Storm of the Century

In 1999, Stephen King wrote the screenplay for the TV movie, Storm of the Century. A little island off the coast of Maine (surprise) prepares for the worst snowstorm in over 100 years. As the storm rages in, a stranger comes to town and people start dying mysteriously. Soon enough the stranger identifies himself and gets put into a jail cell for the duration of the storm. Supernatural elements appear and the familiar King story unfolds of a small town of regular folk facing extraordinary circumstances which may or may not be human in origin. That’s all I’m going to say. This is classic pre-streaming TV movie fare. Lots of fun. Cheesy throughout, silly, but pulls you in. King himself called Storm of the Century his favorite television production. Cast includes Tim Daly, Debrah Farentino, Colm Feore, Casey Siemasko, Jeffrey DeMunn, a very young Julianne Nicholson, and Peter MacNeil (Horvath on Queer as Folk)

Storm of the Century currently streams on Hulu.

The Mist

There’s something about a Stephen King adaptation that always lures me in. I retain hope. Hope for excellence as in The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, or Apt Pupil. Hope for creepy comfort food like Storm of the Century. Unfortunately The Mist falls into neither category. The quality screams second-rate television. There’s nothing chilling about the story. It’s unfortunate because all the elements are there for either excellent or good, clean fun. Too bad. 2 out of 5 for The Mist. Next.

Under the Dome

CBS adapted Stephen King’s 2009 novel, Under the Dome into a mini-series.  I was given this book by a friend at work and told to ignore the Bible-esque size of it.  I was told I’d breeze through it and I did.  I loved this book.  It brought back memories reading King’s earlier novels when I was in high school and college.  So I was very excited to see he was executive producing the series.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough of a hand in it to make it interesting like the book.  Adaptations are brutal, but they can sometimes work.  The main problem here was casting.  The best part of the book for me was how King captured modern-day culture and had a character representing each of the archetypes of America.  Not everyone in the show is gorgeous, but enough people are to make it difficult to focus on the plot.  Everyone’s a bit too well-scrubbed for my taste.  They’re so not that way in the novel.  Too bad for Under the Dome.  It could have been spine-tingling TV good like Storm of the Century.  I wasn’t asking for much.  Just good scary television.  Made it through the first episode and realized I didn’t want to ruin the book any further.  2 out of 5.  Next.

Forget the series and go read the book.