Directed by Fraser Clarke Heston
Starring Amanda Plummer Ed Harris
Max Von Sydow
Great low-key horror film does an excellent job of capturing the ethical and religious elements that are evident in most of Stephen King's novels—but doesn't exactly translate the particular novel it's based upon very well.
Elements of King's original story were drastically changed, but that doesn't mean it isn't one of the best King movies ever made. Sydow plays the devil, who, operating under the name Leland Gaunt, has just opened up an antique store in Castle Rock. Townsfolk slowly start feuding with one another and what were once grudges between people balloon into murderous rampages.
Characters' lusts after the "needful things" in Gaunt's store—from collectible books to portraits of nudes—lead to their self-destruction. "You look like the kind of many who can resist anything—except temptation," Gaunt tells a local priest who eventually finds himself in a fist fight with the town's other minister. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," he tells a redneck as he sells him a shotgun.
Despite some flaws, it's an intelligent horror film, well worth catching, and one of the few worthwhile flicks from the awful early 1990s when the genre was on life support. Watch for the three-hour director's cut that turns up on cable from time to time.
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-- Review by Lucius Gore
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