Stephen King's Storm of the Century (1999 mini-series)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guestx
  • Start date Start date
G

Guestx

Guest
movie.jpg


After watching IT the the other day, I got curious about TV mini-series that were produced based on Stephen King stories. I did a bit of reading and Storm of the Century seemed to always be at the top, or near the top, of most people's lists. So I checked it out.

This is a mini-series: A three-night event, each episode two hours with commercials (more like 1:22:00 without).

I felt like the first episode was very good. Eps 2 and 3 were good, but did not quite live up to the promise of ep 1. But the series as a whole is certainly worth a watch and was at least a hell of a lot better than that one other King TV mini-series I remember watching, the Langoliers.

A quick premise:

During the midst of a brutal blizzard, residents of an off-shore village are menaced by a powerful force of darkness in the form of a sinister stranger who begins to exploit the town members' darkest secrets until they give him "what he wants."
Click to expand...

What's especially interesting about Storm of the Century is that it didn't start out as one of King's books.

According to Wiki:

The screenplay for the miniseries was written by Stephen King expressly for television, and was published by Pocket Books just prior to the initial airing of Storm of the Century on ABC, while the mass market edition of the screenplay was published only as a trade paperback. A hardcover edition was published concurrently by the Book of the Month Club. The book contains an introduction in which King describes the genesis of the idea as it occurred to him in late 1996, beginning to write it in December 1996, and debating the format the story should take, either a novel or a screenplay, ending up writing a "novel for television".
Click to expand...

I didn't watch it when it first aired, but I remember a lot of chatter about it. Glad that I finally got around to it, though.

Anyone else seen it? Thoughts?
 
I didn't care for it. All I remember about it is it started off well and took a dive. There were some creepy parts but all around something I watched once and tried to delete from the memory banks.

The Langoliers was awful. Didn't even get through that or Tommyknockers. I did enjoy It and The Stand though despite some weaknesses and failures to stick to the books.
 
It's got Jeffrey DeMunn as Town Manager Robbie Beals.
 
scorpipede said:
I didn't care for it. All I remember about it is it started off well and took a dive. There were some creepy parts but all around something I watched once and tried to delete from the memory banks.
Click to expand...

Dude, the first episode has some legit creepy shit in it. For me, it was like some holy shit, this is quality fucking television kind of stuff. I was weirded out.

I do agree that it goes a bit downhill after the first episode, but I still thought the whole thing is worth a watch.

Especially for a mini-series aired on ABC, I thought it was kind of ballsy.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
movie.jpg


After watching IT the the other day, I got curious about TV mini-series that were produced based on Stephen King stories. I did a bit of reading and Storm of the Century seemed to always be at the top, or near the top, of most people's lists. So I checked it out.

This is a mini-series: A three-night event, each episode two hours with commercials (more like 1:22:00 without).

I felt like the first episode was very good. Eps 2 and 3 were good, but did not quite live up to the promise of ep 1. But the series as a whole is certainly worth a watch and was at least a hell of a lot better than that one other King TV mini-series I remember watching, the Langoliers.

A quick premise:



What's especially interesting about Storm of the Century is that it didn't start out as one of King's books.

According to Wiki:



I didn't watch it when it first aired, but I remember a lot of chatter about it. Glad that I finally got around to it, though.

Anyone else seen it? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

scorpipede said:
I didn't care for it. All I remember about it is it started off well and took a dive. There were some creepy parts but all around something I watched once and tried to delete from the memory banks.

The Langoliers was awful. Didn't even get through that or Tommyknockers. I did enjoy It and The Stand though despite some weaknesses and failures to stick to the books.
Click to expand...

I watched caught Langoliers on TV once. It had that shitty made for TV quality but I really enjoyed the concept.

Something about an empty world/buildings with noone in it stirs up a feeling of uneasiness on a visceral level. Which is really quite contrary to the typical horror tropes of a world filled with monsters and spirits. Put me in a world with zombies, demons ,and monsters and I think I could cope, but if I woke up one day to a totally uninhabited world i'd probably go insane and off myself.
 
breadfighter said:
I watched caught Langoliers on TV once. It had that shitty made for TV quality but I really enjoyed the concept.

Something about an empty world/buildings with noone in it stirs up a feeling of uneasiness on a visceral level. Which is really quite contrary to the typical horror tropes of a world filled with monsters and spirits. Put me in a world with zombies, demons ,and monsters and I think I could cope, but if I woke up one day to a totally uninhabited world i'd probably go insane and off myself.
Click to expand...

That's a bit of the horror in The Stand. There are some survivors but not a lot. You're left to your own abilities. It's silent. Yeah, freaky shit.
 
breadfighter said:
I watched caught Langoliers on TV once. It had that shitty made for TV quality but I really enjoyed the concept.

Something about an empty world/buildings with noone in it stirs up a feeling of uneasiness on a visceral level. Which is really quite contrary to the typical horror tropes of a world filled with monsters and spirits. Put me in a world with zombies, demons ,and monsters and I think I could cope, but if I woke up one day to a totally uninhabited world i'd probably go insane and off myself.
Click to expand...

Honestly, the ONLY thing about The Langoliers that I remember is the ultra-shitty CGI. And when I say ultra-shitty, I mean like some super-duper-holy-shit-take-you-out-of-the-story-is-this-really-the-best-you-could-do? kind of shit.

It was so bad.
 
i thought it was good, i havent seen it in at least 10 years though

when i was in mexico, they have channels that play american shows, and they played this one a few times while i was there.
 
I saw it when I was 10 or so. Linoge's fangs in the darkness scared the bejesus out of me. Haven't seen it since though.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Honestly, the ONLY thing about The Langoliers that I remember is the ultra-shitty CGI. And when I say ultra-shitty, I mean like some super-duper-holy-shit-take-you-out-of-the-story-is-this-really-the-best-you-could-do? kind of shit.

It was so bad.
Click to expand...

I think the founders of the SyFy channel saw it and had a eureka moment.
 
Gimme your children and I'll leave.
 
europe1 said:
I saw it when I was 10 or so. Linoge's fangs in the darkness scared the bejesus out of me. Haven't seen it since though.
Click to expand...

There's a scene near the end of the first episode where Linoge is in his cell whispering what sounds like Satanic incantations and his eyes turn red as he influences two characters to commit suicide and I thought that shit was legitimately creepy.
 
scorpipede said:
I think the founders of the SyFy channel saw it and had a eureka moment.
Click to expand...

LOL. They really are reminiscent of each other.

Even in 1995 I remember seeing the effects and thinking it was some laughable bullshit.


the-langoliers.jpg
 
shadow_priest_x said:
LOL. They really are reminiscent of each other.

Even in 1995 I remember seeing the effects and thinking it was some laughable bullshit.


the-langoliers.jpg
Click to expand...

Funny thing is I can watch awful SyFy effects all day long. They seem intentional. Langoliers just seemed like a big miss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,263,317
Messages
57,221,901
Members
175,588
Latest member
MateusNardello

Share this page

Back
Top