FEATURE: A Stephen King Halloween...Hearts in Atlantis

Here's the Plan

Last Halloween, I counted down the fifteen films that best evoke H. P. Lovecraft.  It was fun.  For Halloween this year, I'm going to count down the fifteen best Stephen King adaptations.  Along with each of the best, I'll mention one of the worst, because let's face it, there've been some pretty epic stinkers.  Because we're dealing with adaptations, I won't include content written originally for the screen.  If you're so damned curious about those omissions, know that I loved Storm of the Century and hated Sleepwalkers.

Every entry will follow the pattern below, with a new entry every other day leading up to Halloween, because it takes a little while to write these.

Yes, I've seen all these movies.  Pray for me.

Honorable Mention: Hearts in Atlantis

(Scott Hicks, 2001)

The tears in his eyes overspilled and began to run down his cheeks.  He'd gotten used to feeling old; feeling young again - knowing he could feel young again - was a terrible disorienting shock.

The Long and Short of It

Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) and his mother Liz (Hope Davis) welcome a boarder named Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) into their house.  Although Liz is suspicious, Bobby immediately forms a bond with the old man.  However, once Bobby realizes that Ted has psychic powers, everything changes.

Adaptation Decay

Significant but Honorable.  The original book is a collection of five stories, and "Hearts in Atlantis" translates two of them to screen: "Low Men in Yellow Coats" for the main story and "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling" for the beginning and ending.  Although screenwriter William Goldman jettisons the idea that Ted Brautigan's story connects to interdimensional agents of King's Dark Tower stories, the film's "Low Men" still pursue Brautigan, and the overall attitude matches the book.  Like so many King stories, this is a fable about the paradox of youth.  How its magic is unrecognizable to children and irretrievable to adults.

Forget All That - How's the Movie?

Shot with soft focus and golden hues that evoke memories of Ray Bradbury, the flick is sumptuous to watch.  The characters are portrayed to great success not only by Anthony Hopkins, who can say so much by doing so little, but Anton Yelchin, whose open-faced charm eventually led to lead roles in films like Charlie Bartlett and Star Trek.  At times, the film's saccharine winsomeness becomes a little oppressive - the score by Mychael Danna italicizes too many emotions.  Overall, though, the film succeeds at carrying over the story's sense of nostalgia without getting lost in King's sometimes-confusing larger universe.

Alright, But Is It a Good Halloween Flick?

No - if you want a scare-heavy novel-based movie starring Anton Yelchin, you'll have to wait for his headlining role in the upcoming Odd Thomas, based on the book series by Dean Koontz.

Kingwatch 2012

There are no references to King, no sightings of King.  The film doggedly tries to work on its own terms, no doubt taking cues from The Green Mile (released two years prior and name-checked in the Hearts trailer).

But You Know What Sucks?

Dishonorable Mention: The Shining (TV)

(Mick Garris, 1997)

Actually, it doesn't suck.  Not completely.  Director Mick Garris coaxes strong performances out of Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay, and there's a sense of style to the environment and photography.  The problems are threefold.  Firstly, Garris, at the behest of Stephen King (who wrote this adaptation as a corrective to Kubrick's film), indulges in some terrible CGI for the hedge animals that chase Danny.  Even allowing for the chintzy effects...I mean, how do you shrub somebody to death?  Secondly, the new ending (again, written by King) is cloying, sugar-coated crap.  Thirdly, Kubrick's The Shining, more than anything, is an iconic movie.  A movie of enormous images like the Overlook hallways and the bloodied twins and the hedge maze and Jack Nicholson's face.  How could an ABC TV movie not disappoint?

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A Stephen King Halloween

01. ?
02. ?
03. ?
04. ?
05. Stand By Me / Dreamcatcher
06. The Dead Zone / The Mangler
07. Misery / Sometimes They Come Back
08. The Mist / Firestarter
09. "Battleground" / Creepshow 2
10. Creepshow / "The Road Virus Heads North"
11. Dolores Claiborne / The Tommyknockers (TV)
12. The Stand (TV) / Maximum Overdrive
13. 1408 / The Lawnmower Man
14. Christine / Silver Bullet
15. Cat's Eye / Thinner
HM. Hearts in Atlantis / The Shining (TV)