Customer Reviews

Stephen King's Desperation

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

So I thought I only saw pieces of the ABC presentation of Desperation. On TV I thought I missed the chapter about the first family, David's family, and how they came to be in the town jail. It turns out I didn't miss anything, that's the way it was filmed. When I heard the film was available on DVD and "R" rated, too, I vowed to rent it and see the movie as it was designed to be seen. Curses, gore, adult scares and, perhaps a booby! One wouldn't expect anything but the most watered down presentation on ABC but the "R" rated version, oh boy!

The DVD, rated "R", was EXACTLY the same presentation word for word and scene for scene with the only difference being the exclusion of commercials. I'm going to say, and prove me wrong, that the "R" rating was slapped on the DVD to intice people to rent it to see the original adult version. What a sneaky rip-off. How can they do that?

Overall, the movie was not great. The ending was completely tacked on and I got a little tired of the sermonizing. The performances were OK, with the exception of Ron Perlman's performance. He was outstanding.

I know Amazon sells this DVD but they also sell the book and the book is much more satisfying. It's hard to believe the same guy that wrote the movie also wrote the book. I'm sure everybody made lots of money on this project but I'd like my money back.

Stephen King, as reknowned as he is, has a bad habit of recycling ideas for his books. Likewise, films based on his books, particularly the made for TV ones, are often nothing short of awful. Desperation has its moments, but is too muddy, too weird, and too saccarine sweet at times.


The film feels overly familiar to other King adaptations such as the Langoliers, IT and even the Stand. A group of sundry people are trapped in a Nevada ghost town and are at the mercy of a powerful earth demon or entity known as Tak, who dates back to an ancient, pre-Native American civilization. In the first half of the movie, Tak is played by the woefully underrated Ron Perlman, one of my favorite actors. Perlman chews up the scenery and seems to be enjoying himself. But the problem is that Tak can only inhabit human bodies for short amounts of time as they decompose rapidly, so Perlman isn't really seen in the second act. Lots of familiar actors and actresses show up, including Tom Skerrit as a Vietnam vet writer, Matt Frewer, Anabeth Gish and Stephen Webber. However, things get really muddled in the clash of good vs. evil. There are ENDLESS speeches and pep talks about God and christian faith, its really tiresome. However, the little boy who stands in for Danny from the Shining often finds himself asking if maybe the God he worships might be no less sadistic than Tak, so things aren't all black and white. The atmosphere of the town of Desperation is cool, but suffers from bad lighting. Probably the creepiest scene is a supernatural old film reel of how Tak was released from its ancient slumber.

Its too bad that there wasn't much light shed on what exactly is Tak trying to accomplish. It simply awakens, posseses people, controls animals and that's about it. It would also have been cooler if they delved a bit deeper into the ancient civilization that is connected with Tak. Oh well, if you're a King fan you might eat it up.

Tak!

This is a bad movie, and no where near the book, since it leaves out the majority of what the book was based on, the characters and their stories. Also, alot is abridged overall, which leaves it feeling to rushed and tenuous throughout. It is like a long Twilight Zone episode more than a big movie or film. One thing for those who are not religious, you may be turned off by the constant "God" theme that runs throughout the film. Even for religious people, you may find it annoying - it feels to preachy to me. TOTALY SUCKED!!!!!!

I read the book first and was a little disappointed to see they'd left so much that was on the pages out of the movie, but it was still a good horror flick in the King line up. Since I collect both his books and movies, this one certainly won't be left out. When characters crossing the desert find themselves face to face with a crazed cop, there's no hope of escape...or is there? The plot thickens as they discover it's not just a matter of an officer gone mad, but dealings with ancient supernatural spirits/Gods. A young boy may be their only salvation, if they choose to trust his visions.

I would've liked to have seen a slightly longer movie with more of the book, and especially a vital character that was left out, added in. However, I don't believe King movie fans will be disappointed.

Chrissy K. McVay - Author

Stephen King's Desperation (2006) was a poor two star film adaptation. I was only able to enjoy the first twenty minutes or so of Ron Perlman's work playing a Desperation road cop and then the movie turned to complete ka ka. This film was supposedly a mini "Stand", but I didn't see any comparison. It appeared to be a flimsy excuse for showing some very warped screen images that will stay in memory and make the audience never trust a police officer again! The on location scenery was very nice and was scoped out by King himself.

I really like about 75% of DESPERATION. It starts off w/ a wonderfully insane performance by Ron Perlman (Hellboy himself!) as the homicidal sheriff / demon of the small town of the title. He's very fun to watch! Then, we see the gathering of the forces of good (Steve Weber, Annabeth Gish, Charles Durning, et al) who must face down this beast. There is solid evidence that we are in for an epic battle, a reworking of THE STAND in microcosm. Tension builds, weird things happen, and lives are lost. All is well until we get to the conclusion of the story. That's when the proverbial wheels fly off. I mean, there's all this build-up, all this "coming supernatural showdown" stuff for the first 90 minutes or so, then- Pfffftt! A big fizzle at the end. I would love to have seen the final conflict between prayer-boy and Tak! It could have been spectacular! Instead, we get an explosion and THE END. Sort of like getting spinach for dessert! Blecch! Still, it's worth watching just for Perlman...

