Based on the novella “Cycle of the Werewolf” by Stephen King
I used to read Stephen King’s books as if my very life depended on it. I literally soaked up every word of every page. Carrie, The Shining, Christine I loved each and every one of them. But I was always a little disappointed. Mr. King wrote about vampires, telekinetic teenagers, clairvoyant schoolteachers and even a haunted 1958 Plymouth Fury. But he seemed to avoid my favorite supernatural beastie, the werewolf.
Then along came a little book entitled Cycle of the Werewolf. Finally, King had penned a tiny masterpiece of lycanthropic literature. Even the premise of the story was a winner. He based the werewolf’s attacks on the lunar cycles as they tuned in with all the holidays. But the real kicker was the illustrations. Not just any illustrations, mind you; these were drawn by none other than comic book artist extraordinaire, Bernie Wrightson! Can you imagine my pleasure? I devoured that little book in one sitting.
Now, cut to a few years later when I find out there was going to be a movie based on COTW*. I was more excited than a ‘virgin on prom night’ (quote from the movie). I was ready for this one, ladies and gentlemen. Bring it on! Ah-ooooo! Werewolf time!
If this article were a movie, now would be the time where everyone is all excited and then all of a sudden you hear that sound effect of a needle scratching across a record player signaling the end of that spontaneous joy. For everything that Cycle of the Werewolf is, Silver Bullet is not. What makes it even worse is that King wrote the screenplay based on his own work. What was he thinking?
The story still revolves around paraplegic pre-teen Marty Coslaw and his discovery of a werewolf in the little town of Tarker’s Mills. Marty is portrayed by the late Corey Haim, who back in 1985 was the teen heartthrob of the day. You could pretty much see his face on the cover of Tiger Beat and 16 magazines all the time, so he was a good choice for the role of Marty as he brought a familiar face to draw the young crowd into the theater. On the feminine side, we have Megan Follows cast as Marty’s sister. To say that Megan pretty much acts rings around the grown-ups would be a gross understatement. Follows is reliable in everything she appears in and Silver Bullet is no exception.
Then we come to Gary Busey as Uncle Red. Is there an actor more qualified for the title of “Goofy as a Corn Dog”? Well, wait, there’s Charlie Sheen, so I take that back. With Busey in Silver Bullet, you have an actor who is at the end of his career as a bankable commodity. It’s too bad, really, because the man can act. As Uncle Red (Uncle Al in the novella), Busey achieves a camaraderie with the two young co-stars that is a wonder to behold. He’s good, dammit.
So, my problem is not with the acting. My problem with Silver Bullet lies in the telling of the tale. King tries to make the town of Tarker’s Mills the kind of place where everybody knows everybody and nobody has any secrets. He tries so hard to make the people of the town seem real to us that the more he tries the more they seem like actors in a movie.
The werewolf attacks are completely predictable. Each victim is foreshadowed long before their deaths. You just know the pregnant girl is going to get it. You secretly thank the beast for doing away with the loudmouth redneck. Unless you’re a six year old kid there’s just no excitement to it. Don’t even get me started on the way the werewolf looks, either. Just think Cujo meets E.T. the Extraterrestrial and you have a pretty good idea of how bad he looks. Topping it all off, there is this horrible ’80′s music from some band that doesn’t know whether it wants to be Dire Straits or Kajagoogoo.
If you love Stephen King, werewolves and scary shit, avoid Silver Bullet. If you still want to see it after all I’ve told you then don’t say I didn’t warn you.
TRIVIA
Early drafts of the film’s script, including the pressbook release, it stated that the werewolf speaks. In the actual film itself, the werewolf does not speak at anytime.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis was very unhappy with the werewolf used in the film. He was disappointed in both the way it looked and the way the costumed actor moved. This proved to be a bit of an insult to the actor wearing the suit as he was an accomplished modern dancer and was hired specifically for his movement skills.
Shooting started without a proper werewolf suit.
COTW stands for Cycle of the Werewolf and not Compulsive Obsessive Transvestites in Walgreens. Just so you know.
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CARRIE
CARRIE-United States-1976
Sissy Spacek
John Travolta as Billy Nolan
Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen
Amy Irving as Sue Snell
William Katt as Tommy Ross
Piper Laurie as Margaret White
I graduated in 1980. I was a decent student; I got fair grades, and I had enough friends that I could put up with and whom would put up with me. I dated a few girls here and there. I never went to prom, however. Looking back, I wonder if Carrie had anything to do with that. In fact, looking back at the film in the thirty-six years since its release, one could view Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel as the perfect anti-bullying propaganda film.
