Review of Needful Things

Where can you still get some kicks if you have already existed for many centuries and, thanks to your manipulative talents and supernatural evil forces, were involved in – or even directly responsible for - the greatest tragedies and cataclysms of our not-so civilized world's history? Here's an idea; why not install yourself in a remote little New England community, full of naive and easily influential villagers, and gradually cause them to exterminate each other! Meanwhile you just stand at the sideline and observe with a devilish smile on your immortal face! This is exactly Leland Gaunt's intention when his old-timer Mercedes arrives in the sleepy little town of Castle Rock, Maine. In his charming antique store named Needful Things, Gaunt offers a unique item per resident that they either always craved or desperately require, whether it's a rare collector's item baseball card, an authentic 1950's football jacket or a cure to chronicle pain. Leland Gaunt does not ask for a payment, he asks for a favor. And these favors are to bring harm to others, which eventually brings the entire community at a state of war. "Needful Things" is an adaptation of a Stephen King novel and that brings me to repeat my unpopular opinion that he's often a plagiarist… This is at least the third time already that I encounter a movie of which the basic premise looks an awful lot like that of a much older and far more obscure horror gem. King's widely acclaimed novel and movie "Misery" bears a lot of resemblance to a rare 70's exploitation gem entitled "The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie", his mini-series "Storm of the Century" is actually an elaboration of the forgotten 80's low-budget flick "A Day of Judgement" and this "Needful Thing" could pretty much be described as a re-telling of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked this Way Comes". The surrounding is different, with an antique store instead of a traveling circus, but the rudimentary plots are exactly alike: how ordinary people are so easily prepared to exchange moral values and sense of civilization in favor of petty desires. Although personified in a mysterious stranger passing through a small village, the real devil is called avarice and selfishness and he homes inside every person. If you watch both movies (or read both novels) back-to-back, it's nearly impossible to deny that Stephen King didn't just borrow Ray Bradbury's bright ideas and altered a few minor details. Of course by this I don't mean to say that "Needful Things" isn't enjoyable. In an overall weak decade for the horror genre in general, this is in fact one of the best efforts, mainly thanks to a terrific ensemble cast and a few ingenious fright-moments. Max Von Sydow depicts a splendid evil caricature and other respectable names like J.T. Walsh, Ed Harris, Don S. Davis and Amanda Plummer go over-the-top exactly the way they should. Admirable direction as well, by Fraser Clarke Heston. Yeah, Charlton's son!