stephen king desperation movie review

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

A Quiet Place: Day One Link to A Quiet Place: Day One
MaXXXine Link to MaXXXine
Kill Link to Kill

New TV Tonight

Star Trek: Prodigy: Season 2
Grace: Season 4
Down in the Valley: Season 1
The Great Food Truck Race: Season 17
SPRINT: Season 1

Stephen King's Desperation

Where to watch.

Rent Stephen King's Desperation on Fandango at Home, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Mick Garris

Tom Skerritt

John Edward Marinville

Steven Weber

Annabeth Gish

Mary Jackson

Ron Perlman

Collie Entragian

Henry Thomas

Peter Jackson

After the review, watche the Trailer or the Complete Film .

Stephen King’s Desperation: A Movie Review

When an old god is dug up in the desert, it’s up to several groups of unrelated travelers to ban together and put his ass back in the ground.

Buttonface Says:

The movie is based on Stephen King’s novel Desperation , which was published in 1996. I was 20 at the time and got the book in a set with the pseudonymous, The Regulators , written by King’s previous nom de plume, Richard Bachman. I was super excited by this because, oddly enough for the year, I was introduced to Richard Bachman before Stephen King.

My mom was an English teacher and aspiring writer and several of the rooms in my house looked like their own little libraries. When I first fell in love with horror in my pre-tweens my mom grabbed The Bachman Books off the shelf and told me to give it a try.

King used the pen name Richard Bachman for several reasons. One reason was to publish more than one book per year. His publisher had the policy of only releasing one book a year from each author, a practice that was not uncommon at the time. By publishing some of his work under a pseudonym, he was able to release more books without diluting his brand. By 1977, the release of the first book attributed to Bachman, King had already released Carrie (1974), ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), and The Shining (1977).

King also used the Bachman pseudonym as a way to experiment with different writing styles and explore more unconventional ideas. By writing under a different name, King was able to distance himself from his more mainstream work and take more creative risks without expectations. He’s said that he enjoyed the challenge of writing under a pseudonym and the freedom it gave him to “test the limits” of his writing.

Prior to this 1996 box set release of The Regulators and Desperation , King, as Bachman, only released four novellas and one novel. The four novellas were the ones given to me in the Bachman Books, and the lone novel was Thinner , a book we all ascribe to Stephen King today.

Novellas in The Bachman Books:

Rage (1977) is a psychological horror story follows high school student Charlie Decker, who becomes increasingly frustrated and angry with the people around him. He begins to lash out in violent ways. After a series of confrontations with classmates, teachers, and school administrators, Charlie holds his classmates captive in their classroom and demands to be heard. Rage ended up being eerily similar to several school hostage situations that came years later, but that’s a whole article unto itself.

The Long Walk (1979) is a science fiction story set in a dystopian future in which young men are selected to participate in an annual event called “The Long Walk”. The event is a grueling marathon-style walk from Maine to Florida that tests the endurance and will of its participants. The rules of the walk are simple: walkers must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour, and anyone who falls below that speed is shot

Roadwork (1981) is a post-apocalyptic story that follows a man named Barton as he struggles to come to terms with the loss of his home, wife, and son. He tries to navigate a world that has been ravaged by a series of disasters, including a nuclear war and a devastating plague. As Dawes struggles to survive, he is forced to confront his own inner demons and dark secrets.

The Running Man (1982) novella is set in a dystopian future where a man is forced to participate in a brutal game show called “The Running Man.” In the game, contestants are hunted by professional killers. As he struggles to survive, he must also confront the corruption and cynicism of the society that values entertainment above all else.

Needless to say, I loved The Bachman Books , and I loved both The Regulators and Desperation when they came out, with Desperation definitely being my favorite of the pair.

Desperation and The Regulators are “spiritual siblings.” They have some similar elements, but are not closely related enough to be a sequel or some sort of reboot. But, there is enough there for fans of either book to enjoy the other (Tak).

Stephen Kings Desperation Movie Review TAK

King has described Desperation as a darker novel than some of his other works, and noted that it was inspired in part by his own experiences driving through the desert. He also said that the novel was influenced by his interest in the concept of evil and the nature of faith, and that he wanted to explore these themes through the characters’ experiences.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, King described Desperation as one of his scariest novels and said that he enjoyed writing it because it allowed him to “confront the darkness” and explore “darker corners” of his imagination.

He was right! And, if there is such a thing as a great TV movie, this great book was turned into one.

First off, I’m a sucker for a big hole. In fact this movie has a great hodgepodge of things I find mysterious and potentially terrifying. Like the desert and desert animals, cops in general, being locked in the back of a police cruiser, a big ass creepy hole in the ground.

The desert is always great because it fulfills one of the necessary components of a horror film, an isolated group. A lot of horror films fail because they never explain why people don’t just run away, but when you know there is nothing out there for hundreds of miles, that fulfills the isolation requirement pretty good.

I do have a sociological question about Stephen King and TV movies. Is this life imitating art or art imitating life? Did he define the tv movie and miniseries? All TV movies seem to have the same pacing and the same style with one key difference, they tend to be better if they are based on Stephen King. In fact, my favorite TV movie of all time is one that King wrote as just a TV script called, Storm of the Century . If you have an answer send you fan mail to wherever I get fan mail at. While we’re at it, there’s another sociological Stephen King TV-movie question to address in future articles. This one pertains to the ‘90s only: “What’s up with all the chicks on TV in the ‘90s having red hair and green eyes?” Do you know how few people have red hair and green eyes? Every female star in the ‘90s apparently.

I remember falling in love with the book right away. Unlike most King books it opens quickly and picks up pace from there. Most of his stories start with several chapters explaining how the protagonist feels and describes some small town in main. The first line of this book is something like, “Ew Gross” as a girl sees a cat stuck to a speed limit sign, and the movie ain’t far off.

The opening line and face of the flick is actress Annabeth Gish. You’ll likely know her as Agent Monica Reyes from later years of The X-files . I’m a fan of Agent Reyes, is that something I should be ashamed of. I always thought she was a looker, even though there is something inherently soccer-momish about her, but soccer mom’s need love too… respectful platonic love, of course.

One thing that Stephen King can do, and does in Desperation , is make me interested in the lore of Christianity. I find mythologies and belief systems interesting. Everything from ancient lore, to satanism, to old religions from the far side of the world. But I have an issue with Christianity. Outside of possession movies, it’s hard for me to get wrapped up in the lore of Christianity. Perhaps it’s just too close to home, too right in my own neighborhood and believed as fantasy for me to also believe as fantasy. So there are very few stories that are able to capture my interest from that angle. There’s Desperation and a few other King stories, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy , Lord of the Rings , maybe others.

One part I found a little weird was the mom’s apprehension to the Christianity. I’m a pretty secular guy, down right agnostic if pressed, and my daughter ended up being very Christian and involved with the church. I guess my point is that I dont see what that fucking lady’s problem is? Maybe it’s an undefined Tak thing, it has been years since I read it. I mean I get it her daughter was just killed, but Jesus lady, get your shit together. I do appreciate a freaking-out character in my movies. Most good movies have one and I’m sure it’s hard to write and harder to act. So, maybe I need to get my shit together and give the lady a break.

It has lots of things that I think most horror, and movie fans in general, enjoy. Cops have a great horror quality. The idea of authority in the middle of nowhere is terrifying; especially authority with Ron Pearlman’s face. Personally, I have a fear of dogs, and that is well covered. For those that find old silent films and broken projectors creepy, there’s a bit of that. Of course there are spiders, snakes, demons, skin conditions with an air of rotting body horror, and dark warehouses. I’m impressed he fit so much cool stuff into one story.

While, I appreciate the whole “these crazy hicks are gonna fuck us or eat us” schtick, its getting a little played out. I realize this came out in 2006 and was written in 1996 and a lot has happened since, so let’s take that into consideration, shall we:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
High Tension (2003)
Dead End (I) (2003)
Wrong Turn (I) (2003)
The Locals (2003)
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Wolf Creek (2005)
The Devil’s Rejects (2005)
Rest Stop (2006)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Hatchet (2006)
And a whole lot more!

On a political level, it’s funny how back in 2006 they were playing up the red state vs blue state divide. There’s a great quote from Ron Pearlman as the town sheriff saying, “Do you understand your rights? Do you or not? Answer me, you smart-aleck blue-state unisex swingles!”

Now, I know a lot of people are probably concerned that it is a made-for-tv movie. The directing is definitely made-for-TV, but they did try, to some success, to put in interesting shots like dutch angles and odd close-ups that helped up the tension. The cast is also definitely a TV cast, but they sure got the cream of the crop of TV actors.

