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Title:
Stephen King’s Desperation
Region:
One
Genre:
Horror
Stars:
Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish, Charles Durning, Henry Thomas, and
Ron Perlman
Writer:
Stephen King
Based
On The Novel By: Stephen King
Director:
Mick Garris
Executive
Producers: Stephen King and Mick Garris
Feature
length: 131 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director Mick Garris, Actor Ron Perlman,
and Producer Mark Sennet, “Postcards From Bangor, ME” Featurette, Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and English and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 17
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2006
Home
Video Distributor: Lionsgate Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
In
the mid 1990s Stephen King had two books published that shared similar character
names and situations, but had different stories. Desperation was
published under Stephen King’s normal brand name while The Regulators
was published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. Both had covers that seemed
to join together into a larger tapestry and like much of King’s work, there
are elements that elude to his other work, in particular his Dark Tower
series. Stephen King and Mick Garris have had successful television
collaborations in the past that include The Stand and the TV miniseries
version of The Shining. So I expected Stephen King’s Desperation
to be about the same and the first half of the film for the most part does not
disappoint. The premise is definitely nightmarish. Several travelers driving
down the roads of the Nevada desert are arrested by a maniacal small mining town
Sheriff, played with zest by Ron Perlman, and are railroaded into the desolate
town of Desperation, where the streets are littered with dead bodies, vermin,
ravenous dogs, and crows that keep a watch out for a malevolent presence that is
holding a group of detainees in cells like flies in a spider web. The entity is
an ancient being trapped in another dimension that can break it’s
consciousness off at will and inhabit other people’s bodies. Unfortunately
human bodies don’t last too long before they are no longer usable, so the
entity picks and chooses who it will inhabit based presumably on the host’s
health and longevity as well as if it might find inhabiting the host of
particular interest while executing anyone else that either is unsuitable or
simply pisses it off.
When
a famous author on a desert road tour gets ensnared in the town of Desperation,
his roadie assistant and a cute hitchhiker unsuspectingly enter the town
unprepared for what they will find. However all is not lost. The entity that
refers to itself as “Tak” is malevolent and powerful, but not omnipotent and
soon the group of survivors discover that they are not just there as random
selections for future human hosts to Tak, but have actually been sent there by
God to send the entity back from whence it came. There are familiar character
devices in Stephen King’s Desperation that appear in some of his other
stories that include some form of ancient evil, hidden town secrets that have
yielded this reckoning, a child or person of innocence that seems to have a
connection with God either directly or indirectly and who must motivate the
other’s faith in order to defeat the evil, and a central character who happens
to be a famous writer. While in many King stories, the portrayal of God tends to
be closer to the vengeful Old Testament portrayal of God that demands complete
obedience and worship or else, this portrayal of God seems a bit more liberal
and closer to the New Testament interpretation at least in my opinion. God here
grants free will and does not punish those who make the wrong decisions as much
as this God tries to work goodness through people who willingly submit to
God’s will with love. The two interpretations may not seem very different, but
I’d say the difference lies within the context. If God is everywhere and
within everything than even the Devil may not know that it works for God too,
but Tak is not of this world. It is a false deity of destruction that even makes
it pretty clear that not even the Devil doesn’t mess with Tak’s domain, but
ultimately Tak may actually be the most desperate character in the entire film
since Tak can’t seem to get itself together enough to move beyond abducting
suitable hosts that it quickly uses up and Tak also seems very much tied to the
very porthole in the mine that has allowed it’s conscious to enter our
dimension. You could almost argue that Tak is like a bored child in a constant
state of mood swings between seeming somewhat strange to going berserk with over
the top tantrums. The scenes with Rom Perlman are excellent. Early in the film
he sees that one of his captives is named Peter Jackson to which he responds in
a booming voice “I loved Lord Of The Rings!” The physicality of Ron Perlman
with his large stature and the way Garris frames him so he always appears
imposing and even at times distorted through the use of widescreen close-ups
really makes him a truly scary presence in the film since it is a reasonable
nightmare to be at the mercy of a malevolent person who also happens to be in
law enforcement and therefore demands a certain level of trust and respect
instinctively. The intimidation factor alone is enough to send chills down
one’s spine.
