Directed by Mick Garris Ion Pictures/Victor & Grais In case you thought the problem with movies made from S. King novels and stories was the difficulty in translating to the silver screen either their length and heft (IT, The Stand, The Dead Zone, etc.) or their sometimes dodgy supernatural motifs (Christine, say), I have bad … Continue reading Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers (1992)
directed by Mark Pavia New Amsterdam Entertainment™ Incorporated/Stardust International Ltd./Medusa Film S.p.A Based on an S. King short story I hadn’t read – it’s in Nightmares & Dreamscapes, the titles of which mainly don’t ring a bell, with the exception of “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band,” which I recall detesting – … Continue reading The Night Flier aka Stephen King’s The Night Flier (1997)
directed by kevin KÖlsch & Dennis widmyer di bonaventura pictures To its credit, here are some things this unbidden remake of an unloved movie doesn’t contain: Song-and-dance routines Postmodernism Dragons Folksy narration Superheroes A blaring “modern rock” soundtrack Auto-Tune That it also lacks any explanation for its existence is unimportant, since isn’t that the linchpin … Continue reading Pet Sematary (2019)
directed by larry cohen larco Productions/420 demons As this picture began to unspool, I didn’t know if I’d be able to stand it, because once we reach the town of Jerusalem’s Lot, the production quality (acting, costumes, props, makeup) takes a severe nosedive – and it was iffy from the get-go. I persevered, however, and was … Continue reading A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)
directed by tod williams the genre company/benaroya pictures When the novel upon which this film is based was first published, I was in one of my periodic phases where I was not interested in reading any more goddamn Stephen King novels, besides which I thought it sounded pretty stupid, given that it seemed a little … Continue reading Cell (2016)
directed by andy muschietti new line cinema I … have read over 60 Stephen King books – which is to say, most of them. IT is one of my favorites, so I am perhaps biased in my abjuration of this werewolf picture. But what makes the book work is the relationships of the “Losers’ Club” kids – … Continue reading IT (2017)
directed by tobe hooper distant horizon/filmex (pty) ltd/allied film productions You’d THINK that a story about a bloodthirsty industrial laundry machine – Box Office Mojo: “A laundry-folding machine has been possessed by a demon, causing it to develop homicidal tendencies” – would be a premise stupid enough to satisfy most people, but Tobe Hooper apparently … Continue reading The Mangler (1995)
directed by mike flanagan intrepid pictures/vertigo entertainment As a no-longer-practicing alcoholic, I found a lot of S. King‘s The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep all too grimly realistic, even if I felt the underlying tale of the “psychic vampires” who sustain themselves by torturing children to death – no, really, that’s the impetus of the plot … Continue reading Doctor Sleep (2019)
SPACE RATS From Outer Space 