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A self-opinionated late middle-aged writer is riding his
motorcycle between towns on his signing tour, when his is
accosted at the side of a deserted Nevada road by a police
sheriff, who sets him up with a drug-related arrest. He is
driven to a desolate town called Desperation and thrown into
a cell, adjacent to an old man, a young woman, a married couple
and a young boy. The boy is visited by visions of his younger
sister - murdered by the unbalanced and ruthless sheriff -
who offers him help and advice, and when he regularly prays
to God the others think he has lost it. A few hours behind
the writer, on the same road, is his aid and a hitchhiker.
When they find his motorcycle and a curiously abandoned motor-home,
they head into Desperation looking for help, but all they
find is a town full of dead bodies - all of them violently
attacked, it seems. The young boy has asked God to save his
best friend after an accident a while back, and now he feels
he is being asked to do something in return. That 'something'
is to fight an age-old demon known as Tak, who can jump bodies
and control the beasts...
I've
mentioned many times before, when reviewing Stephen King-related
material, that I'm not a fan of his writing, but admit that
many of his central themes and ideas can work well on the
big screen. Whilst a long way from being the gems that are
The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile,
Desperation is better than the majority of adaptations
we have seen previously. What we have is essentially an It-like
concept of a group of strangers being thrown together to fight
an ancient evil.
When
I noticed that the director is Mick Garris I initially had
mixed feelings. Garris has been at the helm of other King
projects, the excellent The
Shining TV mini-series (forget the film) and
the dreadful Rose
Red,
but as the originator of the groundbreaking Masters of
Horror anthology series I was prepared to give him the
benefit of the doubt. I'm glad I did.
Ron
Perlman is deliciously wicked as the possessed Sheriff, Collie
Entragian, and the conceited writer (is King having fun at
his own expense here? I thought that was a purely English
trait) is strong as the sceptic who learns the hard way, in
an almost priest-like Exorcist crisis of faith with
his own personal demons.
There
is a missed opportunity here, as the old man explains the
probable reason why he wasn't killed or possessed like the
other inhabitants of the town. He reasons that it was because
he was an alcoholic and drunk much of the time. Immediately,
it occurred to me (like I'm sure it will all of you too) that
this is a weapon, or certainly a valid defence mechanism against
the demon. But no sooner is this revelation revealed than
the old man is killed and it's all forgotten.
A
solid and enjoyable tale of hope against adversity (but then
aren't all stories that?), with a long build-up and a simple
solution.
Ty
Power
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