Needful Things (1993)

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent but underrated film

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

"Needful Things" is the kind of horror film you can't forget. Its shocking scenes of violence and the way in which so-called civilised people tend to be amongst each other, gave me a slight chill (not many horror films can do that). Max Von Sydow takes the acting honours as the supernatural and sadistically evil creature in human form. He oozes a kind of demonic charm that most of the locals can fail to resist. He was born for this role. Ed Harris as the police officer who welcomes the change of pace after being transferred to a seaside town, is ok but I've never really been a fan of his work. The atmosphere is carefully created and sustained throughout and the climax is unforgettable. The only thing that I would have liked, would have been for the film to have been made into a mini series. Doing this would have meant that more story from the novel could have been included. One of the better cinema adaptations from a Stephen King book.

Compared to Maximum Overdrive, Needful Things is great. This movie adaptation is far from great, but is watchable to say the least. I have never read the source material(the book), but it seems it would work better in that medium. Much of the narrative seems to be lost in translation from book to film, where more character development and layering of the story would have paid off better. Needful Things is inconsistent in tone and much off this stuff is out of place in a horror story and comes off aloof and silly. While the horror elements are there they are diluted to almost nothing in this very goofy and cheesy film. I would describe this as starting a band that is supposed to be a Goth band, with half of the band writing material that is in the vein of Kc And The Sunshine Band. The great Max Von Sydow is wasted here as Old Nick and could not save the film. Ed Harris was the best thing about the film and he gave a very good performance. The film from a technical perspective is pretty solid as the film looks good and the f/x are not terrible. Where director Frasier C Heston dropped the ball was tone, the film was not taken seriously enough and needed to be much darker for this to work. Needful Things is not a film anyone really needs. It is a very corny, quirky, disjointed film that fails as a horror story with very little tension or suspense and lacking in focus. Call it Stephen King lite.

When I started to watch 'Needful Things' my thoughts were quite negative. I always have problems with Stephen King's novels, because their endings are often poor. The same thing happened with 'Needful Things' - the whole book was excellent, but the final encounter - in my opinion - was silly and quite stupid. So when I was watching this movie I was sure they won't be able to capture the essence of this story in only two hours, but they did. And in my opinion, they did it very well. They kept almost all of the characters, that bought something in Leland Gaunt's shop - and they chose the good ones. It was very good move for the plot, if they would put every customer it would be too much to follow. The customer's visions were very well captured. The final encounter is different than in the novel, but it's definitely better and simpler with good taste. The sound and camera work is great in whole movie. Music is wonderful and has great dark devilish accent. The casting people made very good job. The actors are perfect for their parts. Max von Sydow made excellent performance as main dark character and captured it's essence with real grace.For me this movie is very good adaptation of King's novel, probably the best one I will ever seen.

I hate all these idiot directors thinking they can make a story better than the writer! Nobody likes your tampering with good stories! We do not think you are creative! We think you are the hacks that you are! Ace was the best part of the whole story! So to remove the greatest part of the story is a big xxx- up ! I will never pay a dime for this movie! I will never watch this movie if someone gave it to me! And these directors should be homeless and starving on the streets! Because they do not deserve a dime from of our hard earned money! However with most actors today reading the book is the only way! Every time a movie adaptation of a King movie comes out I automatically know it is going to be a butchered version because some arrogant director and producer!