Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with one of, if not THE, first reviews to hit the net of Mick (THE STAND and TV THE SHINING) Garris' adaptation of Stephen King's ebook, RIDING THE BULLET. I saw Garris speak at Comic-Con about this flick and he showed a trailer and a scene from the flick. It looks like it could be pretty good (although the lighting and framing seemed a little too TV for my tastes). I'm really curious to see what Garris does with DESPERATION, his next King adaptation. Here's hoping it's more on the level of THE STAND and not THE SHINING... Anyway, here is one of the head honchos from THE HORROR CARNIVAL with his review!!!
Hi, I run a little-known horror fan website called The Horror Carnival for fun and have put up what may be the first review ever of Stephen King's Riding the Bullet. Mick Garris was hosting this at Fantasia Film Festival and told us that neither he nor the producers had even seen it yet. Here's the scoop:
You'll recognize the director's name, Mick Garris, as he's done several Stephen King productions for both the big and small screen, including my all-time favorite - The Stand. This is the first Stephen King adaptation where I'd actually recommend taking your mother along. Sure, she'll cringe at the brief gore segments and might have a problem watching an old man dig at his crotch repeatedly, but this is a story that encourages you to appreciate what they have, especially your mom! Call her, dammit!
The Plot: Allan is an art student with a pronounced obsession with death. No, we're not talking a black lipstick, striped spandex goth type - this guy just really has a thing for death. The grim reaper type. Even his girlfriend is drifting away from his macabre lifestyle, ultimately leading to a rather surreal suicide attempt. It's not until the life of another he loves, his mother, comes into jeopardy that he begins a haunted road trip that will answer questions about his past and literally decide the outcome of his (and his mother's) future. Before heading out to a John Lennon concert, Allan receives a call from his mother's neighbor, informing him that she's had a stroke. He decides to hitch his way across the state to see her before she dies, and encounters all sorts of obstacles including a ghost who prowls the highways to score points for the grim reaper.
My Praises: Stephen King's work shines through his awkward (but accurate) dialog, oddball characters, and strong sense of "the good ole' days" nostalgia. The horror bits are always present, but as a general rule, the more character-driven stories are the ones that translate better to cinema. Riding the Bullet definitely has a King feel to it, and it makes the first half of the movie especially entertaining, even if it's slightly lacking in the horror people (who haven't read the story) will expect.
The reason the characters (especially Allan and his mother) in this adaptation are so well developed comes directly from Allan's wandering mind. He sees something on the road and all of a sudden we're meeting his father, or watching him chicken out from the Bullet roller coaster line as a kid. And he fast-forwards too, often you'll see Allan picture horrible outcomes of tense situation in his head before we see how the scene really plays out. But by far the strangest storytelling device used is based on the old angel/devil/shoulder concept as Allan often sees himself riding in the back seat or walking alongside him. The second Allan represents what he is thinking, and often badmouths the other characters, as Allan would do if he had more balls. With this method, we get the inner thoughts and narration we usually miss in cinema adaptations and in this case it works (and the audience did react really well to it).
The dark roads, constant rain, and the forest itself lend a creepy environment, and several of the characters obviously have something wrong with them. There is a solid feeling of unease during Allan's travels, but I found that the arrival of the story's antagonist actually killed the mood. More on that later...
The sappy part - yes, it has a strong message about life and family and leaves you with a squishy feeling the same way Stand By Me did at the end. As the director explained, having a character with an outlook that the world is about death come to realize that there is meaning to life enhances the message, and hearing Garris (and it might have just been nerves, but I detected a trace of imminent tears) describe his own personal tragedies and how they played into his creation was very powerful. One scene in particular really struck a nerve with me, where Allan draws his mother but the face is blank. I remember being away from my parents for over two years and then getting ready to see them, the irrational thought that I couldn't remember their faces in the back of my head. This movie actually made me feel guilty. Now I feel I have to do something to show my parents all of their efforts are appreciated. I can't say I was expecting that from an independent low-budget King adaptation, and I'm pretty impressed. Hell, I'm the guy who cheers for the Toxic Avenger as he savagely mutilates a dwarf. Allan's relationship with his mother isn't left at "your mother is in the hospital;" we see crucial moments between the two of them during several ages of his life, and the relationship between them is very convincing. This is the woman who can bring him out of his pit, and he seems to have forgotten about their bond. But don't let the sentimental stuff scare you away, it really does work for this film, and gives us more realistic characters. It's a very personal film to the director, and it shows. In fact, he *did* bring his mother to the screening (first ever, even for him) and she even stood up and proclaimed how proud she was.
My Gripes: I haven't read the story, but I think David Arquette as the undead George Staub was a bad choice. He's just too wild, and too comical. He feels like he belongs in a comedy, not a movie with comedic elements. Once his character showed up (and it's really not the primary focus of the movie as one might expect), I found my attention wandering. I just didn't understand the point of his character. He's something of a zombie (not a ghost, he claims) but he's not frightening at all. He does present Allan with a life-or-death decision to make, but it feels silly and out of place. Perhaps it wasn't so in the original story, which is why I wonder about the casting. I'm sure some people will also dismiss this movie as "King Light" which is fair - the ending does have a lot of sentiment, including the "main character grown up and reflecting on the good times" that we're used to. That's fair enough. It happened to click for me, and though I had problems with the Staub character, it didn't ruin the movie for me. I am really looking forward to Garris' adaptation of King's Desperation.
-Ringmaster Bent
The Horror Carnival