Sissy Spacek is phenomenal in the titular role of Carrie White, the young girl whose life sucks worse than Battlefield Earth (pointless L. Ron Hubbard jab and shameless John Travolta film reference). Not only does she put up with the day to day torment forced on her by her peers (PLUG IT UP!! PLUG IT UP!!), but she has to go home to an over-zealous religious freak of a mother who locks her in a closet with a hideous looking glow-in-the-dark figure of Jesus. Add getting dowsed in pig blood and it’s no wonder she goes the Psychic Friends Network version of sex-nuts and retard-strong (equally shameless Clerks 2 reference).
I’m not entirely sure if Carrie is Brian De Palma’s best film. I still need to re-watch Blow Out and Dressed to Kill before I make that call. I will say, however, that it is truly one of his most ambitious films and that after nearly forty years is still one of the best interpretations of a Stephen King novel ever put to celluloid.
TRIVIA
Sissy Spacek wasn’t considered for the role of Carrie until her husband, art director Jack Fisk, convinced director Brian De Palma to allow her to audition. Until that, De Palma was wedded to the idea of Amy Irving playing Carrie; when Spacek got the part instead, De Palma gave Irving the smaller role of Sue.
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CHRISTINE
CHRISTINE-United States-1983
Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham
Alexandra Paul as Leigh Cabot
John Stockwell as Dennis Guilder
Roberts Blossom as Roland LeBay
Directed by John Carpenter
Screenplay by Bill Phillips
Based on the novel by Stephen King
Now we come to Stephen King’s Christine. Oops, hold on, wait a minute, that’s not entirely accurate. If I were talking about the masterful novel by the aforementioned Mr. King that statement would be correct. But I’m not; I’m talking about John Carpenter’s Christine, screenplay by Bill Phillips. We’re talking about a movie that took everything that was cool about King’s novel and threw it in the garbage; this is one of the absolute lowest moments in the career of John Carpenter. The fact that it comes one year after the sci-fi horror masterpiece The Thing makes it all the more a complete failure. With this film Carpenter has taken three steps backward instead of one giant leap forward. If Carpenter and Phillips had only followed the novel he would had one of the scariest and one of the goriest horror films ever put to celluloid. Instead he has a shell of a film that only succeeds in making him look like a non-collaborative egotist. The main thing that Christine the film does right is in representing the love triangle between the nerd cum stud Arnie Cunningham, the beautiful Leigh Cabot and the evil 1958 Plymouth Fury, Christine. I got the same impression about Arnie from watching the movie that I did from reading the book and that was that if he were given the means and the opportunity he would have had sex with that damn car. Not the girl, the car. Other than that I found nothing with which to compare the two. I know what you’re thinking. What about the way the car could re-assemble itself and the way it killed all of Arnie’s enemies? Well, what about it? The deaths are so tame a Pinto could have committed them. For instance, in the novel the death of Moochie Welch is so brutal and bloody it stayed with me for days. Christine repeatedly runs over him until he’s nothing but human hamburger. In the movie it crushes him against a wall and there’s not one ounce of blood. I’m not saying the gore was the best part of the book, but it was a very important part of it and it should have been part of the movie. You know what? I’m ranting. The bottom line is that Christine the movie is a failure that should never have happened. If only the King had been involved; things would have been so much different.
TRIVIA
Scott Baio was considered to play Arnie Cunningham and Brooke Shields was considered for Leigh Cabot. But the film makers involved all felt the movie would be better served by casting “unknowns”.
Arnie’s nemesis, Detective Rudolph Junkins, also drives a Plymouth Fury. The car Detective Rudolph Junkins is driving when he meets Arnie in the high-school parking lot is a 1977 or 1978 Plymouth Fury – a popular police car of the late 1970s.
As a joke, Alexandra Paul’s twin sister, Caroline Paul, stood in for her during some scenes, most notably the ride on the bulldozer.
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PET SEMATARY
PET SEMATARY-United States-1989
Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed
Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed
Miko Hughes as Gage Creed
Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall
Brad Greenquist as Victor Pascow
Why in the hell is Stephen King’s novel Pet Sematary better than the movie? They’re both creepy as hell and both contain some pretty effective scares. Shoot, King even wrote both the book and the screenplay. So why is the movie not better or even equally as good as the book? It’s because it doesn’t have the scene in it.
