Needful Things 4KUHD

Good movie

Good read but a little disappointing finish. Worth the effort.

One of Stephen Kings best movies.

Pictures show slipcover and I did not receive one

The story is as old as time itself. What happens when Satan comes to town? The town of Castlerock Maine and sheriff Alan Pangborn learn the hard way. The Devil, Leland Gaunt, opens up a curio shop called "Needful Things". When customers come to buy what they 'need' they become part of Satan's spell. They begin to HATE each other. The peaceful town turns into a massacre of death in a matter of time as the townspeople begin listening to the lies of Satan. The people begin destroying themselves. (This theme is very familiar to a Twilight Zone episode 'The Monsters are Due on Maple Street'.) One thing to learn from the film is that Satan cannot make you do anything. It is always your choice but He lies in order to get you to do what seems to be the right thing. I understand that this movie does have a longer extended edition. As I watched this for the first time I thought myself that it needs to be a miniseries. There is plenty of plot to develop. I now would also like to see an extended edition. The ending was a little disappointing...not that Satan was finally driven away but just HOW it happened. It would have been much better to me if the townspeople began to fall on their knees in prayer rather than just a pep talk by the Sheriff. But, hey, it was a good story for me to remind me that this kind of thing really does happen every day because so many of us do exactly what Satan wants us to do (including myself). But it is constant prayer that He has no power over. I really enjoyed the story on this level. I hope that it does the same for anyone who watches it.

Great

Great for what it is though it's missing a great deal of the context that really makes the characters work. Author Stephen King goes to great trouble to illustrate to us how these characters can be manipulated to do what is expected of them (trying not to spoiler, here), and how they cling to what they get for it. The film seemed more focused on the smash-em-up outcome at the end, which is really such a small part of the story. It misses King's point: Gaunt is not creepy because he looks creepy: Gaunt is creepy because of what he knows about the human condition. Gaunt and the subject(s) of his interest is the 'thing'. This interplay is set up with a complexity in King's writing that the film could not match. The shallow context of the film is its negative. The positive is that casting is STELLAR. I read the book a few times... once for myself and many times for friends in hospital. These actors are the perfect fit and the casting director should be recognized for some great work, here. Production value is median to good: it has its moments but good enough. Cinematography is excellent, directing is fair (seems like the actors have to do some of the lifting, here). Overall a good film... again: for what it is. It does tell part of the story, after all. But I'm sure others have told you that if you haven't already, you should read the book. Enjoy the film then get the better version on paper.

For years, probably since The Shining, Stephen King fans like myself have been ranting that the movies would be better if they stuck closer to the original novels. This production does a very admirable job of that, apart from the obvious removal of the Ace Merrill character and his entire part of the story. Other than that watching this movie was like listening to an audio book of the novel... not bad, but not as good as reading it at your own pace. I am not the first reviewer to mention the slow pacing. This does not benefit in any way from its two hour run time. Clearly the screenplay adapters tried to capture the slow build to an explosive climax of the novel, but wound up bogging down their own momentum to the point that you almost dislike the characters. Probably because they never seem to be getting around to doing or saying anything to move the plot along. The very shadowy, dark, low angle photography style does not help either. In many ways watching Needful Things is like watching a student film where you realize that certain members of the cast are brilliant and destined to be great actors, and others aren't. You also get that student film sense of the director and editor trying out different things and learning as they go. This may be due to the fact the director is the son of a famous actor who has only directed a few TV movies here and there and not a more experienced, accomplished director. I don't mean to slam the guy for that. He seems like a very nice man in interviews, and certainly did not make a BAD film here. My only point in bringing that up is that we probably have what we can expect from a director with this depth of experience. Taking that into account, this film is not that bad at all. As far as the dark photography and weird angles, you'd expect more from a guy who by this point had the deep experience of directing three seasons of a smash hit TV show. This leads me to believe he was pressured into this style that is not in keeping with his best work. To see later work by this same DP, a viewer could check out the TV show "Dead Like Me", which in my opinion has great cinematography. All in all you probably won't be missing much if you skip this movie, and you won't be kicking yourself for spending a couple hours watching it either.

Another really good Stephen King movie It's definitely worth a watuif you are a Stephen King fan Sons great scenes and a nice storyline

Il film riproduce molto bene una delle storie più ingegnose partorite dal maestro Stephen King. Assolutamente consigliato per gli amanti del genere e per gli estimatori di King.

Great movie.

Soy fan de Stephen King y de sus adaptaciones en cine, así que cuando supe que Kino Lorber había restaurado el clásico de 1993 "Needful Things" o "La Tienda" en formato 4K Ultra HD, la compré de inmediato. Se ve espectacular, mejor que nunca, con una calidad de imagen fuera de serie. Lo mejor es que si me llegó con el Slipcover de colección, y que por dentro trae otra portada alternativa. El único inconveniente es que no trae subtítulos en español solo en inglés.

Ótimo combo, no 4 K a versão de 2 horas e no BLU-RAY a versão completa , um dos clássicos de Stephen King.