Very good movie. Well done. Stephen King has always been one of my favorite authors due to his ability to make his characters seem real and put them in extraordinary situations. This movie watches just like one of his books reads. If you are a fan of his books, then you should be a fan of this movie.
The atmosphere of the movie is amazing. It completely drew me in. I watched it again this month (January) and kept expecting to look out the windows and see a big snow storm. Mike, the constable, is a typical Stephen King good guy who reminds me of another King lawman, Alan Pangborn. Both are pretty righteous men who cannot be bought or dissuaded of their morals no matter what happens. What happens is, in this instance, a truly creepy creature named Linoge. I've read a lot of the posts about SOTC on this site and people have wildly differing opinions about what King should or shouldn't have done with Linoge. I think he wrote (and cast) him perfectly, I wouldn't have changed a thing. The reason King never explains exactly what Linoge is is that it's scarier that way. If you've ever read any interviews or essays by King he believes that in his horror stories his job is to scare people. He did this very effectively in this movie; it was made for TV for crying out loud but it had some very scary moments. Most horror movies don't creep anyone out anymore, they go for the gore factor, but King knows what is scary. The unknown is scary. He just gives hints to Linoge's past (Roanoke island and the fact that Linoge is an acronym to Legion, from the Bible) and the rest is up to the watcher's imagination.
The special effects are great for the budget, I would love to know how they created the storm. Did they build the whole town and then bury it in fake snow? No idea, but it was well done.
SPOILER ALERT
Finally, the ending: A lot of people posting the negative reviews seem to be angry about the ending. It's not a happy ending, but I think it's the only ending that makes any sense. It's realistic. One kid goes with Linoge, or the whole town marches off into the ocean like a bunch of lemmings. What would your town do in such a situation, against an unbeatable adversary? The ending makes the whole thing believable and sets it apart from other Hollywood fluff. It makes you think: what would you do in that situation? Also it kills me that some people give this movie a one or two star rating out of ten because they are mad at the ending. The fact that they are mad enough to take retaliatory action (in the form of a bad review) just shows that they were drawn into the story; that the story succeeded in what it set out to do, to make the audience care about the characters enough that they are upset when the good guys lose. I love it and I tip my hat to King. 10 out of 10!
The atmosphere of the movie is amazing. It completely drew me in. I watched it again this month (January) and kept expecting to look out the windows and see a big snow storm. Mike, the constable, is a typical Stephen King good guy who reminds me of another King lawman, Alan Pangborn. Both are pretty righteous men who cannot be bought or dissuaded of their morals no matter what happens. What happens is, in this instance, a truly creepy creature named Linoge. I've read a lot of the posts about SOTC on this site and people have wildly differing opinions about what King should or shouldn't have done with Linoge. I think he wrote (and cast) him perfectly, I wouldn't have changed a thing. The reason King never explains exactly what Linoge is is that it's scarier that way. If you've ever read any interviews or essays by King he believes that in his horror stories his job is to scare people. He did this very effectively in this movie; it was made for TV for crying out loud but it had some very scary moments. Most horror movies don't creep anyone out anymore, they go for the gore factor, but King knows what is scary. The unknown is scary. He just gives hints to Linoge's past (Roanoke island and the fact that Linoge is an acronym to Legion, from the Bible) and the rest is up to the watcher's imagination.
The special effects are great for the budget, I would love to know how they created the storm. Did they build the whole town and then bury it in fake snow? No idea, but it was well done.
SPOILER ALERT
Finally, the ending: A lot of people posting the negative reviews seem to be angry about the ending. It's not a happy ending, but I think it's the only ending that makes any sense. It's realistic. One kid goes with Linoge, or the whole town marches off into the ocean like a bunch of lemmings. What would your town do in such a situation, against an unbeatable adversary? The ending makes the whole thing believable and sets it apart from other Hollywood fluff. It makes you think: what would you do in that situation? Also it kills me that some people give this movie a one or two star rating out of ten because they are mad at the ending. The fact that they are mad enough to take retaliatory action (in the form of a bad review) just shows that they were drawn into the story; that the story succeeded in what it set out to do, to make the audience care about the characters enough that they are upset when the good guys lose. I love it and I tip my hat to King. 10 out of 10!