I read the book before I Purchased the Movie, which is always better, but the movie folows the book very closely from beginning to end. 2 people driving in a desert stopped by a demented cop, who plants drugs on them.They are taken to a jailhouse where others that were abducted are kept, and the story builds from there. Don't want to give away to much, but if you are an avid Stephen king fan, you will not be disapointed.

Yes the movie was a let down. You can't say that we weren't warned. Quite possibly one of the best "King" films was the original Shining, which wasn't fully appreciated until years later, similar to Apocalypse Now. This was also what infuriated Stephen King to have creative control over his adaptations to film. Because of this, you'll notice that the novels we love, with characters and situations that could never possibly be on TV always are. Randall Flagg on TV...please. We don't have Mick Garris to blame for this, first we have ourselves for continually being duped by King to believe his loyal fans will see what they paid for, or at least invested their time in. Fool me once... Anyway, Mick is simply doing whatever his boss, Mr. King tells him to do. Second, we have greed, and specifically King's to blame. What a shame that a talent, not unlike a Dickens for our time, would prostitute his work to make a quick buck, and dupe his loyal readership. As I read review after review, it's obvious his fans are loyal, too bad he can't return the favor. I guess we can be glad he hasn't tried to direct again.

One night when my friends were over late, we discovered that one of them had locked himself out of his car. To be more precise, the key had snapped off in the lock. It was an old car.

While we were trying to jimmy the lock, a car sped by - it was common for drivers in front of my parents' house to roar down the street with total disregard to speed limits - and a police cruiser drove past soon after. We cheered; finally, a cop was going to pull someone over for speeding!

Instead, the cruiser turned around. The cop and his partner, wary of four teenagers trying to break into a car, went on the offensive. One of my friends, the son of a cop, dared to frown as the cop tried to intimidate him, which just made things worse. As my friend put it, police have "SERVE and protect" on their cars. But there was a lot less serving going on. When we explained that we weren't trying to break into the car, the cops told us to try harder and drove off. They could just have easily arrested us.

I was in the comfort of home turf, in front of my parents' house, surrounded by friends. But what if it were just me alone, out in unfamiliar territory, and the cop accused me of something I didn't do? What then? That's the premise behind Desperation.

At least, that's how it starts. Like so many Stephen King stories, Desperation takes a nugget of everyday terror and explodes it into a full-blown story of terrifying proportions. We discover the fate of two lonesome travelers, Peter (Henry Thomas) and Mary (Annabeth Gish) Jackson, as they are pulled over by sheriff Collie Entragian (the fantastic Ron Perlman) of Desperation, Nevada. A sasquatch of a man, Desperation lets the question hang in the air for a few minutes as to whether Entragian is merely corrupt or truly insane. Once it's clear that he's completely bonkers and afflicted with some kind of debilitating condition, the tension peaks - is Entragian the victim of a disease? Did he really kill off all the inhabitants of Desperation? Or is he just a corrupt cop looking for a bribe?

Unfortunately, Desperation answers. And answers. And won't shut up about it - it's a battle between good and evil, between God and the Devil, between city folk and town folk, between man and nature, between White men and Chinese. In other words, it's every Stephen King movie you've ever seen.

Entragian, the scariest part of the entire movie, disappears to be replaced with a body-hopping spirit. Marching in to fill his place is a cavalcade of King stereotypes: the drunk, the desperate couple, the psychic child. The new addition is a stand in for King himself, John Edward Marinville (Tom Skerritt), who mocks his books and the genre he helped establish with a wink and a nod.

King throws a stream of exotic words at us to cover up the pedestrian plot torn from H.P. Lovecraft's The Temple: a series of stone idols (Can Tah, or ivory statues in The Temple) are unearthed from an underground dimension (Pirin Moh, a parallel for Atlantis) that release a demon from the depths (a "wazeen" known as TAK, a parallel to Gloon from The Temple). By the time the King stand-in has a showdown with TAK, it's clear from the dialogue that the author has given up on trying to scare us and is just laughing all the way to the bank.

Amidst talk about God's plans, ghostly appearances, wild animal attacks, and creepy statues, what started as a battle of wills between people in a desert town turns into a full-blown holy war. Or at least, a war of words. More breath is spent arguing over the existence of God than meaningfully propelling the plot. King apparently wanted to write about his religious view of the universe and decided to do it through Desperation. It's about as exciting as it sounds.

This is another one of my favorites. I have a collection of Stephen King movies and this was a "must have" for my collection. Even though I have only seen this movie a few times, I was desperate to add it to my collection. I was very pleased to find this for sale and will be very happy to add this great movie to my collection. One can never have enough of Stephen King movies in my opinion!