Many reviewers have never read any of the Stephen King short stories made into these 45 minute pieces of torturous boredom. My problem was I had very much enjoyed "The Road Virus Heads North." Seeing it there on the screen as a tedious emotionally-hollow piece of garbage was the final straw.
I tried to get through the whole set but couldn't force myself to do it. Not everything King wrote was horror but he writes compelling stories and make you want to keep turning the page. These adaptations merely make you sleepy.
For the five of the eight that I could get through: 1) Battleground: This is the only reason it is a 2 instead of a 10. This one was absent any dialog and was an entertaining visual battle between hit-man Renshaw and the green army men of his last victim, toymaker Hans Morris. Intense and worth a watch. The same can't be said of the others.
2)Crouch End: A nod by Stephen King to his predecessor H.P. Lovecraft becomes second rate with terrible actors and bad visual effects. The newlyweds stumble into another dimension through a thin spot and encounter nightmarish things in this other place. There is nothing suspenseful about it and it goes on far too long.
3)Umney's Last Case: The fictional private eye and the writer who created him switch places after the writer loses his son. Escaping from reality, the writer regrets his choice by the end while the private eye tries to get back into the fictional world with no easy routes back. In 2006, William H. Macy (who is great in so many other things) actually got nominated for this hammy role. Its a cheesy character in many ways and feels forced. It is a fair episode at best.
4)The End of the Whole Mess: Howard Fornoy describes how his genius little brother, Bobby, destroyed the world. They altered the water of the world to make everyone more peaceful and end war BUT gave everyone Alzheimer's Disease as a side effect. TEDIOUS. The whole unwatchable episode (not sure how I got through it) focuses so much on describing the genius brother that the mass Alzheimer's Disease outbreak is barely shown.
5)The Road Virus Heads North: An author (played by Tom Berenger)picks up a disturbing painting at a yard sale and begins to realize that the thing in the painting is following him and intends to kill him. They added a subplot involving a colonoscopy and iffy test results... By doing this and a slight romantic subplot, they take a hard edged story about a man running from a monster from "the basement of the universe" into a tiring tale of mortality with the thing pursuing being unimportant until the end. BORING, NOT SCARY.
The Bottom Line: These did not transfer well from King's short stories. They were short punchy stories that were stretched too far in most cases. I know the End of the Whole Mess and Umney's Last Case weren't meant to be scary but the other three were supposed to be and failed miserably at it. They became the worst thing in horror: boring. If a story meant to frighten comes off as repetitive and boring it clearly isn't holding your interest as a good piece of horror does.
Short stories CAN become good television BUT Nightmares & Dreamscapes fails to do this.
I tried to get through the whole set but couldn't force myself to do it. Not everything King wrote was horror but he writes compelling stories and make you want to keep turning the page. These adaptations merely make you sleepy.
For the five of the eight that I could get through: 1) Battleground: This is the only reason it is a 2 instead of a 10. This one was absent any dialog and was an entertaining visual battle between hit-man Renshaw and the green army men of his last victim, toymaker Hans Morris. Intense and worth a watch. The same can't be said of the others.
2)Crouch End: A nod by Stephen King to his predecessor H.P. Lovecraft becomes second rate with terrible actors and bad visual effects. The newlyweds stumble into another dimension through a thin spot and encounter nightmarish things in this other place. There is nothing suspenseful about it and it goes on far too long.
3)Umney's Last Case: The fictional private eye and the writer who created him switch places after the writer loses his son. Escaping from reality, the writer regrets his choice by the end while the private eye tries to get back into the fictional world with no easy routes back. In 2006, William H. Macy (who is great in so many other things) actually got nominated for this hammy role. Its a cheesy character in many ways and feels forced. It is a fair episode at best.
4)The End of the Whole Mess: Howard Fornoy describes how his genius little brother, Bobby, destroyed the world. They altered the water of the world to make everyone more peaceful and end war BUT gave everyone Alzheimer's Disease as a side effect. TEDIOUS. The whole unwatchable episode (not sure how I got through it) focuses so much on describing the genius brother that the mass Alzheimer's Disease outbreak is barely shown.
5)The Road Virus Heads North: An author (played by Tom Berenger)picks up a disturbing painting at a yard sale and begins to realize that the thing in the painting is following him and intends to kill him. They added a subplot involving a colonoscopy and iffy test results... By doing this and a slight romantic subplot, they take a hard edged story about a man running from a monster from "the basement of the universe" into a tiring tale of mortality with the thing pursuing being unimportant until the end. BORING, NOT SCARY.
The Bottom Line: These did not transfer well from King's short stories. They were short punchy stories that were stretched too far in most cases. I know the End of the Whole Mess and Umney's Last Case weren't meant to be scary but the other three were supposed to be and failed miserably at it. They became the worst thing in horror: boring. If a story meant to frighten comes off as repetitive and boring it clearly isn't holding your interest as a good piece of horror does.
Short stories CAN become good television BUT Nightmares & Dreamscapes fails to do this.