If
there are any caveats I have with the film it is not so much with the screenplay
or screen direction since my understanding is that this cinematic adaptation is
very faithful to the book, however I kind of wish there was another reason as to
why these things were going on in the film. Does it always have to be
supernatural? Heck Ron Perlman in character for Stephen King’s Desperation is
pretty scary enough. The actual nature of how Tak came to be, who built the
temple in the mines that allowed it to escape not only in the time of the film,
but in a flashback that shows Chinese immigrant slave labor in the mid 1800s is
never explained. Even after two immigrants manage to escape the mine that
released Tak before it collapses, Tak seems to inhabit one of the men who are
wrongly accused of sabotaging the mine and subsequently hung. If Tak escaped
that time, why didn’t Tak enter one of the townsfolk then or an animal since
in addition to controlling creatures, Tak can inhabit them too. I suppose the
answers are in the novel, but in the film I just don’t understand how Tak can
escape and then be caught again given what is shown onscreen. There’s a Vietnam flashback for the Writer character that
suggests Tak was present there too, but how is that possible? I could buy the
idea that the flashback is more of a way for Tak to mess with the mind of one of
the characters in the story, but the same unanswered questions from the 1800s
flashback seem to apply to the Vietnam War era flashback too. Another caveat
that I tend to find in a lot of Stephen King stories is that even the TV
dramatizations either end abruptly or offer a solution that ultimately does not
live up to the way the situation is developed.
When
the local ABC affiliate where I live aired Stephen King’s Desperation
on TV last spring, the ABC HD cable broadcast was pillar boxed to (1.33:1). The
Lionsgate Entertainment DVD presents Stephen King’s Desperation in a 16
by 9 enhanced (1.85:1) aspect ratio with a very well mixed and atmospheric
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. The picture quality reveals a bit
of grain sometimes, but overall I prefer this DVD presentation over the digital
broadcast I saw last spring and if you too did not get to see the film in
widescreen, you owe it to yourself to at least rent the DVD for the full motion
picture experience that some TV broadcasts may not have delivered. An English
Dolby Surround Soundtrack as well as English Closed Captions for the Hearing
Impaired and English and Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded onto the
DVD as options.
Director
Mick Garris delivers an articulate screen specific audio commentary track that
he shares for nearly the first half of the film with Ron Perlman, who I wish
stuck around for the whole commentary, and Producer Mark Sennet. There is a lot
of information covered in this commentary by Garris, who also manages to sneak
in a few plugs for the upcoming second season of Masters Of Horror too.
Garris reveals that he and Stephen King originally approached a motion picture
studio with the idea of making Stephen King’s Desperation a feature
film release only to be turned down in part because the studio was more
interested in the self referential Scream films and all the clones it
inspired so eventually they were approached to make it as a miniseries and
considering the success King and Garris had already garnered from ABC with The
Stand and The Shining, King and Garris for the most part were left
unhindered by network standard and practices. It’s interesting to note that
Garris states he thinks the TV movie would still probably get an R-rating from
the MPAA had it been produced as a theatrical release and he was right since the
DVD carries an MPAA rating of R on the back of the packaging. He also states
that at least at the time when this commentary was recorded, rumors of his
directing The Regulators were untrue since he feels Stephen King’s
Desperation is the cinematic of the two books. The troubles six day work
weeks, location shooting and the complexities of working on a tight budget for a
film that featured lots of effects, live animals ranging from spiders and snakes
to crows and dogs as well as the time restraints encountered when producing a
film with child actors are all discussed here too. Though this might have been
intended to be released as a miniseries, Garris ultimately was glad that ABC
aired it as a movie instead.
Also
included among the extra value features is a four-part featurette entitled Postcards
From Bangor, ME, which can also be viewed using a “Play All” feature
(9:38) and presents 16 by 9 enhanced video interviews with Stephen King and Mick
Garris discussing the development of the story, adapting the book into a
screenplay, the inspirations, and production. A DVD trailer for Stephen
King’s Desperation is also included though I’d try to avoid seeing it if
it appears on any DVDs until after one sees the film since it contains spoilers
(1:26). The trailer is presented in a (1.33:1) aspect ratio. A reel of trailers
(3:53) that include DVD previews of Machined, Haunted Highway, Sea Of Fear, and
The Great Challenge appear before the opening menu with each presented in
a (1.33:1) aspect ratio along with an anamorphic widescreen trailer for Neil
Marshall’s The Descent (2:04). These can also be viewed by choosing the
bonus trailers option on the extra value features menu screen. The interactive
menus feature animated transitions and full motions scene selections and are
also well rendered and easy to navigate.
Stephen
King’s Desperation
is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Lionsgate
Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2006 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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