Anabelle Gish and Ron Pearlman would be enough to carry a decent flick for me, but they also had Tom Skerritt (also from King’s The Dead Zone ), Steven Weber (from Wings and King’s TV movie version of The Shining ), Charles Durning (nominated for two Academy Awards), Matt Frewer (Freakin’ Max Headroom ad was also good in Eureka! and Watchmen ), and Henry Thomas (Who played Elliot in E.T. and played the perfect bartender in Doctor Sleep ).

Notice how there aren’t many great women actors listed? I wonder why that is? Think deep on it, those who feel there were always great roles for chicks in the past, there weren’t. Fewer great roles means fewer noticeable great actors. But, I don’t blame King for this. In fact, I don’t really blame anybody. The world was fucked up then and the world is fucked up now, the only goal is to try to make it a little better when we depart.

Stephen King finds awesome ways to deliver fun, scary and interesting lore about some weird and sometimes downright silly shit… and I love him for it. I don’t want to give the plot away, so I will give away the plot to IT as an example. IT is about a bunch of loser kids that defeat an interdimensional space clown through the power of friendship, oh yeah and the space clown is really three lights in a spider disguise. Enjoy Desperation , it really does bring the made-for-TV movie to the highest art form it’s capable of achieving.

Subscribe to the Screaming Eye Press Newsletter

(function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true);

Supported by

TV Review | 'Stephen King's Desperation'

'Stephen King's Desperation': Lock Up Your Wolves

Share full article

By Virginia Heffernan

May 23, 2006

Literacy can get you killed in the work of Stephen King, who has written more than 40 novels. Masculine guilt over reading and writing — when a real man should act, serve God, fight a war — comes to life in his most successfully terrifying creations. Mr. King's many fans are avid readers; this guilt is potent for them, and time and time again he makes horror of it, activating it viscerally and often cathartically.

Mr. King has now adapted "Desperation," his 1996 novel, for television, and "Stephen King's Desperation" will have its premiere tonight on ABC. It's King done right. Mick Garris, who has directed six films or television movies based on Mr. King's work, brings to the semivexed project — a set collapsed during the shooting, injuring five people — steady nerves. The plot-crammed movie is genuinely transfixing, as Mr. Garris and Mr. King again tap the master's inexhaustible magic hat of scattershot iconography: wolves, wounds, mineshafts, abandoned R.V.'s, ghostly children, sunburned cops, bleeding slot machines.

The movie's tone, too, lurches in Mr. King's wonderfully off-balance way. First it's horrifying-madcap, then mournful, then glib, then straight screaming. Originally optioned as a feature, the story is a thorough sensory and emotional pounding, even on a small screen. It also sustains attention for its full three hours.

The cast is to thank, in large part. The saturnine Ron Perlman — forever Vincent, the lion-man, to fans of television's "Beauty and the Beast" — shows Nicholson-caliber skills as the deranged Collie Entragian, a spectacularly simian (or is it lupine?) police officer on a desert highway whose body has been inhabited by a vengeful Chinese spirit named Tak. Makeup people, presided over by Kim Collea, have turned his face into a red-purple masterpiece of rosacea and blistery, chapped sun damage.

As Entragian grows increasingly possessed and murderous, cankers on his lips ghoulishly wax and wane, and his complexion cracks into a road map of split, bleeding skin. It's scary, and it's a palpable letdown when Tak leaves Entragian to inhabit other bodies.(The evil spirit of the desert mines seems most at home in Mr. Perlman.)

Tom Skerritt and Charles Durning seem to enjoy themselves playing the goodish guys, Tak's prisoners and alcoholics with potentially fatal literary streaks. Mr. Skerritt is the King figure this time, a popular writer and onetime Vietnam reporter named Johnny Marinville, a smug atheist who gets arrested and tortured by the desert cop while he attempts to wring an essay collection out of a phony motorcycle ride across America. (An assistant follows him with a U-Haul.) His shoddy moral life, which seems surely connected to what Perlman's bad cop calls Johnny's "lefty New York" persona, will come back to haunt him.

Mr. Durning, who like Mr. Perlman should do more horror films, plays the town historian in Desperation, Nev., where the kidnapping and torture go on. He's the keeper of the legends about Chinese miners and a collapsed mine, out of which the enraged Tak has evidently come. He's also a run-down drunk, and he seems slated for sacrifice on first introduction.

Steven Weber and Kelly Overton play cute people, Steve and Cynthia. As usual in a King story, the young people's flirtation and plotline are turned trivial in the face of the cosmic questions that haunt children and graying men. Cynthia wears a Bob Dylan T-shirt; Steve is said to have worked for Steven Tyler. None of this wins them much respect from Johnny Marinville, who seems to tire of his own rock-god affectations as the film goes on.

Instead, Marinville is tempted by faith. A quizzical school-age boy, David (Shane Haboucha), is stuck in Tak's prison with him and the others, and is determined to pray his way out of it. The other hostages, including his mother, Ellie (Sylva Kelegian), discourage him from believing in God, but he persists — and that faith, along with a gun, help to spring the hostages, which sets off a chase. David also kills a wolf with whom he squares off in a doorway. It's a fine scene, and more evidence that Mr. King's talent for writing exhilarating, gloriously overblown and biblical-flavored showdowns may actually be boundless.

Annabeth Gish as Mary Jackson, another hostage Tak menaces, ought to have been better here. The character is underwritten, but Ms. Gish's bony face and skinny frame might have been used to evince Shelley Duvall-style goggle-eyed fear. Instead Ms. Gish seems to have aimed more for Sigourney Weaver-style woman warrior — and landed nowhere.

As Marinville flips the switch that will blow to smithereens some of the gang's problems, he says, "I hate critics." It's not entirely clear what this position means for him politically, and whether by this point he's sloughed off his status as a "no-chin, pencil-neck paper-pusher" or a "blue-state unisex swingle," which is how Tak contemptuously describes his many foes. Has he embraced a more heroic red-state masculine ideal?

God knows. In one of movie's several climactic scenes, Tak — a Chinese demon, remember, though at some point sense has been abandoned — booms at Marinville, "The heart of the unborn commands you to stop!" To which Marinville shoots back: "Adam Sandler demands you stop! Ann Coulter demands you stop!"

Like the iconography, and the vocabulary, and the tone, the ideology of "Stephen King's Desperation" is all mixed up. This first-rate movie is also a chthonic mess. Mr. King has once again slammed his hand flat on all the buttons, and everything is lit up.

Stephen King's Desperation

ABC, tonight at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.

Mick Garris, director; executive producers, Mark Sennet, Stephen King and Mr. Garris; teleplay by Stephen King; makeup, Kim Collea. A Sennet-Gernstein Entertainment production in association with Touchstone Television.

WITH: Tom Skerritt (Johnny Marinville), Steven Weber (Steve Ames), Annabeth Gish (Mary Jackson), Charles Durning (Tom Billingsley), Matt Frewer (Ralph Carver), Henry Thomas (Peter Jackson), Shane Haboucha (David Carver), Kelly Overton (Cynthia), Sylva Kelegian (Ellie Carver) and Ron Perlman (Collie Entragian).

Desperation (2006 TV Movie)

User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

User Ratings
External Reviews
Metacritic Reviews
Full Cast and Crew
Release Dates
Official Sites
Company Credits
Filming & Production
Technical Specs
Plot Summary
Plot Keywords
Parents Guide

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits
Alternate Versions
Connections
Soundtracks

Photo & Video

Photo Gallery
Trailers and Videos

Stephen King's Desperation

Time out says.

There are so many trademark Stephen King devices in this adaptation of a 1996 best-seller that the presence of the author’s name in the title almost comes off as an unfortunate pun. Yet while Desperation hardly features King’s most original plot, it vividly embodies his gift for squeezing brutal suspense and stinging social commentary from feverishly goofy ideas.

Like many King potboilers, Desperation deals with an ancient demonic entity that adopts the form of a more tangible nightmare figure—in this case, a redneck sheriff (Ron Perlman) who kills off the entire population of Desperation, Nevada, then turns his attention to unfortunate passing motorists. Predictably, the heroes (chiefly Tom Skerritt as a cocky novelist) can stop the evil force only by following the cryptic advice that another character receives in visions (Shane Haboucha plays David, a young boy receiving direct orders from God Himself). Perlman has a grand old time playing the lawman possessed by the extradimensional Tak, but his shenanigans are only an appetizer for a series of tense and surreal set pieces, including a hallucinatory flashback that takes the form of a faux silent movie. That sequence makes it possible to read Desperation as a timely allegory for America’s treatment of immigrants; even so, the message never saddles the story with more weight than it can bear. This is the fifth time that King has adapted his own work in tandem with director Mick Garris, and none of their collaborations have more thoroughly reflected the writer’s gonzo vision.— Andrew Johnston

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

Discover Time Out original video

Press office
Investor relations
Work for Time Out
Editorial guidelines
Privacy notice
Do not sell my information
Cookie policy
Accessibility statement
Terms of use
Modern slavery statement
Manage cookies
Advertising

Time Out Worldwide

All Time Out Locations
North America
South America
South Pacific

Stephen King's Desperation

A nevada town is plagued by an evil presence..

