Posts Tagged ‘Stephen King’

Desperation

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Stephen King’s Desperation was a great book.  He seems to be focused on the good vs. evil thing a lot lately in his most recent books.  Desperation is about a whacked out cop that kills everyone in his small town and captures a drunk, a family, a woman and her husband and a writer.

The stoy centers on their escape from the deranged cop, possessed by a demon (well they never actually say what Tak is, but I’m going to call it a demon, and their fight to destroy Tak.  Tak is uncovered after a collapsed mine is reopened releasing Tak, the unformed, and uleashing its destruction on the small mining town.

David, played by Shane Haboucha, is the oldest child of the Carver family.  The story centers around his relationship with God and his desire to do good in a bad situation.  David is confused, as any young child would be, when his sister is killed and God asks him to rescue the others and destroy Tak.

Stephen King’s storytelling has never been better.  The duel between good and evil is great and so is the story line.  The movie drags a little in parts, but mostly this is a solid movie, particularly one that was released on TV instead of the big screen.  Solid acting and great storyline make this a movie worth renting.

This is a must see.  I would give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Salem’s Lot

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

From Wikipedia:

‘Salem’s Lot is a 1975 horror novel written by Stephen King, and was the author’s second published novel. The title King originally chose for his book was Second Coming, but he later decided on Jerusalem’s Lot. The publishers, Doubleday, shortened it to the current title, thinking the author’s choice sounded too religious.

The novel has been adapted into a television mini-series twice, first in 1979 and years later in 2004. The novel was also adapted by the BBC as a seven part radio play in 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/’Salem’s_Lot

Mark’s thoughts on this movie:

We chose to start with this movie to review mostly because this was one of the first horror movies that Toby and I watched together. We have a real thing for vampire flicks and this is a good one. The book is better, by far, but the made-for-tv movie wasn’t a bad adaption. This movie has always kind of given me the chills. The thought of the way this vampire-virus might spread through a small town is compelling. We are talking here about the 1979 version and not the newer one in 2004 – we might review that one later, but as I’ve read the book about 12 times and have watched the movie at least that many in the last 4 years we’ll stick with this one first.

One of my favorite parts in this movie is when the good doctor, played by Ed Flanders and Ben Mears played by Starsky and Hutch star, David Soul go to the morgue to see if a woman who they believe to have been bitten by a vampire would rise from the dead or not.

The vampires are a bit hokey by todays standards, but the movie seems to move along quite well and the acting is OK for a TV movie. I’m a huge fan of this movie. Its not the best vampire ever made – I’d leave that to Vampires by John Carpenter (the original – not the follow-ups), but this movie tends to do a pretty good job of following a pretty good book.

The other thing I like about this movie is that it seems to be one of the few films based on a Stephen King novel (except maybe Carrie, Firestarter, Coojo and IT) that really flows well. I mean the movie seems to take out all of the extra fluff from the book and really moves through the scenes with intesity.

If you haven’t seen the original Salem’s Lot, you should. It makes for a great night curled up on the couch with your significant other.

I’d give this one an 8 out of 10 stars.

What are your thoughts Toby? What about our visitors? Any comments from the peanut gallery?

Click on the link below if you wish to purchase From Dusk Till Dawn.