Retro Film/Television Review: The Tommyknockers (1993)

About nine years ago, I read the article in Serbian science fiction fanzine that dealt with the novels written by Stephen King. The author gave very detailed analysis of each of them, and in the end, ranked them all. On the bottom of the list was The Tommyknockers. Whether the novel was indeed the worst or not is not important, because almost any piece of fiction with Stephen King signiture is likely to be adapted to the big screen. So was the case with The Tommyknockers, which was adapted into three-hour TV-movie in 1993.

Like many of Stephen King's novel, the story takes place in a small town in the Northeast. The place is called Haven, and one of its inhabitants is a writer Bobbi Anderson (played by Marg Helgenberger). One day she walks in the woods and stumbles into strange metallic object. Soon Bobbi, and the rest of the town is witnessing a series of bizzare events, most frightening of them all being the change within the townspeople themselves. Good, God-fearing citizens are turning into stone cold killers, all guided by mysterious evil force. Due to the alcoholism, Bobbi's friend Jim Gardner (played by Jimmy Smits) is the only man immune to the evil influence and he tries to stop it.

Although it has budget, and many of very capable actors in supporting roles (including the lead Smits in a role rather unusual for his screen personality), The Tommyknockers is a television movie that simply looks cheap. Reason for that is formulaic screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen, that doesn't improve the lack of originality in Stephen King's plot, and also the professional, yet wooden directing by John Power. In the end, after many plot holes, predictable twists and lot of boredom, we have rather lame finale with some cheesy special effects. All in all, this film is still somewhat watchable, but most people would do themselves a favour if they skip it.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 11th 1999)

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