STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Darcy (Joan Allen) and Bob Anderson (Anthony LaPaglia) appear like the perfect married couple, with their several children all having done quite well for themselves and one even preparing to tie the knot. And Darcy has no reason to think this is anything but reality- until she learns of a spate of murders of young women around the local area and then, one night to her sheer terror, discovers Bob is the perpetrator. This explosive secret sets the pair on a devastating collision course while a frail detective (Stephen Lang) follows their trail.
I always feel awkward watching a Stephen King film before I've read the novel it's sourced from, because I'd rather it was that I'd read his story first (and got the best experience) than watch the film and know what happens in the book. Ah, but if the man himself wrote the screenplay as well, even though he already wrote the book it's adapted from, then that kind of makes it better then, doesn't it? As is the case with this adaptation of a short story from one of his novellas, although how he managed to make something so challenging so short, I don't know.
It's the sort of thing that could only have come from his far fetched, twisted mind, and the tone is as dark as the subject matter decrees it should be, which makes it an uneasy, unsettling journey into something that takes a dark imagination to enjoy. That said, it is also genuinely suspenseful, in that you are really unsure how it will play out or what the outcome will be. Stern, solid lead performances from Allen and LaPaglia also help, as almost the sole focus of the developing material. Some suspension of disbelief is inevitably required at times, and it doesn't ever come off as being quite as seat edge as it could have been, but it's well done enough in other aspects to gloss over this.
With something so small scale, it might be harder for many to see King as his darkest, but for those that can seek this out, it's a pretty good catch. ***
Darcy (Joan Allen) and Bob Anderson (Anthony LaPaglia) appear like the perfect married couple, with their several children all having done quite well for themselves and one even preparing to tie the knot. And Darcy has no reason to think this is anything but reality- until she learns of a spate of murders of young women around the local area and then, one night to her sheer terror, discovers Bob is the perpetrator. This explosive secret sets the pair on a devastating collision course while a frail detective (Stephen Lang) follows their trail.
I always feel awkward watching a Stephen King film before I've read the novel it's sourced from, because I'd rather it was that I'd read his story first (and got the best experience) than watch the film and know what happens in the book. Ah, but if the man himself wrote the screenplay as well, even though he already wrote the book it's adapted from, then that kind of makes it better then, doesn't it? As is the case with this adaptation of a short story from one of his novellas, although how he managed to make something so challenging so short, I don't know.
It's the sort of thing that could only have come from his far fetched, twisted mind, and the tone is as dark as the subject matter decrees it should be, which makes it an uneasy, unsettling journey into something that takes a dark imagination to enjoy. That said, it is also genuinely suspenseful, in that you are really unsure how it will play out or what the outcome will be. Stern, solid lead performances from Allen and LaPaglia also help, as almost the sole focus of the developing material. Some suspension of disbelief is inevitably required at times, and it doesn't ever come off as being quite as seat edge as it could have been, but it's well done enough in other aspects to gloss over this.
With something so small scale, it might be harder for many to see King as his darkest, but for those that can seek this out, it's a pretty good catch. ***