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Desperation reviews (may contain spoilers)
San Antonio Express News
"Stephen King's Desperation" meshes the ordinary with the monstrous to deliver one of the horror maestro's creepier television tales.
The three-hour, effect-laden, chill-filled movie, set in a desolate Nevada town that's been taken over by a terrible supernatural force, is only one of a long list of blockbuster TV lures that networks hope will draw eyes during May sweeps. The rating period, beginning Thursday and ending May 24, is one of four a year that help determine ad rates for national networks and their local affiliates. Large-budget disaster films, big-name specials and dramatic series finales are among May's goodies.
Director Mick Garris, who created the Showtime series "Masters of Horror" and has helmed many a King project, including the rating-grabbing miniseries of 1994, "The Stand," puts "Desperation" right up there with the best of the genre. He said King originally wrote the "Desperation" screenplay with a feature in mind, but later ABC went for it. The movie airs at 7 p.m. May 23.
Garris said he loves the cast assembled — Henry Thomas, Charles Durning, Ron Perlman, Tom Skerrit, Anabeth Gish, Steven Weber, Matt Frewer — and the fact that "Desperation" is "the ultimate battle between good and evil."
It also taps into basic human fears. Here, a young couple traveling through Nevada is stopped by a small-town police officer, accused of all sorts of infractions and carted to a spooky jail. You won't believe what happens to them when they get there.
We soon see they're not the only victims of Officer Collie's wrath. One of the most interesting encounters involves a bike-riding cult author from the Vietnam era, played by Tom Skerritt. Perlman plays the bullying cop for simultaneous laughs and goose bumps. It's clear he's possessed by something awful when he screams out strings of insults at his victims. Example: "You blue state, unisex, swingles!"
A young boy, who was apprehended along with his family, turns into a formidable force against Collie. His unshakable faith in God unites the jailed travelers against the town's unspeakable beast: a force that was awakened a while back when an abandoned mine was unearthed.
The movie has a little of everything: heart, spirituality, incredibly crafted flashback sequences, wonderful acting and shiver-under-the-covers shocks, a combo that should get ABC big audience numbers.
"Stephen King's Desperation" meshes the ordinary with the monstrous to deliver one of the horror maestro's creepier television tales.
The three-hour, effect-laden, chill-filled movie, set in a desolate Nevada town that's been taken over by a terrible supernatural force, is only one of a long list of blockbuster TV lures that networks hope will draw eyes during May sweeps. The rating period, beginning Thursday and ending May 24, is one of four a year that help determine ad rates for national networks and their local affiliates. Large-budget disaster films, big-name specials and dramatic series finales are among May's goodies.
Director Mick Garris, who created the Showtime series "Masters of Horror" and has helmed many a King project, including the rating-grabbing miniseries of 1994, "The Stand," puts "Desperation" right up there with the best of the genre. He said King originally wrote the "Desperation" screenplay with a feature in mind, but later ABC went for it. The movie airs at 7 p.m. May 23.
Garris said he loves the cast assembled — Henry Thomas, Charles Durning, Ron Perlman, Tom Skerrit, Anabeth Gish, Steven Weber, Matt Frewer — and the fact that "Desperation" is "the ultimate battle between good and evil."
It also taps into basic human fears. Here, a young couple traveling through Nevada is stopped by a small-town police officer, accused of all sorts of infractions and carted to a spooky jail. You won't believe what happens to them when they get there.
We soon see they're not the only victims of Officer Collie's wrath. One of the most interesting encounters involves a bike-riding cult author from the Vietnam era, played by Tom Skerritt. Perlman plays the bullying cop for simultaneous laughs and goose bumps. It's clear he's possessed by something awful when he screams out strings of insults at his victims. Example: "You blue state, unisex, swingles!"
A young boy, who was apprehended along with his family, turns into a formidable force against Collie. His unshakable faith in God unites the jailed travelers against the town's unspeakable beast: a force that was awakened a while back when an abandoned mine was unearthed.