IGN Recommends

The Boys' Antony Starr Explains His 'Strangest Scene' Ever and How Homelander Is A Pawn In Season 4

Adapting Stephen King's Desperation: Ron Perlman Is A Terror In The Faithful 2006 TV Movie

Mick Garris’ Desperation , an adaptation of the Stephen King book of the same name written by the author, aired on ABC as a TV movie in the summer of 2006… but that was not at all the plan that the filmmakers had in mind for it when it first went into development. Not only was it a production that spent nearly a full decade trying to go from concept to finished product, but it underwent a medium change during the long wait as well.

The project was one of two adaptations that began their Hollywood journey on the set of the 1997 miniseries remake of The Shining (also written by King and directed by Garris) – but while Frank Darabont’s pitch for The Green Mile quickly got traction at Castle Rock and was made into a feature film that hit theaters in 2001, Desperation ’s path toward release was a lot rockier. The book was brand new at the time (it hit stores in September 1996), and initially, the idea was for King and Garris to make it as a theatrically released follow-up to The Shining . Unfortunately, Hollywood trends ended up providing a roadblock.

According to Mick Garris on Desperation ’s DVD commentary, Stephen King sold his script to New Line Cinema, but it hit a wall following the blockbuster success of Wes Craven ’s Scream . The studio balked at the idea of making a straight horror feature while witnessing the demand for what Garris calls, “self-reflective, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, teenage horror movie spoofs,” and the project went on the backburner. It wasn’t until years later – after the men collaborated on the 2004 super flop Riding The Bullet – that ABC convinced them to rework King’s screenplay as a teleplay, and what was going to be a big screen film was turned into a TV movie.

The issues didn’t stop there, as while filming wrapped in January 2005, a slow postproduction period resulted in the movie missing sweeps and getting delayed more than a year. By the time it did reach broadcast, ABC made the decision to air it up against the Season 4 finals of American Idol – a call that made Stephen King decidedly “bitter” – and while the reality show brought in over 30 million viewers (according to Scott van Doviak’s Stephen King Films FAQ ), Desperation had an audience of only 7.5 million.

At the time, Stephen King called Desperation “probably the best TV movie to be made from my work,” but is that a statement that has withstood the test of time? That’s the question that's front and center of mind as we dig into this week’s edition of Adapting Stephen King .

What Desperation Is About

Stephen King obviously understands the horror potential in isolated places. Salem’s Lot was inspired by the idea of a secluded Maine town being quietly annihilated. The Shining traps its characters alone in a Rocky Mountain hotel. “Children Of The Corn” drops its East coast protagonists into the vast emptiness of Nebraska. There are many more examples of this in the King canon – and Desperation is very much a part of that group.

The novel’s origins are documented on the author’s official website , and note that the idea for the story was born in 1991 when Stephen King was driving across the United States in his daughter’s car. While making his way through Nevada, he came upon a seemingly empty town called Ruth, and two thoughts instantly sprung to mind: “They’re all dead” and “Who killed them?” The answer he conjured was that the local sheriff had gone on some kind of homicidal rampage – and with that he started to come up with Desperation ’s monstrous antagonist, Collie Entragian.

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

Years later (in 1994, to be precise), Stephen King opted to do the promotional tour for his book Insomnia by traveling across the country on his motorcycle… and that particular adventure ended up informing John Edward Marinville, one of Desperation ’s key protagonists.

With the setting and characters conceptualized, King developed a story utilizing a theme that is present in a number of works: the nature of a benevolent or malevolent God. Much like what the writer did with The Stand (which is a story that sees holy good at work through the hands of Mother Abigail Freemantle, Stuart Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, Glen Bateman, and more), Desperation argues there is no savior or any simple solutions that come through faith. In a 2009 interview with Time Magazine , Stephen King explained,

I was raised in a religious household, and I really wanted to give God his due in this book. So often, in novels of the supernatural, God is a sort of kryptonite substance, or like holy water to a vampire. You just bring on God, and you say ‘in his name,’ and the evil thing disappears. But God as a real force in human lives is a lot more complex than that. And I wanted to say that in Desperation. God doesn’t always let the good guys win… It’s possible to be in pain and still believe that there is some force for good in the universe.

Operating in contrast to that “force for good in the universe” in the novel is Collie Entragian – a police officer in Desperation, Nevada. Not simply a psychotic, homicidal individual, Entragian is possessed by an evil entity known as Tak that has managed to escape from the local mine (known as the China Pit). After killing just about everybody locally, it begins to detain innocent strangers who simply make the mistake of driving near the town on US Highway 50.

At the start of the book, six strangers find themselves locked up in the Desperation police department. This includes the John Edward Marinville (a popular author), Mary Jackson (whose husband, Peter, is also killed by Entragian), Tom Billingsley (the town’s veterinarian), and the Carver family (including parents Ralph and Ellen, and their son David). The possessed cop has unspecified plans for them, but they know they have to escape before they are killed.

Working from the outside to help is Stephen Ames (John Marinville’s assistant) and Cynthia Smith (a hitchhiker), who figure out that John is in trouble when the former gets a scrambled distressed call – but also important in the mix is the powerful faith of young David, who has been divinely inspired after his best friend survives a near-fatal accident.

David squeezes his head through the bars in Desperation

How Mick Garris’ Desperation Differs From Stephen King’s Book

Shocker incoming: when Stephen King adapts his own stories, the scripts he writes tend to be very faithful. He doesn’t typically add new characters or subplots or make any big swings; in fact, it’s typically the opposite, as his job usually requires streamlining what he had published. Case in point, Desperation very much reflects what can be discovered reading the 1996 novel, but it does execute some notable alterations and cuts.

The first big difference that stands out between the book and adaptation is the excision of a secondary antagonist. In King’s novel, Stephen Ames (played by Steven Weber in the TV movie) and Cynthia Smith (Kelly Overton) encounter a woman named Audrey Wyler, a mining engineer, before finding John Marinville (Tom Skeritt) and the other scared travelers in the local movie theater. At first she appears to be yet another victim of everything that is happening in Desperation, but eventually the group realizes that she is another vessel for Tak. She tries to kill David Carver (Shane Ashton Haboucha), who the evil entity recognizes as a specific threat (another detail not in the adaptation), but she is stopped by the group while attempting to strangle the boy, and is herself killed.

The reason Audrey is able to try and choke David is because the kid is in a trance at the time – which is another detail that is changed for the Mick Garris movie. In the teleplay, Stephen King includes a scene where David magically watches a film depicting the history of the China Pit and how Tak originally escaped, but that’s not what is in the book. Instead, David has a vision with a guide who turns out to be a young John, and we learn the story about how, following his best friend’s accident, David was told by God to go to his special hideout (called the “Viet Cong Lookout”) and leave an Excused Early pass he got from school.

Instead of David’s vision, the adaptation gives one to John – who hallucinates watching a movie about his time in Vietnam shortly after he tries to abandon the rest of the Desperation survivors. Through the “movie” it is suggested that John previously encountered Tak while it was possessing a Viet Cong soldier. He witnesses the evil entity planting a bomb in a bar filled with Americans, and runs out of the place without trying to save anybody before the device explodes.

These changes wind up influencing differences in the ending. In Stephen King’s novel, David finds the Excused Early pass from school in his pocket with a note from John citing the bible verse that says, “God is love.” Because the pass isn’t featured in the movie, the adaptation changes things up, and the Desperation survivors instead find a yearbook with John’s handwriting in the back of Mary Jackson’s (Annabeth Gish) car. It also has a photo featuring John with David’s deceased sister and the aforementioned bible verse in chalk.

Ellen Carver face cut up with Tak in Desperation

Is It Worthy Of The King?

In addition to being a meditation on God and a tale of terror in the desert, Desperation is also part of an interesting writing experiment for Stephen King. September 24, 1996 marked not only the release date for the author’s book, but it also saw the publication of The Regulators – the first novel credited to Richard Bachman (King’s nom-de-plume) in about 12 years. With the effort, King wished to try and tell two very different stories in two distinct voices featuring relatively the same cast of characters.

