Stephen King Month: Needful Things

4.5 Stars - Entertaining

So at roughly half way through Stephen King Month and I finally get to look at my favourite book. Not just my favourite Stephen King book, but basically my favourite book, full stop. Needful Things.

Needful Things is the final Castle Rock Story, though other books would later have events happen in the town, this was the final story about the town and its inhabitants. One day in Castle Rock a mysterious store opens called Needful Things, the store is owned by a certain Leland Gaunt, an unusual man who has an uncanny ability to charm anyone around to his deals. The store sells several items, ranging from rare baseball cards to expensive pieces of art, and there is something that draws everyone who visits to it inexplicably, and it is always for a price they can afford. The cash price that is. For with every purchase made in private Mr. Gaunt gives another price, just a small prank, a little trick on someone in the town, seemingly harmless. However these harmless pranks play upon the pre-existing grudges and hatreds in the town, until things escalate to all out chaos and madness ensues.

The book is tremendous, every character in the town is perfectly crafted, so you really find it hard to see them tearing themselves apart at the seams, but at the same time you get a real twisted pleasure out of it. Also it is full of little inter-textual references to other castle rock stories such as Cujo and the Dead Zone, which is nice.

The film is a lot of fun, I'm probably rating it a bit high, but I genuinely enjoy it a lot. Max Von Sydow is awesome as Gaunt, clearly enjoying the hell out of playing such a malicious character and milking every drop of venom he can from the performance. Also Ed Harris is in it, and he's always fun.

As an adaptation it isn't perfect, there are plenty of changes made, some big, such as characters left out or the ultimate nature of Gaunt being a bit less ambiguous from the book. However its weirdly the little changes that niggle at me more, like why did they have to change Brian's baseball card he buys from Sandy Koufax to Mickey Mantle? Things of that nature, just little things that they could have kept. Still it keeps the sense of the story alive and it is an entertaining watch. I hear there's an extended cut with an hour's extra footage, but I've never been able to find it. I'd love to see it and see how different it is.

Buy Now. Pay Later.

In short, a magnificent book and a pretty fun film that I'd say is well worth a watch, for Max Von Sydow's devilish charm if nothing else.