The movie has a little of everything: heart, spirituality, incredibly crafted flashback sequences, wonderful acting and shiver-under-the-covers shocks, a combo that should get ABC big audience numbers.
Comments
Perlman plays Collie Entragian, a cop who's overtaken by the film's body-hopping evil entity, Tak, and proceeds to terrorize the other characters. "There's no censoring," Perlman said. "There's no value judgment to this guy's bloodlust. And he's smart. Because he's a Stephen King character, his turn of a phrase and his theatrical point of view is really, really smart. So there's an added perverseness to all of it that make it incredibly compelling to watch, ... I hope. I'm just giving you the sense I had of him from reading the script and playing the role."
King film veteran Mick Garris (The Stand) directed the three-hour movie, which features Tom Skerritt, Annabeth Gish, Steven Weber, Charles Durning, Henry Thomas and Matt Frewer. (Perlman previously portrayed a cop in Garris' King-based feature film Sleepwalkers.)
In a separate interview, Garris said that he and King initially intended to bring the book Desperation to the big screen back in 1998. The project fell apart at New Line Cinema. "We ran up against the world of horror being given away to teenagers and self-reflexive, wink-wink, nudge-nudge movies in the Scream mold and everything that happened after that," Garris said. "So to do a real serious horror film that went for the throat, so to speak, was not something the company was prepared to do at the time. So it's ironic that it turned into a television movie."
But Garris said that he doesn't mind the change to TV. "Well, for me, I don't watch much television, so I don't really discern between television and movies in the making of them," he said. "Obviously, you have to have to commercials and censorship and broadcast standards in mind when you're doing television, but in terms of the actual physical construction of a movie, I don't really treat them differently. The budgets are very different sometimes, but the budget for Desperation wasn't that different from the budget for Sleepwalkers and, in fact, my last feature, Riding the Bullet, cost less than half of what Desperation cost." Desperation premieres May 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. —Ian Spelling
STEPHEN KING’S DESPERATION -- FRIDAY, MAY 23 (8:00-11:00 p.m., ET) – In the middle of the vast, empty Nevada desert stands the once proud mining town of Desperation – a harmless, non-descript little community that one may briefly notice on a drive to some distant vacation destination. But something evil has taken over Desperation – its name is Tak -- and its mission is to eliminate anyone who gets close to stumbling upon its secret. Posing as Desperation cop Collie Entragian ( Ron Perlman), Tak is able to catch his prey while surveying the nearly empty highway. Caught in his deceptive web are famous author Johnny Marinville (Tom Skerritt), whose misdeeds from the past may come back to haunt him; Ralph (Matt Frewer) & Ellie Carver (Sylva Kelegian) and their son, David (Shane Haboucha) – whose faith may hold the key to bringing down Tak; and Mary Jackson (Annabeth Gish) who, with her husband, Peter (Henry Thomas), will discover a courage they never knew they had while battling the beast. Meanwhile, Johnny’s aide, Steve Ames (Steven Weber), and his traveling companion, Cynthia (Kelly Overton, “The Ring Two,” “All My Children”), find out for themselves the horror that has taken place in Desperation when they go in search of the famous author; and the town’s veterinarian, Tom Billingsley (Charles Durning), knows first-hand the secrets of the town. Everyone will soon discover that the unearthing of a long abandoned mine in Desperation awakened Tak, and his control over the desert’s animals and insects makes him even more invincible to these reluctant heroes as they battle to bring down the beast… and save themselves in the process. Broadcast with Video Description and Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning.
>> Full review at Catholic Online
“Desperation” was filmed in Bisbee and Tucson nearly two years ago, and several Bisbee residents were extras in the production.
The residents will be attending the premiere of the movie today at Tucson’s Fox Theatre, which is at 17 W. Congress.
There will be a VIP reception at 5:30 p.m., which will be followed by the showing of “Desperation” for the first time at 7:15 p.m.
