Review: Needful Things (1993)

Directed by: Fraser C. Heston
Starring: Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, J.T. Walsh
Written by: W.D. Richter
Music by: Patrick Doyle
IMDb

Needful Things, another of the so-so adaptations of unheralded Stephen King’s novels that came to fruition in the ‘90s, is, on paper, pretty respectable. The cast includes Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedilia, and J.T. Walsh, and everyone does a pretty good job, especially Walsh and von Sydow. There’s nothing terribly bad about this movie, in which von Sydow (presumably) plays Satan (or maybe some lesser demon), having come to the small town of Castle Rock to entertain himself by pinning its residents against each other through elaborate pranks in exchange for antiques they desire. It starts out innocently enough, with a boy receiving a Mickey Mantle rookie card in exchange for purposely soiling another resident’s clean sheets while they dry. Of course, the web of pranks eventually overlaps and hell breaks loose, resulting in murder and other horrors. Overall, it’s pretty entertaining to watch the events escalate, even if it’s a little repetitive. I don’t know the source material at all, but I think the film’s main downfall is you don’t really get to know the large cast of characters particularly well, so their drama is seen in detached amusement without any investment. Things never get truly gnarly, either, so, while there are deaths, von Sydow’s Leland Gaunt comes across as more of a trickster gone too far than a real threat, and this is played out in a silly climax wherein all the town’s citizens simultaneously realize they’ve been played and group-apologize. But while Needful Things wouldn’t ever be mistaken for a classic horror movie, it’s a decent use of 2 hours that has just enough nastiness and intrigue.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10