Desperation (2006)

Posted By: Someonelse

Stephen King's Desperation (2006)
DVD9 untouched (VIDEO_TS) | NTSC 16:9 (720 x 480) | 02:10:36 | 8,00 Gb
Audio: English - AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps and AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Spanish
Genre: Fantasy, Horror | Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys + 1 win | USA

Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris joins forces with literary horror icon Stephen King for this, the pair's sixth onscreen collaboration. In the wind-swept Nevada town of Desperation, a malevolent sheriff (Ron Perlman) delivers arrestees to a jail cell from which, by all accounts, no one has emerged alive. The streets are littered with the corpses of dead residents, and it appears that a sinister supernatural force has tightened its deadly grip on the once-thriving community. Arrested by the sinister lawman and subsequently thrown behind bars, a vacationing family, a traveling writer (Tom Skeritt), and a drifting hitchhiker (Steven Weber) narrowly thwart death by escaping their cold metal confines. Upon coming into contact with a mysterious prepubescent boy named David (Shane Haboucha) who seems to possesses an eerie insight into the ancient evil that haunts the town, the brave group boldly determines to solve the combat the evil that has infected this desolate landscape. Despite some notable help from the surviving town veteran (Charles Durning) and the dejected female half of a married couple (Annabeth Gish) who recently incurred the wrath of the nefarious sheriff, this unlikely band of weakened mortals seems no match for the powerful evil that now inhabits the town of Desperation.

IMDB

Besides a mediocre performance from Tom Skeritt this adaptation of Steven Kings 600+ page novel is up to par with some of his best big screen productions. Each scene is expertly crafted right out of the pages of Desperation (probably due to the fact that King wrote the screenplay). The police precinct including the desk and each cell seemed as if it were pulled straight from the novel itself. The characters appearances and each detail down to the smiley face on the bag of marijuana that lands Peter and Mary in the slammer were constructed with sheer perfection. If you read the book you'll notice that they changed little things to get with the times, like the hitchhikers shirt instead of being Pete Tesh is Bob Dylan, and there's a small reference towards the end to Donald Rumsfeld and Adam Sandler.


When I saw that there was going to be a TV movie version of this book I was worried because of the graphic sequences needed to do Desperation justice. I was not disappointed. The animal sequences were the most impressive, with vultures and dogs standing as an animal army together. The scene where the dogs line the road for miles was one of the eeriest animal sequences King has ever incorporated in a film (Others including: Cujo, The Night Flyer, etc.).

In my opinion no one was more suited for the role of Collie Entragian than Ron Perlman, he gave the best performance in the entire production in my opinion (not to insult Steven Webber). Though Tom Skeritt wasn't as good as he could have been, he was still the perfect person for his role. Skeritt just didn't come off as an asshole as well as he should have. Everyone else was good, down to the Chinese actors who had absolutely no lines.


In summary if you read the book you will like this movie the only thing that wasn't in the movie was the tree-house that David went to in his mind (not necessarily a bad thing). The director did great job of filling in the viewer on loose ends throughout the film, and it is a strict adaptation of the novel. I've heard critics comment on his use of left wing ideology in this screenplay but I have no idea what they're talking about, maybe I'm just not politically coherent enough to understand, but I feel that the movie deserves the recognition as a horror movie over that of political satire.

Thank you so much for reading my opinion I appreciate you taking the time of day to observe what I have to say.

IMDB Reviewer,
108 of 128 people found this review helpful.

Special Features:
- Commentary with Director Mick Garris, Actor Ron Perlman, and Producer Mark Sennet
- Postcards from Bangor ME
- Trailer
- Also from Lionsgate


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