“You’re disgusting. I like that in a person.”

Story: The quiet town of Castle Rock (ahem) gets a new store; Needful Things, an antique store/curiosity shop run by an eccentric older gentleman named Leland Gaunt. Seems this place has everything, and the prices aren’t that bad. Just a small favor. A prank, really…

Scares: A few bits, but mostly suspense.
Splat Factor:  This was originally a TBS miniseries, so no, not much.

Subgenre: Miniseries That Are Slashed To Bits Into Multiplex Format
Year Released: 1993
Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: Based on the Stephen King book of the same name.

Trick or Treat?: “Needful Things” is one of those King stories that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough as it deserves. It’s “the last Castle Rock story”, and a fitting farewell (kinda) to the town we all got to know over the decades. But by turning the original miniseries adaptation into a feature film, director Fraser C. Heston (yes, Charlton Heston’s son) does a disservice to the story, and the miniseries itself.

It’s not Heston’s fault, though. When a studio wants to be able to market something worldwide, they’re gonna do it. And as Things started out as a miniseries on America’s cable network TBS, the four hour (with commercials; three hours without) time-slot wasn’t exactly gonna fly in the 90s. Nowadays, three hours isn’t exactly the norm, but would be better received. And boy howdy does this film need that extra time, if only to allow Max von Sydow to chew every single bit of the scenery. This man has played everyone from Jesus Christ to…whoever Leland Gaunt is. (I like to think of Gaunt as a demon, not he big bad man below.) And von Sydow knows exactly what he’s signed on for here, giving his performance maximum camp and creep.

The “movie” version of Things cuts out so much of the plot, the story barely makes sense. For example, Polly’s rheumatoid arthritis isn’t mentioned until she gets tempted by Leland Grant towards the end of the film. And little boy Brian’s mom Cora Rusk is seen wearing a pair of sunglasses in the movie, but it’s never said that Gaunt tells Cora the shades were owned by Elvis Presley. Cora’s obsession with the glasses would explain her disinterest in Brian’s crumbling psyche, but in the two-hour film, it’s never mentioned. Characters do things that we only assume Gaunt has asked them to, and for the most part, we don’t know why, or what for. The film culminates in a brutal climax that lacks emotional punch, simply because we don’t know understand what’s going on, nor why we should care about the majority of these characters.

What’s also a bummer is the short shrift the performers get in this truncated story. There are a ton of incredible performers here, and they’re all at the peak of their talents. Ed Harris plays Sheriff Pangborn, the man that first starts to put Gaunt and the increase in Castle Rock violence together. Bonnie Bedelia plays his fiancee Polly, and she’s absolutely etherial here. We also get Grade A Prime character actors like Amanda Plummer as “Crazy Nettie”, William Morgan Sheppard as Father Meehan and Don S. Davis as his nemesis Reverend Rose. But late 20th Century film fans will recognize the great J.T. Walsh as Danforth “Buster” Keeton, a guy wound so tightly Gaunt barely had to pluck his strings. Damn, I still miss Walsh’s great talent. It’s worth the price of admission just to watch this master at work. I think it’s his best, most fleshed out performance.

Grab a copy of the newly restored miniseries version if you’re interested in watching this, or simply check out the film version on YouTube rather than wasting your hard-earned. It’s much more detailed, with an eerie slow burn that’s perfect for this King story. Heck, it’s worth a watch just to hear von Sydow say “You wussy.”

Score: movie version – 2.5 out of 5 pumpkins.
miniseries version – 4 out of 5 pumpkins.