The scene is that part of a book that is so scary or so creepy that you just know that it has to be in the movie exactly the way it was written. For Pet Sematary, it’s when Gage Creed comes back from the dead and has a confrontation with old Judd Crandall. Last time he saw Gage was before he’d been hit by a semi and splattered all over a Maine highway. Judd’s ready for him; he knows this isn’t any cute little two year old coming back to see him. This Gage is something straight from Hell itself. What he doesn’t realize is that Gage has brought back-up in the voice of Judd’s recently deceased wife, Norma. The creepiness level begins to rise when dear, departed Norma tells Judd that she was a whore the entire time they were married and that she even ‘rutted’ with a few of Judd’s friends. Now they’re all in hell and they’re laughing their asses off at old Judd. It’s bad enough to lose your wife, but when she talks to you from beyond the grave and tells you things you sure as shit don’t want to hear, that’s when it gets real damn creepy. That was the scene in Pet Sematary the novel.
Unfortunately it is nowhere to be found in the movie. Judd’s wife is nowhere to be found in the movie. Because of this the film feels watered down, a sort of Pet Sematary Lite. The acting is decent; what we’ve come to expect from a Stephen King film. It’s still scary, but without the scene it’s just not the same.
TRIVIA
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CUJO
CUJO-United States-1983
Dee Wallace as Donna Trenton
Danny Pintauro as Tad Trenton
Daniel Hugh-Kelly as Vic Trenton
For a long period of time it seemed like every writer or director or producer worth his salt was trying their best to put a Stephen King novel on the silver screen. As fast as King shat them from the keys of his word processor, the faster the studios processed them and made them (somewhat) palatable for us to swallow up alongside our money and our sodas and popcorn. I’m not going to lie; I was one of the millions of people who spent their dough on films like The Dead Zone, Christine, Children of the Corn and this one, Cujo.
Now, like all the other films, I read Cujo before sitting in the darkness of a theater to watch it. The one thing that stood out for me about the novel was that it was the first one of his books that I found myself becoming bored with. I just didn’t buy keeping the mother and her child trapped in this sweltering hot car for over a hundred pages. There’s only so much you can do with that small of a setting and King should have put it to rest after thirty pages, give or take a page or two. So, when I heard that there was going to be a film adaptation I began to wonder how they were going to pull this off. That is when I learned that great editing and great acting make for wonderful bedfellows. The film Cujo is just the opposite of the book in that it bogs down before they’re trapped in the car. I found myself not giving a damn about the fact that she had an affair or that the dad’s job was on the line because people were throwing up blue stuff or whatever color they were puking. I wanted to see what was going to happen when this huge, rabid Saint Bernard finally had this mother and her child trapped in that tiny little Pinto. In the hands of a lesser actress, the entire thing would have been a complete failure. Dee Wallace has always been one of the most capable and dependable actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching and Cujo is no exception. But it wasn’t just Wallace, but also Danny Pintauro as young Tad Trenton who impressed me within the confines of that Pinto. His performance is one of the best I have seen from a child star.
So, is Cujo the movie better than Cujo the book? Well, seeing as how I could very easily piss off a lot of tried and true bona fide hardcore Stephen King fans, I’ll just say that Cujo the movie is…
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THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-United States-1994
Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne
Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding
Bob Gunton as Warden Norton
William Sadler as Heywood
Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley
Gil Bellows as Tommy
James Whitmore as Brooks Hatlen
Directed by Frank Darabont
Screenplay by Frank Darabont
Based on the novella ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’ by Stephen King
I imagine that I will raise a few eyebrows with this one. People will wonder why I would decide to review a film like this. The truth is, I don’t have a clear answer for why I’m doing it. It’s definitely not a horror film, is it? Maybe not, not in the sense of what we have come to know makes a horror film just that. There’s no vampires, no ghouls. There is not one damn supernatural thing in this entire film. So, maybe we should look at it from a different perspective. I’m not going to explain t he plot to you. Hell, the movie plays every two hours on Turner Broadcasting or TNT or whatever it’s called these days. I don’t think there is a soul on this planet who hasn’t seen or heard of The Shawshank Redemption. It is as close to a Michaelangelo as you ever going to get on the silver screen or in the comfort of your living room. But, I still haven’t said why I include it here, of all places, in a horror film blog.
Maybe it’s because I know what it’s like to be accused of something you didn’t do. No, I didn’t kill anybody. My crime was something I supposedly said that someone took way out of context. But I’m not here to air my dirty laundry; I’m here to talk about a masterpiece. What is even more terrifying than being accused of something you didn’t do is to be punished for something you didn’t do. Prison to an innocent man is the same as when you were a child and you were sent to bed without your supper for some unknown infraction. You cry and you wail, but finally you resign yourself to your fate and you go to sleep.
