Product Details

• Actors: Tim Matheson, Brooke Adams, Robert Rusler, Chris Demetral, Robert Hy Gorman
• Directors: Tom McLoughlin
• Writers: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Stephen King
• Producers: David C. Thomas, Dino De Laurentiis, Michael S. Murphey, Milton Subotsky
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, EP, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vidmark / Trimark
• VHS Release Date: June 20, 1997
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304145462
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,198 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Desperate for work, troubled high school teacher Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) relocates his family to his rural hometown after procuring a much-needed job there. Once home he must relive and confront a childhood nightmare: the high school hoodlums who murdered his older brother in a tunnel ambush, and were killed themselves by an oncoming train, are slowly rising from the grave to finish the job by killing Norman. The ghostly hooligans, who appear as flesh and blood to students, start "transferring" into school when some of Norman's students mysteriously perish; however their phantom, fire-spitting car is invisible to all but their victims. Suspicion for the inexplicably rising student-body count soon falls squarely on Norman, who must find a way to protect his wife and son from danger, vanquish the supernatural hoods, and cast off the shackles of his past. It's a fairly straightforward plot with some obvious elements, but Matheson and his supporting cast (including wife Brooke Adams) create a suspenseful, fear-inducing atmosphere under the able direction of Tom McLoughlin from a screenplay adaptation by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ....And I'm Not a Stephen King FAN!!!!, July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sometimes They Come Back [VHS] (VHS Tape)

While I don't relish in Horror pictures, something about the supernatural power of Good triumphing over Evil fascinates me. I have never been into KING. I do however love this movie and would watch it for years to come. It was scary, but not as gorry or as bloody as most. It was a great mystery that had you going until the very end. The best scene was the brother's return. I Cried!!! Not of Fright but of simple Emotion. IT IS A MUST SEE even if you are not into the KING!!!!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New DVD transfer, October 9, 2007

By 

William (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sometimes They Come Back (DVD)

'Sometimes they Come Back' was a 1991 film based on a short story by Stephen King. It was filmed for TV and is a personal favourite. It is about a school teacher (Tim Matheson) who returns to his hometown to teach at a school. He has reservations about doing this because of a tragedy which occurred many years before. The movie has a real feel of eeriness about it, and while far fetched at times, is credible because of the way a person's mind can be affected by unresolved past issues. Definitely worth a viewing.

DVD BACKGROUND: This was first released on DVD in 2001 by a smaller DVD company. As a result the transfer was far from superior and looked like a straight video to DVD transfer. It was 1:33 full frame too. Initially I thought 1:33 was the correct framing since it had been filmed for TV back in 1991. In late 2007, MGM released the film on DVD. While Amazon list the technical details as 1:33, it is actually 2:35 widescreen anamorphic. Seeing the film like this has brought a whole new dimension to a great film. According to a website I looked at the other day, this film was indeed filmed in widescreen. Even more exciting is the new DVD image is a vast improvment on the earlier DVD. Beautifully cleaned up and all.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: A great adaptation of a short Stephen King story which has been re-released on DVD respectfully. A stellar image presented in its correct aspect ratio. If you have only ever seen this film in the cropped video version or cropped early DVD version, do yourself a favour and purchase the new MGM release and experience the film in glorious widescreen.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good movie, bad dvd transfer!, August 13, 2000

By 

Dawn - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stephen King's: Sometimes They Come Back (DVD)

This is a great movie that is based on a rather strange short story by the master himself, Stephen King. The original short story was very short and had a "strange" ending. This movie, i my opinion is better than the story by far. The original short story I think is only 20 or 30 something pages and lacks alot of characterization. This movie fills in the giant hole that is in the short story. And believe it or not, this made-for-tv movie has great acting. The boys who play the hoods are pretty convincing--especially Richard Lawson. The story is about a teacher named Jim Norman who moves to a new town in whicch his brother was killed by a group of hoods in about thirty years earlier. He keeps having dreams about them that are haunting him. One day on of his students ends up missing and one of the dead hoods from the 50's is seating in his seat--for every person they kill another one comes back. Student after student keeps being killed and another after another hood returns to class for revenge. Th only way that they can be stopped is if they have a final confrontation with Jim back in the tunnel that claimed the lives of his brother and the hoods. The results are awesome. On another note the DVD isnt very good. The transfer doesnt seem to do the justice. The picture messes up every once and a while and sometimes i noticed that the words seem to not match their mouth! The sound is awesome though. Thank you for your time.