Mayor Ron Oertle was an extra in the movie when he was the mayor-elect. He has been given several VIP passes for the premiere.
Resident Betty Lindstrom, who also was a movie extra, also will be in attendance at the Fox Theatre on Saturday.
“I think it will be real cool to be the first ones who will (see the movie),” she said.
Lindstrom said she has read King’s book so she has an idea on the plot as well as the ending, but realizes some things do change for visual and time purposes.
“I am extremely excited about going to see it with the cast,” she said.
Oertle said he, too, will be walking down the red carpet, explaining the VIP tickets came to him partly because he is the Bisbee mayor.
He and City Manager Steve Pauken will attend. Pauken was not in Bisbee at the time of the filming.
Oertle said he hopes to talk with the movie’s director in hopes of having more films shot in the city.
“Maybe I will have a few movie ideas myself,” he said.
“Desperation” will air at 7 p.m. May 23 on ABC. The movie has created a lot of interest in the community.
“Obviously, I am excited,” the mayor said. “It’s an experience for me.
“Bisbee will become known across the nation because of the movie ‘Desperation,’ ” he added.
Those of you who are familiar with the wonderful world of television may have noticed that Desperation — probably the best TV movie to be made from my work — has been scheduled by ABC to run, not just against American Idol, but against the American Idol finals! When I see this kind of scheduling, my heart is warmed by how well I have been treated by all my friends at ABC. One can truly say that with friends like this, one doesn’t need enemas. Little joke there. But am I bitter? HELL, YES, I AM BITTER! Oh, well, good work always finds a place in time, and ours may be in the DVD racks eventually. For now, please remember that Desperation airs on ABC May 23rd. Those of you who watch will get a gold star. Those of you who don’t, and watch American Idol instead…well, just remember: I have strange powers. I have been watching you all for some time through your computers. (This is actually a power conferred upon me by the Bush Administration.) I watch you when you eat, I watch you when you sleep, and I watch you when you undress. In regard to this last comment, some of you need more stylish underwear, but never mind; the point is, I will know if you watch American Idol and if something bad happens to you, it will be your own fault.
Cordially,
Steve
Stephen King's latest flick a muddled creepshow (Knight Ridder Tribune News Service)
Here are more reviews:
King's "Desperation" a reliable creepfest (Reuters)
King's 'Desperation' stalls in the desert (Fort Worth STAR-TELEGRAM)
I think King fans will really like it. The general populace? Remains to be seen.
DESPERATION is a film that King and I had been trying to make since 1998. It was difficult to make in almost every respect, but we really think it was worth it. All of us involved in the film have the utmost regard for King's work. We know that books aren't movies, and sometimes shouldn't be, but DESPERATION was one of King's most cinematic stories, and it was important to try to catch as much of that quicksilver magic as we could onscreen.
It's an odd film, even for a King story, and evolves in ways the average television viewer won't expect. But for the most part, with all of the fights in preproduction, we ended up making pretty much the movie we set out to make. ABC is cocky enough about it to put it up against the climax of AMERICAN IDOL. Well, even if most of America isn't watching, I hope fans of the novel, and of King, and of unique horror stories will be watching.
-- Mick Garris
To read more about Desperation, visit ABC's official website
Compared to the same night a year ago, "Idol" was up slightly while "House" grew by a big 33%.
CBS, with its coverage of the 41st annual "Academy of Country Music Awards," fared best among the nets left in Fox's wake on Tuesday (3.5/9 in 18-49, 12 million viewers overall), although the kudocast was down slightly year to year. Show peaked in the 10 o'clock half-hour, during which Rascal Flatts and Kelly Clarkson performed, with about 14.5 million viewers.
ABC didn't do much with its three-hour original pic "Stephen King's Desperation" (2.5/7 in 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall), but at least it beat out NBC's weak conclusion of two-part movie "10.5: Apocalypse" (2.2/6 in 18-49, 6.5 million viewers overall).