Sometimes They Come Back (1991)

We've finally made it to the end of the Night Shift mostly-awful movie marathon! While Sometimes They Come Back wasn't total dreck like Graveyard Shift and its ilk, it fell short of some of the better adaptations such as Cat's Eye. Actually, the original short story was a fair bit better than most of its companions, written around the time Carrie was published, so it straddles King's juvenilia and more professional short work. This probably made it more tempting than the others to get the movie treatment. Unfortunately, the original plan to integrate it into Cat's Eye, something I have a lot of trouble wrapping my brain around, didn't pan out and six years later it ended up on the small screen as its own movie.

The original story is a bit of a puzzler. It starts off fairly heartfelt, about dealing with loss and change and not even all that scary, like King was trying to bust out of the genre. That doesn't last as it becomes clear the old bullies are inexplicably coming back (as they sometimes do) into Jim's new classroom. So much for the non-genre story, but it moved the story more in line to what King does best. Then the story goes completely off the rails, with his wife being killed, Jim doing a deep dive into the occult, and the suffering reader chucking the book in bewilderment.

Needless to say, a straight-up adaptation of the story would be nothing short of box office tragedy, but one way or another, this one was going to get the treatment. The small screen ended up fielding it, resulting in a better-than-average TV movie for the 1990's, but another mediocre attempt overall. First off, the scenery was changed to the Kansas City area, and the town is Jim's old hometown. That way when he experiences the flashbacks everything is conveniently close by. Also, no family (wife or son) were killed in the movie, because it was primetime network television and that's not cool. Finally, the occult element is dialed way back. While there are still demons and afterlife matters, there are no real rituals (like cutting off fingers, etc.) beyond just having to reenact the past murder to push the demons officially into hell. As a quick sidebar here, I get it that "greaser" bullies like to be mean and hurt little kids, but murder? It seems a little casual for these guys.

Out of curiosity I looked at the plots for the two sequels and they are completely bonkers. Both unsurprisingly are straight-to-video gems that have nothing to do with the first movie. Number two is a similar incident, but with way more occult. Not to be outdone, the third takes place in (wait for it) Antarctica....and don't worry, the occult is still there!