Product Details

• Actors: Jamie Harrold, Diane Ladd, Bruce Davison, Jack Coleman, Julian Richings
• Writers: Lars von Trier, Richard Dooling, Niels Vørsel, Stephen King
• Producers: Lars von Trier, Mark Carliner, Richard Dooling
• Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 12, 2004
• Run Time: 608 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000F3SB
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,693 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 12-OCT-2004
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Someone's dying to meet you...., October 12, 2004

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital (DVD)

First, let's clear up a misconception. "Kingdom Hospital" was created specifically as a limited series with a beginning, middle and end. Like "The Prisoner", King had envisioned it as a "true" novel for television. If ABC had chosen to renew it, King would have developed a series of different story arcs. So it wasn't cancelled so much as it concluded. Another point to clear up--King's series created in collaboration with co-writer Richard Dooling, director Craig Baxley, executive producer Mark Carliner was an attempt to graft King's unique sense of humor and horror to Lars Van Trier's original allowing it to reach an American audience better.

King's series is every bit as effective in its own way as Lars Van Trier's "The Kingdom" but one made for a very different audience. An American audience. Since Lars Van Trier was an executive producer on the series, I doubt that he would have given it his blessing if he didn't see King's version as a quirky complimentary vision to his own. A warning, though, about "Kingdom Hospital". This is a ghost story not a horror thriller. The show unfolds at a leisurely pace allowing the story to unfold gradually creating suspense vs. a rapid fire horror story. "Kingdom Hospital" has more in common with, say, "The Stand" or even "Twin Peaks" (and the original source mini-series as well) in that regard.

Anyhow, on to the DVD. Looks terrific and the CGI effects are top notch throughout most of the series. The campy over-the-top acting style of this "E.R." meets "Twin Peaks"series is crossed with King's twisted imagination. In the first episode we're introduced to most of the main characters at The Kingdom--Hook (Andrew McCarthy), Sally (Diane Ladd) the psychic who appears to be more than a few bricks shy of a full load, Jack (Peter Rickman)an artist who, due to a terrible accident, ends up at Kingdom (and is a stand-in so to speak for King in a bizarre collison between art and life). Oh and who can forget Stegman (Bruce Davison)who has an aura of...evil about him. All must help save Kingdom Hospital and a little girl who died on the same grounds the hospital is build on by the name of Mary. By the way, the number 19 shows up quite a bit in the series...linking it to King's The Dark Tower series.

The two hour pilot has an audio commentary by King, director Buxley, producer Carliner and the visual effects supervisor. There's also a number of great featurettes included on this four disc set including "Inside the Walls" which focuses on the making of the series, a discussion of the various characters,a discussion on the creation of the visual effects for the bizarre looking Antubis as well as a tour of the hospital. King also contributes a two page essay on the series in the booklet enclosed with the first two disc set. The transfer is in high definition so it looks amazingly sharp and crisp.

While the series doesn't quite live up to its potential by the conclusion, it's still a fascinating and fun ride while it lasts. It's not exactly a horror series per se more a glimpse into the haunted lives of those bound to serve in "the kingdom".

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Series!, October 18, 2004

By 

khtig "LiZ" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital (DVD)

I first want to clear up a misconception here. A reviewer stated on here that after watching the first of the four disks he noticed that several scenes were cut out of the DVD as broadcast on television. I purchased my copy of Kingdom Hospital and watched the first disk and saw no such scene cuts.
Kingdom Hospital was an awesome series that did not get the credit it desevered. Watching it on DVD made the experiance twice as memorable. It was great not having to deal with commercials. The picture was also so clear that I was able to pick up on so many more things that I missed watching it on my home taped version. I enjoyed the feature on the magic behind Antubis and I enjoyed listening to the film makers commentary.
I wish I could give this series/dvd more than 5 stars!
Awesome! :)

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kingdom Hospital Fascinating and Just Off Beat Enough to Keep Your Interest, December 2, 2006

By 

THE AUTISTIC WEREWOLF "Wolf D." (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital (DVD)

First this is a Stephen King adaptation of another work of Danish fiction as so many others have already said so I won't go there. This being a Stephen King led adaptation you know he has a certain style all his own that he invested into Kingdom Hospital and you either like it enough to give it a chance or not. Just remember before dismissing it out of hand, Kingdom Hospital is not exactly typical Stephen King fare.

I stumbled on the hacked up all day version of Kingdom Hospital while watching SCI FI Channel during a recent day off. I had always caught bits and pieces of Kingdom Hospital and always found it profoundly eerie, camp and creepy yet funny in ways I feel no words can adequately convey.

Basically a state of the art medical center is built on the site of an old New England sweat shop employing children. Most of these civil war era child workers died after being abandoned by adult overseer's more intent on saving themselves.

Then there was "The Old Kingdom" hospital built on the site of the civil war factory where a mad doctor performed many evil horrid experiments on patients. The Old Kingdom Hospital was replaced by a pretty new chrome and glass state of the art medical center. The New Kingdom Hospital or New Kingdom is beautiful. This nice modern new Kingdom hospital rests on the haunted site rich with restless ghosts, troubled, spirits and a tangled weave of both the psychic and the psychotic goings on.

Kingdom Hospital is not really a horror movie with overt shockingly sick twisted tortured horrid things popping out of the woodwork at every turn as was the case in Stephen King's Rose Red. Kingdom Hospital is amazingly subtle in its slow but steady pace each episode constructing a complex interplay of odd characters and even odder situations. Yes there is the giant anteater like creature Antubis who does some really weird stuff. There is the lost little girl Mary trapped in the New Kingdom who walks the line being at times both frightened and frightening.

The odd ball doctors, patients and others working at New Kingdom Hospital effectively suggest that at the Kingdom Hospital as in real life, the more things change the more they stay the same. Among the doctors of the New Kingdom Hospital you have doctors with the same character flaws and twisted self indulgent, arrogantly self absorbed over inflated egos that ruled the twisted mad doctor(s) of the Old Kingdom Hospital. It is the subtle interplay between good and evil like a devils dance that makes Kingdom Hospital so much a joy to watch. Is Kingdom Hospital one of Stephen Kings better works yes! but only if you allow Kingdom Hospital to be the ode to a quirkish unsettling brand of unease bordering on horror that never crosses the line that it was meant to be in my humble opinion.

Kingdom Hospital stirs the good and evil inside each viewer's brain and allows the plot to develop differently for each individual. Kingdom Hospital is neither Horror nor Thriller. Kingdom Hospital if you allow it becomes something unique in the minds of any viewer to gives it an honest and fair chance. I love Kingdom Hospital so much I brought the whole set because, sometimes I do not want to be horrified, shocked or thrilled sometimes all I want to be is fascinated and that's what Kingdom Hospital does well, it FASCINATES THE MIND IN PLAYFUL BLACK MACARBE WAYS THAT INTOXICATE THE SOUL!

Kingdom Hospital deserves to be part of your collection because it fascinates the dark portions of your mind in the most unique ways if you allow it to do its work.