Back in 1995 I was staying in China, looking for something to watch on late-night Guangzhou television. Well, Hong Kong television, but they had that on the hotel's channels. Just by accident I 'rolled' into The Tommyknockers based on Stephen King's story. I heard some negative stories about the book and had never read it. I still haven't, so I can't compare book and movie adaption.
Ouch
Perhaps the better. Because the movie wasn't that bad... in 1995 😇 perhaps...
It's a bit of a borderline case where to put it. Horror or SF? One line synopsis: invasion of the alien mind snatchers.
Interestingly, The Tommyknockers is supposed to be a two-part miniseries, but I distinctly remember it being broadcasted as a movie. Perhaps they simply cut the credits and broadcasted the two parts back to back?
But... did I like it? Yeah, well, in 1995 I thought it was okay. It's 2023 and I've just obtained a copy and watched it again... and now... Jeez. Was I drunk at the time? I guess our standards -- at least when it comes to CGI and special effects -- have increased considerably since then. It was also quite a shock to watch this in 4:3 on my huge OLED thingy.
It seems King himself didn't like the series either. I had to re-watch it, my memory was too vague. It turns out that obtaining a legal copy want easy, and none of the regular streamers carried it.
That, in turn, points out the troubles with modern-day streaming. You would expect old series to show up on services like Netflix, but all those new-found streamers want is grab the max number of new viewers with new series. I think there's nothing wrong with maintaining a back catalog as well, but apparently that's not the case.
Verdict
Should you watch this nowadays? Of course not 😁
Dapper / TellTales! #116
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