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We’ll,
how about the fact that we’re all becoming a little aware of the
situation and wary of anything that has the name ‘Stephen King’ – just
as we are anything with the name ‘Wes Craven’, now that he’s all about
money over merit, on it – scrawled across the top of a DVD sleeve?
Sure, there’s been some great adaptations of King stories – The Shining, It, The Stand and Desperation
were all pretty well done – but there’s been just as many that are as
bland as bran. This new one, whilst not as bad as some of the earlier
King book-cum-films, suffers from the same hindrance: There’s been no
special effort to do anything other than to take the words from the
stories and put them on film. That’d be fine if the stories were great
in first place, but they weren’t.
Though the eight episodes in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes
series are entertaining enough (well, bar a couple, which are so slow
you’ll be tempted to press that stop button) there’s just something
missing from them. Overlooking the fact that the show did need a bigger
budget (considering the effects and locations look like cast-offs from
the old Dr Who days), the main problem with the show is that the episodes aren’t very gripping.
For
the most part, they’re very average and without motivation. Sure,
King’s short-stories were never his finest pieces anyway – in some
ways, they seemed to be a way for him to make a few bucks until he
could come up with an idea for a new hard cover – but knowing that,
you’d think the filmmakers might’ve added a bit more enthuse, or even
re-wrote a couple of them so that they would grip a little more than
they do.
As my wife muttered after sitting through the episode
titled ‘Crouch End’ (which centres on a young American couple
honeymooning in London who find themselves trapped in an alternate
world) “So? What? What’s the twist? Is that it?” Yep, that’s it. And
no, sorry, I can’t give you back the hour of your life that you just
lost looking for the killer twist.
One thing the series does
have going for it – and for that reason, you’d think they would’ve
given them all a little more to work with – is a fantastic cast. Among
the huge names that flew to Australia (the series was filmed in
Melbourne) to feature were William H.Macy, Tom Berenger, William Hurt
and Ron Livingston.
Like the similarly conceived Masters of Horror series (in which several name directors direct a vastly different episode each) Nightmares & Dreamscapes is a bit of a hit-and-miss situation. Some hit, but most miss.
Hopefully the soon-to-be-film adaptations of The Cell (with Eli Roth at the helm) and The Mist (with Frank Darabont directing) serve King...and us...better.
EXTRAS
Nothing of interest on offer here. What a dog! Conclusion:
Movie 50% Extras: N/A
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