It’s a cool idea… but I can’t honestly say I have much love for either book. Without getting too deep into my feelings about The Regulators (I’ll have to wait for it to be adapted for that opportunity), Desperation is a novel that never got its hooks into me while I was reading it. As intriguing as I often find Stephen King’s theology-driven endeavors, the ensemble cast of characters isn’t as engaging as the ka-tets of the writer’s best work, and Tak is interesting in its pseudo-biology and behavior, but also lacks any kind of significant nuance that makes it stand out as a next-level evil.

These issues aren’t fixed via adaptation. Sure, we get to see all of the desert creepy-crawlies creep and crawl around for real – scary for someone with entomophobia/arachnophobia like myself – but all of the best character-based terror is in the first act when Collie Entragian ( Ron Perlman ) is pulling his victims over on the road. Once the supernatural elements come into play, it loses all of its energy.

Ron Perlman’s performance really is the primary reason to watch Desperation … and that’s kind of a problem when you consider that Tak uses up Collie as a vessel halfway through the movie, and he only appears in brief flashes in the final hour. It can be called a faithful and worthy adaptation, but that sentiment comes heavy with context.

How To Watch Mick Garris’ Desperation

Those interested in checking out Mick Garris’ Desperation for themselves to make their own calls on the TV movie should have no issue finding a copy to watch. Physical media collectors have to settle for the DVD that was released shortly after the adaptation first aired (a Blu-ray has not yet been produced), but there are also plenty of digital options available. The 131-minute feature is not presently available on any of the major streaming subscription services, but you can either rent or purchase it online at major online retailers including Google Play , Apple TV , Vudu , and Amazon Video .

Coming up, I’ll next be heading to the year 2007 with Adapting Stephen King and examining John Cusack ’s second King movie after Rob Reiner ’s phenomenal Stand By Me : director Mikael Håfström’s haunted hotel room adventure 1408 , based on the short story of the same name collected in the 2002 omnibus Everything’s Eventual . Look for the column in the CinemaBlend movie section next Wednesday, and for now discover all of the previous installments by clicking through the banners below.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

America's Got Talent's Teen Boy Band Stuck Together Despite Switching Songs, But Howie Mandel Says Just One Of Them Is A Star

After 'Hawk Tuah' Girl Showed Up At Zach Bryan’s Concert, She Spent Some Time Spitting Around Shaq

After House Of The Dragon Began Exploring George R.R. Martin's Dragonseeds Storyline, Episode 3 Cinematographer Explains The Scene's 'Cheers' Inspiration

Desperation

September 24th, 1996

Available Format(s)

Hardcover / Paperback

Viking Press

Located off a desolate stretch of Interstate 50, Desperation, Nevada has few connections with the rest of the world. It is a place, though, where the seams between worlds are thin. Miners at the China Pit have accidentally broken into another dimension and released a horrific creature known as Tak, who takes human form by hijacking some of the town's residents. The forces of good orchestrate a confrontation between this ancient evil and a group of unsuspecting travelers who are lured to the dying town. This rag-tag band of unwilling champions is led by a young boy who speaks to God.

Hardcover Russia

Paperback Italy

From the Flap

Nevada is mostly a long stretch of desert you cross on the way to somewhere else. And with someone else, if you're lucky...because it's a scary place. Headed down Route 50 in the brutal summer heat are people who are never going to reach their destinations. Like the Jacksons, a professor and his wife going home to New York City; the Carvers, a Wentworth, Ohio, family bound for a vacation at Lake Tahoe; and aging literary lion Johnny Marinville, inventing a gonzo image for himself astride a 700-pound Harley. A dead cat nailed to a road sign heralds the little mining town of Desperation, a town that seems withered in the shade of a man-made mountain known as the China Pit. But it's worse than that, much worse. Regulating the traffic there is Collie Entragian, an outsize uniformed madman who considers himself the only law west of the Pecos. God forbid you should be missing a license plate or find yourself with a flat tire. There's something very wrong here, all right, and Entragian is only the surface of it. The secrets embedded in Desperation's landscape, and the evil that infects the town like some viral hot zone, are both awesome and terrifying. But as young David Carver seems to know - though it scares him nearly to death to realize it - so are the forces summoned to combat them.

Inspiration

Stephen first came up with the idea for Desperation in 1991, when he was driving his daughter's car cross-country. He passed through Ruth, Nevada, a small town with seemingly no inhabitants. He immediately thought, "They're all dead," and then "Who killed them?" At that point, his "Voice" immediately answered "The sheriff killed them all." In 1994, he decided to pursue this idea further while driving across country on his motorcycle during the Insomnia book tour.

There are no links for this Novel.

Related Works

Desperation (Television)

Desperation (Audiobook)

Tickets & Showtimes
Trending on RT

(Photo by Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection)

All 52 Stephen King Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

For as long as King’s been been publishing, Hollywood’s been knock-knock-knockin’ on Stephen’s door for more. First came 1976’s Carrie , two years after he published that first novel, which made household names of the author, Brian De Palma, Sissy Spacek, and the humiliating viscosity of pig’s blood. The 1980s saw a slew of adaptations, the highlights being The Shining , Stand by Me , and The Running Man (the book for which was published under pulp fall-guy name Richard Bachman). As for the ’90s, well…it’d be the best decade ever for just The Shawshank Redemption . But nope, there was also Misery and The Green Mile !

In recent years, it’s been about cats ( Pet Sematary ), clowns ( It Chapter Two ), and kids ( Doctor Sleep , new adaptations of Firestarter and Children of the Corn ). In 2023, The Boogeyman was pulled out of the pages of short story collection Night Shift and splayed on screen. So let’s get this fire started with all rated Stephen King movie adaptations by Tomatometer! — Alex Vo

(This is a guide to theatrically released King adaptations. If you’re interested in King on different platforms, look to our guide of Stephen King TV Series, Miniseries, TV Movies Ranked .)

Carrie (1976) 93%

Stand by Me (1986) 92%

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 89%

Misery (1990) 91%

The Dead Zone (1983) 89%

It (2017) 85%

Dolores Claiborne (1995) 85%

The Shining (1980) 83%

1408 (2007) 80%

The Green Mile (1999) 79%

Doctor Sleep (2019) 78%

The Mist (2007) 73%

Christine (1983) 72%

Cat's Eye (1985) 69%

The Running Man (1987) 67%

Creepshow (1982) 66%

It: Chapter Two (2019) 62%

The Boogeyman (2023) 60%

Cujo (1983) 59%

The Dark Half (1993) 62%

Pet Sematary (2019) 57%

Apt Pupil (1998) 54%

Pet Sematary (1989) 56%

Carrie (2013) 50%

Big Driver (2014) 50%

Hearts in Atlantis (2001) 49%

Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990) 46%

Secret Window (2004) 45%

Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022) 45%

Silver Bullet (1985) 41%

Children of the Corn (1984) 39%

Firestarter (1984) 40%

The Lawnmower Man (1992) 37%

Stephen King's The Night Flier (1997) 33%

A Good Marriage (2014) 32%

Needful Things (1993) 32%

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992) 30%

Creepshow 2 (1987) 29%

Sleepwalkers (1992) 29%

Dreamcatcher (2003) 28%

The Mangler (1995) 27%

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) 23%

Riding the Bullet (2004) 23%

Pet Sematary Two (1992) 21%

The Dark Tower (2017) 15%

Maximum Overdrive (1986) 14%

Children of the Corn (2020) 12%

Stephen King's Thinner (1996) 19%

Cell (2016) 11%

Firestarter (2022) 10%

Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996) 18%

Graveyard Shift (1990) 0%

More Countdown

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming

All Illumination Movies Ranked

All A24 Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Movie & TV News

Featured on rt.

4 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in July

July 3, 2024

Mission: Impossible 8 : Release Date, Story, Cast & More

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

Top Headlines

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming –
Movies To Watch July 4th Weekend –
All Illumination Movies Ranked –
All A24 Movies Ranked by Tomatometer –
300 Best Movies of All Time –
30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming –

Currently available on 4 streaming services.

Desperation (2006)

131min - English

Watch similar movies on Apple TV+ for free

7 Days Free

Then $9.99 / month

Didn't find what you were looking for?

Let us notify you once it becomes available on more services.

We checked for updates on 251 streaming services on July 4, 2024 at 12:03:03 PM. Something wrong? Let us know!

Desperation streaming: where to watch online?

You can buy "Desperation" on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Amazon Video as download or rent it on Apple TV, Vudu online.

When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of Desperation, they must fight for their lives.

Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes

Popular movies coming soon

Upcoming Drama movies

Similar Movies you can watch for free

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

Start a new list…
Add all films to a list…
Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Desperation.

Directed by Mick Garris

In this town, there are no accidents.

When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of Desperation, they must fight for their lives.

Tom Skerritt Steven Weber Annabeth Gish Charles Durning Matt Frewer Henry Thomas Shane Haboucha Kelly Overton Sylva Kelegian Ron Perlman Samantha Hanratty Ewan Chung Alain Uy Trieu Tran Tom Parker Darren Victoria Glenn R. Wilder Clint James

Director Director

Mick Garris

Producers Producers

Kelly Van Horn Bruce Dunn

Writer Writer

Stephen King

Original Writer Original Writer

Casting casting.

Lynn Kressel

Editor Editor

Patrick McMahon

Cinematography Cinematography

Christian Sebaldt

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

David Sosna Peter Merwin

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Stephen King Mark Sennet Mick Garris

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Ken Glassing Henry Tirl

Production Design Production Design

Phil Dagort

Art Direction Art Direction

Set decoration set decoration.

Marcia Calosio

Special Effects Special Effects

Lou Carlucci

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Loren Bivens

Stunts Stunts

Glenn R. Wilder Charlie Brewer Laura Albert

Composer Composer

Nicholas Pike

Sound Sound

Kenneth R. Burton Richard Taylor Andre Perreault Lisa Pinero

Costume Design Costume Design

Warden Neil

Makeup Makeup

Kim Collea Greg Nicotero Howard Berger Jake Garber Chad Atkinson John Paul Fedele Shannon Shea Andy Schoenberg Jaremy Aiello James Leonard Ben Rittenhouse Rob Freitas Grady Holder

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Buena Vista Pictures Touchstone Television Sennet Entertainment

Releases by Date

23 may 2006, releases by country.

131 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by gregs1999 ★★

I was really enjoying Ron Perlman’s character, but as soon as it stopped being about an insane cop and more about demons, I started to lose interest fast. He held the film together as hard as he could until he was on longer in it. The plot was so ridiculous, and the other characters weren’t memorable at all.

Stephen King ranked

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★½ 2

Stephen’s King’dom Marathon: Film #68

”You tell us about Desperation. Talk about it.”

You may all think I’m crazy, but here goes…. it was about 3 hours ago, I uncovered this old television movie while I was working my way through the Stephen King marathon. They shot this film a good 16 years ago but it wasn’t released until 2 years later. And the viewers, all who watched it, immediately buried their memories of it, along with whatever bible thumping feelings it had stirred up.

Now, the director, Mick Garris, had been treated badly by the feature film studios, but here in the valley of television-movies he was damn near part of the community. Sure it was micro-budgets and cheesy…

Review by Geoffrey Broomer ★★½

Desperation was the first King novel I read, and upon hearing it was getting the Mick Garris' television treatment with Perlman as our demonic sheriff, I was stoked. I should stress that every time I hear a King admirer complain that Kubrick's Shining betrayed the source material, I really think less of the author's fan collective. Yet here I became one of you. My first attempt at Desperation left me angry that a relatively simple story had been gutted to this extent.

Fourteen years later, and this revisit worked better for me. Perhaps its pages of the book slipping from my memory, or substantially lower expectations - but I had a much better time with the town of Desperation. Even…

Review by Richard ★★ 2

Surprisingly good until God is introduced as the film's main character...

Desperation is yet another lackluster Stephen King adaptation by his number one fan, Mick Garris.

Review by Film_Sammlung ★★½

Leider nicht die beste Stephen King Verfilmung, was wohl gerade daran liegt, dass die Laufzeit doch viel zu lange ist für das, was der Film zu erzählen hat.

Mitten in der Wüste Nevadas findet man den Ort Desperation, welcher einen skrupellosen Sheriff als Herrscher hat. Der nimmt sämtliche passierenden Leute fest und steckt diese gemeinsam in ein Gefängnis, welchem man nur durch einen Kampf um Leben und Tod entkommen kann.

Hat natürlich wieder alles drin, was man von einem King erwartet. Über den typischen Glaubensaspekt und Charakteren, bei denen jeder eine dunkle Vergangenheit hat, die ihn nicht mehr loslässt.

Mit einem wirklichen Grusel und Schauer Aspekt hält man sich diesmal etwas zurück. Klar gibt es wieder ein paar Fratzen zu…

Review by ZaraGwen ★★

I watched this for Henry Thomas and he died in like the first ten minutes I am annoyed

Review by filmsmack ★★★

As a TV movie this Stephen King adaptation is just ok, it’s elevated quite a bit by Ron Perlman playing a freaky and villainous sheriff, Perlman has always been one of those eccentric actors, up there with Nicolas Cage in my book for being weird and wonderful.

Though the characters and the backdrop of this story are different it feels very familiar, it’s Kings usual story of good vs evil. Felt like I was treading familiar territory, some of Kings stories can be a little too similar.

Review by Kat🦦 ★★

Stephen King getting in touch with his religious side.

::The X-Files Connections 🤓: Annabeth Gish (Agent Reyes, seasons 8, 9, and 11)

Review by Nuno Costa ★★½

Viewed on DVD

This is one of the few Stephen King books I started reading but never finished. I'm not sure if not finishing the book is a reflection on the book itself but Desperation (2006) the film starts really well but fades quickly after the first 30 mins. Ron Perlman's performance is the standout of this TV movie.

Review by nicktday ½ 2

Like the plague.

Review by Xplodera ★★ 2

If there ever was a perfect example of the fact that just about any Stephen King -novel is bound to become a film, it’s this. Not that Desperation is a particularly bad book; it’s overlong, but also King at his most Lovecraftian and with some great moments of tension, but nothing about it feels like it’s a good fit for the screen aside from the fact that… It’s a King-story. Ron Perlman is easily the highlight of this underwhelming TV-feature, with an unhinged, over-the-top-performance where it feels as if he’s ad-libbing most of it in a way that’s maybe not good but very watchable.

Sadly, that’s a brief part of an overlong film. At its best, it’s a limited kind of…

Review by Demdike ★★★

Mick Garris' two hour tv movie of the 1996 Stephen King novel (Who actually wrote the screenplay himself) is a hugely enjoyable horror thriller.

Helped by a good cast - Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt, Annabeth Gish, Steven Weber and Charles Durning - the film tells the story of a disparate group of people who end up locked in jail in the same backwater police station by grizzled sheriff Perlman.

I was pretty much gripped from the opening scenes and my interest never wavered. I felt the film had echoes of the superb King mini series Storm of the Century (1999) with it's settings and possession premise whilst still being entirely it's own entity whilst director Garris keeps the action flowing…

Similar Films

Select your preferred backdrop

Select your preferred poster, upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

Stephen King Loves This New Horror Film, Calling It “both intimate and textured”

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Flipboard
Share on Reddit
Share on Pinterest
Share on WhatsApp
Share via Email

Stephen King’s Twitter feed is a veritable cornucopia of film and television recommendations. It seems he is always watching TV and movies. We tend to keep a close eye on what the celebrated author is checking out so we can pass his suggestions on to you. On that note, we have another of King’s picks to share with you today. I’m talking about Michael Sarnoski’s A Quiet Place: Day One .

King checked the film out and has nothing but good things to say. He took to Twitter to praise the flick as simultaneously intimate and textured and gave props to the picture’s cast for a job well done.

A QUIET PLACE DAY 1: The rare "big Hollywood film" that is both intimate and textured. (And the cat steals the show.) — Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 30, 2024

Our Sharai Bohannon recently critiqued the film for Dread Central and, like King, had a very positive response. She came away impressed with what Sarnoski is able to do within the confines of a PG-13 horror film. Bohannon awarded the picture four stars and made the following assessment: “ A Quiet Place: Day One is big, beautiful, and tense. The film expertly navigates a more interesting avenue found within this world without losing sight of the human condition.”

In case you’re unfamiliar with the setup, it goes like this:

When New York City comes under attack from an alien invasion, a woman and other survivors try to find a way to safety. They soon learn that they must remain absolutely silent as the mysterious creatures are drawn to the slightest sound.

A Quiet Place: Day One stars Joseph Quinn, Lupita Nyong’o, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou. Sarnoski penned the script in addition to helming the picture.

A Quiet Place: Day One is out now in theaters.

That’s all we have for you at present, dear reader. Stay tuned to the site for more recommendations from cinematic luminaries as we uncover them. Also, be sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter so you never miss an update.

Categorized: News

Stephen King shares his 2 line review of 'A Quiet Place: Day One'

A man in a shirt sits in a seat, grinning. A screenshot from X showing a post from Stephen King is visible in the bottom-right corner.

