This whopper of a horror story, both in size, breadth, and scariness took me for a ride. After turning off the film one scene in (alone, during a storm, in a new house, at night) I started into the book against the bookkeeper's advice. The character development is quite an accomplishment and the stories within stories are some of the best parts. For example the domineering and controlling relationship that Bev is in with her asshole husband Tom is utterly appalling and sickening, yet seems so possibly real. In the middle I did find things waning as they came together in their grown up state but when the reminiscing about childhood began in earnest, and started flipping back and forth from present-day the pages too began to flip again. The last quarter made it worthwhile, though the conclusion was slightly mediocre after all of that buildup. With so many very common horror scenes and themes in films to this day, it makes me wonder whether King drew on tried-and-true elements for this, or whether this set the bar and was borrowed from for years to come. All in all it was worth it.
Film: The film watched a couple months after completion of the book was mostly a disappointment. Yes there were scary elements but so many of the more interesting aspects were left out, and the development just didn't quite seem to be there (even in 2.5 hours of film). The younger kids were much more interesting as I didn't enjoy the casting of the adults.
7
(Summer, most of it, 2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment