Review: Stephen King’s Desperation

A wacko cop (Ron Perlman) is trapping unsuspecting travellers and throwing them in his jail in the dead-end town of Desperation. It seems everyone else in town is dead, and this group of strangers must work together to find out just what the hell is going on (Perlman was believed to have been a normal enough guy just the day before. What has changed him?) and put a stop to it. Annabeth Gish plays a woman whose husband (“ET” actor Henry Thomas) was killed by Perlman. Steven Weber works as a road manager for egotistical and atheistic (and womanising) author Tom Skerritt, and picks up a pretty young hitch-hiker on his way to Skerritt’s next destination. Unfortunately, the motorcycle-riding writer has just encountered the oddball Perlman. Matt Frewer plays father to a surprisingly resilient young boy whose current kidnapping does nothing to waver his faith in Jesus Christ. Charles Durning plays the only local person who has been captured, the town drunk (natch), with a wealth of knowledge about the town’s dark past.

 

Frankly disappointing 2006 Mick Garris (King’s terrible “Sleepwalkers”, and much better “The Stand”, and creator of the “Masters of Horror” TV series) adaptation of the Stephen King novel (by the man King himself) plays like a King imitator, stealing bits and pieces from other King stories (titles such as “The Tommyknockers”, “The Stand”, “Sleepwalkers”, and “IT” all immediately come to mind), as well as a large serving of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. And that’s a shame, because the cast is pretty good, at least on paper. Gish is as wonderful and loveable as always, and does ‘scared shitless’ pretty darn well (despite the film lacking in moments of fright for the most part). The increasingly decrepit-looking Skerritt isn’t the first guy I’d think of for his role (though he seemed to have been going through a midlife crisis in “Poison Ivy”), but it’s one of his more solid jobs, and veteran Durning has one of his best roles in recent times too. Best of all, is young Shane Haboucha, who despite being saddled with pro-religion dialogue laid on way too thickly, is utterly believable in his role. The only weak note actually comes from the usually wonderful Perlman, who does the best he can with a terribly-written role. It’s like a mixture of Pennywise, The Devil-like character from “The Stand”, and something out of “The Tommyknockers”, and is written way too tongue-in-cheek (I was expecting him to be singing ‘The Camp Town Races’ at one point), especially given how capable Perlman is at being imposingly villainous (and physically, his performance does work at least).

 

Pretty unmemorable and with an off-key tone, there’s just nothing new on show here. If King (“Carrie”, “Cujo”, “Stand By Me”) weren’t listed as screenwriter, you’d swear it was done by a fan geek slavishly referencing their idol.

 

Rating: C