As well as giving Elon Musk a hard time , Stephen King likes to spend his time on X (formerly Twitter) recommending movies, TV shows and books .

His latest positive review? A Quiet Place: Day One , the prequel to John Krasinski's apocalyptic blockbuster, this time written and directed by Michael Sarnoski. Starring Lupita Nyong'o, Stranger Things ' Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou, and a cat named Frodo , the film takes place in New York City during the initial invasion of the franchise's sound-hunting monsters.

"A QUIET PLACE DAY 1: The rare "big Hollywood film" that is both intimate and textured," wrote King in his post. "(And the cat steals the show.)"

Tweet may have been deleted

It's worth noting that while reviews of A Quiet Place: Day One have been generally positive , not everyone is a fan. Mashable's Kristy Puchko wrote in her review that the movie doesn't equal the sum of its parts.

"The love story at its core can't shine amid the required carnage and urban devastation demanded by the prequel's promise," Puchko wrote. "The performances — while earnest — can't find footing in the crude plotting. The scares, which once were grounded in character and uncertainty, lose their luster without either. With all this movie tries to wedge in, it's just not enough."

Every single Stephen King movie adaptation, ranked
Every single Stephen King novella, ranked
The best Stephen King books to read depending on your mood
13 of the best Stephen King short stories you've never read
Stephen King tweets his 'Salem's Lot' remake review

Oh, and if you've seen the movie and still have questions (including about the cat!), look no further .

A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theaters.

Topics Stephen King

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.

Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong'o try to survive invading monsters in "A Quiet Place: Day One."

Get the Reddit app

The largest Stephen King Fan Community on Reddit!

Desperation Review: Tak an lah!

Desperation is such a brutally awesome book! It's so violent and bleak, also refreshingly fast paced and engaging throughout. As with nearly every King book that I consume; I knew basically nothing about this one going in.

I was instantly hooked by the opening "arrest" stories and that psycho-killer cop! The desolation and despair paired perfectly with the desert setting and really gave the whole novel a neo-western feel. As always, King's characters were all expertly crafted and I even started to get some "The Stand" vibes once they were all assembled.

Entragian was a shockingly vicious antagonist that really anchored the first half of Desperation in a "true crime" style before the inevitable (but definitely not unwelcome!) supernatural SKU aspect came into play. I was actually glad it didn't lean too heavy into Dark Tower/Lowmen territory here as I assumed it might when the all the "can tah" talk began. I had, prior to this and Misery, started reading The Talisman and stopped several chapters in due to the fatigue I felt towards that Lowmen/alternate world narrative. So, needless to say, the completely different direction Desperation went after superficially flirting with those concepts was very welcomed.

What's not to love about this book? The Collie Entragian Survival Society was an excellent collective; each member bringing altering perspectives to this ever-evolving nightmare. It's hard to tell sometimes if Stephen King believes in God, but he definitely believes in gods! I actually really enjoy how he mixes horror, divine intervention, and fantasy simultaneously. This novel is the definition of "horror/thriller", which is what I assume most non-King readers think all of his books are but - as WE all know - many are not.

The stories of Tak's releases, grotesque physical manifestations, and ensuing terror were great as was the whole visual of Desperation sitting at the base of that massive mining pit with the China shaft pouring out its evil for generations.

Johnny's redemption arc made for a satisfying conclusion and that part with the "excused early" school pass at the end was pitch perfect. Definitely going to read Desperation's counterpart, The Regulators next even though I've heard that it is the lesser of the two. Still, I'm interested to finaly see just how good of a writer that Bachman guy is!

Stephen King Approves 'Big Hollywood' Horror Film

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Horror mastermind Stephen King is sold on A Quiet Place: Day One . With the film now playing in theaters, King has taken to social media to offer his praise for the movie.

In a post on X, King stated, " A QUIET PLACE DAY 1 : The rare 'big Hollywood film' that is both intimate and textured . (And the cat steals the show.)"

"That Body-Horror, Serial-Killer Feel": Terminator Zero Creators Take Netflix Show Back to Its Roots

Netflix's upcoming Terminator Zero anime is returning the James Cameron franchise to its origins through the inspiration of Japanese horror movies.

Many filmgoers and critics have agreed that the cat, named Frodo in the film, is a scene-stealer. The horror movie stars Lupita Nyong'o in the lead role , a woman with a feline companion in New York when the alien invasion first starts. To stay alive, survivors must stay as quiet as possible, as the blind invaders have an acute sense of hearing they use to seek out their prey.

A Quiet Place: Day One Gets Praise

King isn't alone in his opinion. A Quiet Place: Day One has a certified fresh score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. While it's the third installment of the horror movie series , Day One stands on its own with an all-new cast of characters in a different location at the very start of the invasion. And it would seem that including a cat as a pivotal character has only helped the film find its success.

A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theaters.

Source: Stephen King on X

A Quiet Place: Day One

Set before the events of the original film, "A Quiet Place: Day One" follows a new set of characters as they navigate the first terrifying hours of an alien invasion that hunts by sound. We witness the chaos, panic, and desperation as humanity is forced to adapt to a life of absolute silence.

'The Devil’s Bath' Review: One Of The Darkest Horror Movies You'll Ever See

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Big Picture

The Devil's Bath is a slow-burning Austrian-German horror film that delves into the darkness of depression in an 18th-century Austrian setting.
The film is not for everyone as it is a dark and unsettling film that will affect you deeply.
The movie explores depression in ways never seen before, and its themes are still relevant today.

The newest release on Shudder , The Devil's Bath , has a title that immediately demands your attention, but it's when you press play that it will grab you by the throat and not let you look away , no matter how much you might want to. Written and directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala , the duo behind the chilling horror films Goodnight Mommy and The Lodge , The Devil's Bath succeeds at topping those works. This isn't a film based on a novel or an original idea, but from research into some of the darkest subjects imaginable. This allows Franz and Fiala to tell their own story, but in the end, we're reminded that its origins are found in truth. The Devil's Bath is a film that won't leave you. Instead, it pulls you into the depths with it.

A slow-burn Austrian-German horror film with themes about depression , The Devil's Bath is best viewed alone, your phone put away, as you immerse yourself in the darkness. Led by a strong performance from Austrian musician turned actor Anja Plaschg , who is in nearly every second of the runtime, this film isn't for everyone. It's as dark as it can possibly get , with one shocking visual soon followed by another that's even worse. This isn't a horror movie about the supernatural, witches, demons, or real devils, but the darknes of the human soul. If you let it, The Devil's Bath will affect you so deeply that you'll never want to watch it again. This is not a criticism, as it only needs one viewing to invade your senses.

The Devil’s Bath (2024)

What is 'the devil’s bath' about.

The Devil's Bath takes place in 18th-century Austria in a setting that's as bleak as you could envision. The film starts off with a shock, as an unknown woman finds a baby alone in the woods and takes it. The rigid look on her face tells us she's not stealing it to call it her own, as she instead trudges through the woods, holding the screaming infant until she gets to the edge of a high waterfall. After pausing for a few seconds, she tosses the baby over, then goes to her priest to confess what she's done. The next we see of her, she is dead, her body sitting in a chair in the woods for all to see, her toes and fingers cut off, and her decapitated head displayed in a cage beside her.

Following this jolt of an intro, the plot turns brighter for the briefest of moments, as we witness the wedding of young Agnes (Plaschg) and her new husband, Wolf ( David Scheid ). After a celebration, which involves using a live chicken as a piñata, Wolf blindfolds his excited wife to show her a surprise gift. It turns out that Wolf has bought his bride a home , done so without consulting her, in an area away from the family she loves. Agnes is immediately disappointed, and her mind isn't changed when Wolf shows her the big stove she can cook on.

Agnes is a woman who we can tell wants to make the best of life. She's a hopeful person with the light still on inside her heart, but blow-by-blow we watch it be snuffed out. Wolf and Agnes want a child, but the groom isn't sexually interested in his wife. It probably doesn't help that Wolf gives Agnes a finger from the baby killer as a good luck charm to put under her bed . All Wolf and the townsfolk care about is the doldrums of back-breaking labor, spending their days fishing and in the fields, only to come home and cook, go to bed, and do it all over again. The monotony, and the loneliness of leaving her family behind for a new one she can't connect with, sends Agnes spiraling into the deepest of depressions.

