Needful Things (1993)

Director: Fraser Clarke Heston

Writers: Stephen King, W.D. Richter

Composer: Patrick Doyle

Starring: Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, Amanda Plummer, J.T. Walsh, Ray McKinnon, Duncan Fraser, Valri Bromfield, Shane Meier, William Morgan Sheppard, Don S. Davis, Campbell Lane

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Now it's time to pay!

Plot: A mysterious new shop opens in a small town which always seems to stock the deepest desires of each shopper, with a price far heavier than expected.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I dug the premise and the execution for about the first half and then I started getting tired of the constant incremental shit the townspeople were giving each other.  The thing is, you can easily see, almost from the beginning, where this is going to go...and it does.  I guess I was ready to get there sooner than wait another hour for it to wrap up.  The last few minutes were fantastic.  I really liked it but boy does it drag along the way. von Sydow is fantastic.  That's perfect casting right there and so is Ed Harris.  Hell, except for the kid (let's face it, that scene where he had the gun was pretty bad), everyone did a great job.  It's just too long.  Is the book better?  Does King give you a lot more to think about as the shitstorm builds toward the shitpocalypse?  I hope so, not that I'll ever read it.  Patrick Doyle's score was great.  The only extra on the MGM DVD is the theatrical trailer.