Andy Dufresne is an innocent man. We don’t know it at first, but we come to realize it. The difference between Andy and a child are that Andy never resigns himself to his fate. Year after year after year after year he never once loses hope. His friend Red says that hope is a dangerous thing, that it can drive a man insane. Andy knows better. he knows that there is nothing more horrifying than to lose hope. Get busy living or get busy dying, those are his words.
So, I hope those reasons are good enough as to why I chose to review this film. If not, then how about I leave you with this reason…
…it’s a damn fine movie.
Trivia
In Stephen King’s original story, Red was written as a white Irishman. In the movie, they left the line, “Maybe it’s ’cause I’m Irish”, in as a joke, even after they had cast Morgan Freeman as Red.
Stephen King has said that his original novella, which the film very faithfully adapts, was a culmination of all the memories he had from watching prison movies when he was a child.
Director Frank Darabont watched Goodfellas (1990) every Sunday while shooting Shawshank and drew inspiration from it on using voice-over narration and showing the passage of time.
In the scene where Andy arrives in the library as Brooks’ assistant and Brooks’ crow Jake is squawking, Tim Robbins had to time his line, “Hey, Jake. Where’s Brooks?”, so that the crow wouldn’t squawk over his line, since the bird could not be trained to squawk on cue. Robbins was able to adapt to this and time his line perfectly from learning the bird’s patterns in squawking, for which Director Frank Darabont praised him. Robbins’s improvisation is noticeable, and we can see that when he walks into the room right up to the crow, he waits a short moment for it to squawk while looking at it, and then proceeds with his line after it does so.
THE GREEN MILE
THE GREEN MILE-United States-1999
Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb
Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey
David Morse as Brutus 'Brutal' Howell
Doug Hutchison as Percy Wetmore
Sam Rockwell as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
Michael Jeter as Eduard Delacroix
James Cromwell as Warden Hal Moores
Bonnie Hunt as Jan Edgecomb
Directed by Frank Darabont
Screenplay by Frank Darabont
Based on the novel by Stephen King
To be honest, I’m not really sure why I’m reviewing this film. Aside from the supernatural element of John Coffey’s (“Like the drink. Only not spelled the same.”) ability to heal people; and perhaps the rather gruesome execution scenes, you can’t really call this film a horror film, can you? Well, it was written by Stephen King. Maybe that should count for something.
Micheal Clarke Duncan is John Coffey, a behemoth of a man who has just arrived at Cold Mountain Penitentiary during the hot summer of 1935. He is the latest inmate to arrive there to be placed on death row, or ‘the green mile’ as it is aptly named for the color of it’s linoleum floors. He has been convicted of brutally murdering two little girls. But there is far more to John Coffey than there first appears to be. He has the gift of healing. Tom Hanks is Paul Edgecomb, the officer in charge of Coffey and the rest of the inmates on the mile. The impact that Coffey makes on Paul will last him for the rest of his life.
You don’t have to be a theologian to see that there are parallels between John Coffey and Jesus Christ. Even the initials (J.C.) are the same. They both have the power to heal and both make an impact on the lives of the people they touch. There are other reasons, but I don’t want to go into detail about them as will spoil the ending.
The cast of The Green Mile is one of the finest I have ever seen in any film. Tom Hanks gives his best performance as an actor in his role as Paul Edgecomb. Hanks has a quality not unlike that of the late James Stewart and that has never been more evident than here. Michael Clarke Duncan is perfectly cast as John Coffey. He plays Coffey as a man-child who does his best to see the good in people even though it’s not always possible. David Morse, Bonnie Hunt and Michael Jeter are all very good, as is James Cromwell.
But it’s Doug Hutchison and Sam Rockwell who give the best performances in the film. Hutchison is a sadistic guard who takes pleasure in tormenting the inmates at every turn. He is so heartless that it is his dream to stand in front during an execution. Not because he earned the position, but because he takes pleasure in watching a man die.
Sam Rockwell steals every scene he appears in as ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton, a death row inmate the likes of which Cold Mountain Penitentiary has never seen before. Wharton is the perfect yang to Coffey’s yin and the devilish foil to Hutchison’s sadistic Percy Wetmore.
Maybe The Green Mile isn’t a horror film. Maybe it is. I guess it just depends on how you look at it.
Trivia
In actuality, Michael Clarke Duncan is of a similar height as his co-star David Morse and is a couple inches shorter than James Cromwell. Among other things, creative camera angles were used to create the illusion that Duncan as John Coffey towered over the prison staff, even Brutal Howell and Warden Moores.
The prison guards wear uniforms to give the movie a better feel, even though uniforms weren’t in use at the time in which the movie is set.
When Stephen King visited the set he asked to be strapped into Old Sparky to see how it felt. He didn’t like it and asked to be released.