Anja Plaschg's Agnes Will Break Your Heart Even as She Terrifies You

The Devil's Bath doesn't give way to easy, recycled character tropes . Wolf could have easily been portrayed as a mean brute who beats his wife and calls her names when she refuses to get out of bed. Instead, he is shown to be a kind man who is deeply concerned, but who doesn't know how to help. He can't figure out that he is a big part of the problem. Wolf is a bit of a momma's boy, with his mother ( Maria Hofstätter ) coming over nightly to cook when Agnes can't fulfill her expected wifely duties. However, even though she might disparage her daughter-in-law, her son never does.

This movie, however, is all about Agnes. Played by Anja Plaschg, an Austrian musician who goes by the name Soap&Skin, The Devil's Bath is just her third film role, and her first in eight years . You'd never know that Plaschg has such little experience and would assume she's a veteran actress you're simply not familiar with. This is because the film depends on her to carry every single scene as, for only a few brief moments, and not including the opening, every single scene follows her. The Devil's Bath doesn't give us Agnes screaming about the unfairness of life or begging for her husband to notice her. It's not interested in that kind of drama, but a quiet pain that is shown and not told. We watch Agnes sink lower, her face growing darker by the minute, the misery etched in every curve of her features and the way she moves, and most striking, sometimes the way she doesn't move at all, to the point that you wonder if she's dead.

This Stephen King-Approved Horror Movie Is the Best Creature Feature in Years

Murderous spiders with a deeper message.

Plaschg makes us feel a strong pity for Agnes, one that's frustrating, because we, in 2024, with our knowledge of mental health, can see why she is struggling so badly. We want to reach through the screen and shake Wolf and tell him how to save his wife, but in such a bleak world where the only thing that matters is hard work, he can't be helped. The third act begins with a possible resolution to Agnes' woes that might be the path forward as a cure for her depression , as Wolf makes a desperate act to save his wife, but it might all be too late, as the final minutes show Agnes committing a desperate act of her own , one so revolting that we should hate her, but because we've spent so much time sympathizing for her, it only makes us break for Agnes even more.

'The Devil's Bath' Looks at Depression in Ways Never Seen Before

Plenty of films have told stories about depression , done in convincing fashion by the likes of Melancholia , The Hours , The Virgin Suicides , and Ordinary People just to name a few , but The Devil's Bath differs in the lens its story is told through. This isn't our modern world, but hundreds of years ago, in an era that doesn't understand why someone would mentally fall apart. That's seen even in the title, as Agnes is said to be caught in the devil's bath, their term for depression, as if something otherworldly is the cause. Agnes goes to a doctor of sorts, but his treatment is to label her depression as a poison that must literally be drained from her .

One look at the trailer, and you might expect to watch a period-piece version of Midsommar . While there are similar qualities of a woman feeling alone even when surrounded by a group of people , Midsommar is a study on grief . That's what makes The Devil's Bath so much darker as Agnes hasn't lost anyone in her family. She is not mourning the death of a parent or sibling, but is losing herself and mourning the death of everything she ever wanted to be, even as she still breathes. Although this might be a story told from three hundred years ago, it's one that's understood now, especially if you've battled depression yourself.

After the twist of The Devil's Bath plays out, a final crawl reveals that many people through her time, like Agnes, saw a way out of their pain through similar acts. It makes what she went through even more horrific , because now we know that her story is based in facts. It speaks to the terror of how depression was once treated and the desperation its victims felt. The Devil's Bath is as bleak and hopeless as it gets, but if you give it a chance, it will change you. It's unsettling but never settles, making for a film you'll only want to watch once, because its horror will stick with you, replaying in your mind in the quiet moments, so that a second viewing is never needed because the first has never let you go.

'The Devil's Bath' is a horror film as serious as it gets, letting you into a world of darkness so raw and well-crafted that you'll never want to watch it again.

The subject matter of depression is presented in a way that's bleak but will speak to you, despite its story being hundreds of years old.
While it's a film about a difficult topic, it moves at a pace that will never allow your attention to wane.
Anja Plaschg gives a quiet performance that silently screams in unrelenting pain.

The Devil's Bath is now available to stream on Shudder in the U.S.

WATCH ON SHUDDER

Movie Reviews

Screen Rant

Stephen king reviews a quiet place: day one: "rare 'big hollywood film'".

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

A Quiet Place: Day One Ending Explained

I can't believe the cat did that in a quiet place: day one, a quiet place: day one box office surpasses major global milestone.

Stephen King praises A Quiet Place: Day One as a rare "big Hollywood film" that's intimate and textured.
The movie takes risks with a small cast and focuses on character development, bolstered by strong performances from Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn.
A Quiet Place: Day One enriches the franchise by fleshing out the world, ensuring its continued success and popularity.

Stephen King has shared his review of A Quiet Place: Day One . The newest entry in Paramount's franchise, Day One released to theaters on June 28, facing tough competition from Inside Out 2 . However, Day One still managed a franchise-best opening weekend and has received largely positive reviews from critics.

It seems King agrees with the consensus . The novelist tweeted his honest reaction to the movie, highlighting some of its biggest draws. Check out the tweet below:

In his tweet, King called A Quiet Place: Day One " The rare 'big Hollywood film' that is both intimate and textured. " He went on to say, " (And the cat steals the show.) "

A Quiet Place: Day One ends with a major character decision and some hope. We break down the biggest aspects of the prequel's ending & what it means.

A Quiet Place: Day One Takes Risks That Pay Off

Stephen king is correct that day one stands out among other "big hollywood films".

On the surface, A Quiet Place: Day One seems like a rather safe bet for Paramount, and King is fair in calling it a " big Hollywood film ." It comes from an established franchise and has plenty of star power with Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn. However, despite these markers seemingly setting it up for success, the movie still takes risks and sets itself apart from similar films.

A Quiet Place: Day One 's relatively small cast is one of its biggest gambles, with its size similar to the first A Quiet Place movie. Like that film, Day One lives or dies by audiences connecting with the characters and becoming invested in their stories, which contributes to the intimacy King references in his review. It's no coincidence that many critics have called Nyong'o and Quinn's performances a highlight of the movie, as they are central to why the story works as well as it does.

King also cites Day One 's " textured " feel, which certainly comes across on screen. One of the draws of the main A Quiet Place films is that the world feels rich and dynamic, immersing audiences almost instantly and making them buy the heightened stakes. Day One does what a good prequel should do in fleshing out that world even further, enriching the entire franchise in the process. With A Quiet Place: Day One 's success and the positive response from critics and viewers like King, it's hard to imagine the series coming to an end any time soon.

Source: Stephen King

A Quiet Place: Day One

A Quiet Place: Day One is a spin-off of the A Quiet Place franchise conceived by John Krasinski. The film is set at the beginning of the invasion as humanity scrambles to survive, before the events of the original film, with Lupita Nyong'O leading the cast, directed by Michael Sarnoski.

IMAGES

Stephen King's Desperation
Stephen King's Desperation: A Movie Review
Stephen Kings Desperation (film)
Desperation (TV Movie 2006)
Desperation by Stephen King: An Honest Review
DESPERATION: Book & Movie Anniversary Review LIVE

VIDEO

Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen King
The Stephen King Theorist: Episode 55
Unboxing THE REGULATORS (Posesión) de Richard Bachman (Stephen King) + DESPERATION + Nueva intro
Desperation(2007) The Movie Part 1

COMMENTS

Stephen King's Desperation
Stephen King's Desperation Reviews. All Critics. Top Critics. All Audience. Verified Audience. John Leonard New York Magazine/Vulture. TOP CRITIC. ... what makes Desperation special-effective is ...
Stephen King's Desperation
Stephen King's Desperation. TV-14 2006 2h 11m Horror. Reviews. 33% Audience Score 10,000+ Ratings. Humans (Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish) must battle against a malevolent entity that ...
Stephen King's Desperation
Stephen King's Desperation is a 2006 American made-for-TV horror film based on Stephen King's 1996 novel of the same name. King himself wrote the teleplay. ... She leads him to the movie editing machine, where seemingly supernatural old footage reveals how Tak came to the town. ... The film received moderately favourable reviews, including a 46 ...
Desperation (TV Movie 2006)
Desperation: Directed by Mick Garris. With Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish, Charles Durning. When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of Desperation, they must fight for their lives.
Stephen King's Desperation: A Movie Review
The movie is based on Stephen King's novel Desperation, which was published in 1996. I was 20 at the time and got the book in a set with the pseudonymous, The Regulators, written by King's previous nom de plume, Richard Bachman. I was super excited by this because, oddly enough for the year, I was introduced to Richard Bachman before ...
'Stephen King's Desperation': Lock Up Your Wolves
Mick Garris, who has directed six films or television movies based on Mr. King's work, brings to the semivexed project — a set collapsed during the shooting, injuring five people — steady ...
Desperation (TV Movie 2006)
Suddenly however, the movie turns into something much less exciting. Not to give too much away, the focus of the plot turns to a young boy named David, hell-bent on religion. Horror films have a great, inherent potential for dealing with religious themes in an intelligent way. Unfortunately, Desperation screws it up.
Stephen King's Desperation
There are so many trademark Stephen King devices in this adaptation of a 1996 best-seller that the presence of the author's name in the title almost comes off as an unfortunate pun.
Stephen King's Desperation
Stephen King Director Mick Garris: From Star Wars Receptionist to Horror Icon Sep 17, 2021 - The writer-director-podcaster and all around genre legend talks his 40-year career and his new book ...
Stephen King's Desperation
Frequent King collaborator Mick Garris (The Shining miniseries/The Stand) directs, once again joining forces with King, who adapts his own novel. Stephen King's Desperation airs on ABC on Tuesday ...
Desperation (novel)
Desperation is a horror novel by American author Stephen King.It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, The Regulators, itself published under King's Richard Bachman pseudonym. It was also made into a TV film starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt and Steven Weber in 2006. The two novels represent parallel universes relative to one another, and most of the characters present ...
Adapting Stephen King's Desperation: Ron Perlman Is A Terror In The
Mick Garris' Desperation, an adaptation of the Stephen King book of the same name written by the author, aired on ABC as a TV movie in the summer of 2006… but that was not at all the plan that ...
Stephen King
Released. September 24th, 1996. Available Format (s) Hardcover / Paperback. Publisher. Viking Press. Located off a desolate stretch of Interstate 50, Desperation, Nevada has few connections with the rest of the world. It is a place, though, where the seams between worlds are thin. Miners at the China Pit have accidentally broken into another ...
Stephen King's Desperation (2006)
Stephen King's Desperation (2006)When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of ...
All 52 Stephen King Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Misery (1990)91%. #4. 97030%. Critics Consensus: Elevated by standout performances from James Caan and Kathy Bates, this taut and frightening film is one of the best Stephen King adaptations to date. Synopsis: After a serious car crash, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who...
Desperation streaming: where to watch movie online?
Similar Movies you can watch for free. Where is Desperation streaming? Find out where to watch online amongst 45+ services including Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video.
Spoiler free review of "Desperation" : r/stephenking
Desperation is my 17th King read and it would be hard not to squeeze it somewhere in my top ten. This book definitely gets 5/5 stars for me. The plot was excellent and had a great ending. The character development for the main protagonists was just absolutely stellar as usual in a King book. But what amazed me the most about this book was the ...
Desperation by Stephen King
Stephen King. 3.85. 143,342 ratings4,050 reviews. Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0451188462 (ISBN13: 9780451188465) There's a place along Interstate 50 that some call the loneliest place on Earth. It's known as Desperation, Nevada. It's not a very nice place to live. It's an even worse place to die. Let the battle against evil begin.
Is the Desperation movie adaptation worth watching?
It's actually very good for a straight to DVD movie. It's actually fairly faithful to the source material, and the acting while not superb is at least good enough. It was very well cast. Loved it! Haven't seen it in like 15 years but I remember loving it , pulled an all nighter with my cousin it was so long.
‎Desperation (2006) directed by Mick Garris • Reviews, film + cast
Stephen's King'dom Marathon: Film #68 "You tell us about Desperation. Talk about it." You may all think I'm crazy, but here goes…. it was about 3 hours ago, I uncovered this old television movie while I was working my way through the Stephen King marathon. They shot this film a good 16 years ago but it wasn't released until 2 ...
Stephen King: Why The Desperation TV Miniseries Was So Unsuccessful
ABC and Stephen King teamed up for multiple hit miniseries adaptations of his books over the years, but 2006's Desperation flatlined in the ratings. King material has a long history of making for good limited run TV productions, whether they be two-four night miniseries or eight-thirteen episode one and done series.
Thoughts on Desperation? : r/stephenking
Without spoilers my best explanation is different setting with reoccurring references and similar story line. The name thing is a bit odd but basically King used the same exact names for about 7 characters in Desperation and Regulators, but the characters' personalities and physical looks are different in each novel. 2.
Stephen King Says This New Film Is "Both intimate and textured"
Stephen King's Twitter feed is a veritable cornucopia of film and television recommendations. It seems he is always watching TV and movies. We tend to keep a close eye on what the celebrated ...
Stephen King's Review Of Netflix's New 64% RT Horror Movie Perfectly
Stephen King's review for a new Netflix horror movie reveals why it is a streaming hit despite having a Rotten Tomatoes score of 64%.Since Stephen King has written over 60 novels in his writing ...
Stephen King shares his 2 line review of 'A Quiet Place: Day One'
Stephen King tweets his 'Salem's Lot' remake review Oh, and if you've seen the movie and still have questions (including about the cat!), look no further . A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in ...
Desperation Review: Tak an lah! : r/stephenking
Desperation Review: Tak an lah! Desperation is such a brutally awesome book! It's so violent and bleak, also refreshingly fast paced and engaging throughout. As with nearly every King book that I consume; I knew basically nothing about this one going in. I was instantly hooked by the opening "arrest" stories and that psycho-killer cop!
Stephen King Approves 'Big Hollywood' Horror Film
Horror mastermind Stephen King is sold on A Quiet Place: Day One. With the film now playing in theaters, King has taken to social media to offer his praise for the movie. In a post on X, King stated, "A QUIET PLACE DAY 1: The rare 'big Hollywood film' that is both intimate and textured. (And the cat steals the show.)"
'The Devil's Bath' Review
Please verify your email address. You've reached your account maximum for followed topics. The Devil's Bath is a slow-burning Austrian-German horror film that delves into the darkness of ...
Stephen King Reviews A Quiet Place: Day One: "Rare 'Big Hollywood Film'"
Stephen King has shared his review of A Quiet Place: Day One.The newest entry in Paramount's franchise, Day One released to theaters on June 28, facing tough competition from Inside Out 2.However, Day One still managed a franchise-best opening weekend and has received largely positive reviews from critics. It seems King agrees with the consensus.The novelist tweeted his honest reaction to the ...

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Stephen King's Desperation

Critics Reviews

Stephen King’s Desperation: A Movie Review

Buttonface Says:

More on cogitations on 1996’s Desperation:

Subscribe to the Screaming Eye Press Newsletter

'Stephen King's Desperation': Lock Up Your Wolves

Desperation (2006 TV Movie)

Did You Know?

Photo & Video

Related Items

Recently Viewed

Stephen King's Desperation

Stephen King's Desperation

In This Article

IGN Recommends

Adapting Stephen King's Desperation: Ron Perlman Is A Terror In The Faithful 2006 TV Movie

What Desperation Is About

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

How Mick Garris’ Desperation Differs From Stephen King’s Book

Is It Worthy Of The King?

How To Watch Mick Garris’ Desperation

Most Popular

Desperation

From the Flap

Inspiration

Related Works

All 52 Stephen King Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Carrie (1976) 93%

Stand by Me (1986) 92%

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 89%

Misery (1990) 91%

The Dead Zone (1983) 89%

It (2017) 85%

Dolores Claiborne (1995) 85%

The Shining (1980) 83%

1408 (2007) 80%

The Green Mile (1999) 79%

Doctor Sleep (2019) 78%

The Mist (2007) 73%

Christine (1983) 72%

Cat's Eye (1985) 69%

The Running Man (1987) 67%

Creepshow (1982) 66%

It: Chapter Two (2019) 62%

The Boogeyman (2023) 60%

Cujo (1983) 59%

The Dark Half (1993) 62%

Pet Sematary (2019) 57%

Apt Pupil (1998) 54%

Pet Sematary (1989) 56%

Carrie (2013) 50%

Big Driver (2014) 50%

Hearts in Atlantis (2001) 49%

Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990) 46%

Secret Window (2004) 45%

Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022) 45%

Silver Bullet (1985) 41%

Children of the Corn (1984) 39%

Firestarter (1984) 40%

The Lawnmower Man (1992) 37%

Stephen King's The Night Flier (1997) 33%

A Good Marriage (2014) 32%

Needful Things (1993) 32%

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992) 30%

Creepshow 2 (1987) 29%

Sleepwalkers (1992) 29%

Dreamcatcher (2003) 28%

The Mangler (1995) 27%

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) 23%

Riding the Bullet (2004) 23%

Pet Sematary Two (1992) 21%

The Dark Tower (2017) 15%

Maximum Overdrive (1986) 14%

Children of the Corn (2020) 12%

Stephen King's Thinner (1996) 19%

Cell (2016) 11%