Week of Review - Needful Things (1993)

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One of the odd things about Stephen King’s work is that he’s arguably one of the most successful literary authors to dip his toes in the realm of continuity.  If you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, what I mean by continuity is the idea that characters, events, and elements of a world are consistent across multiple stories that aren’t necessary sequels to each other.  Marvel Studios has more or less made their bread and butter with continuity, trusting that story elements like SHIELD or the Infinity Stones can appear in Thor 2 or Incredible Hulk and audiences will know and accept these films as being in the same universe.  

This has long been the case in comic books but it’s rare in literary circles, mainly because connected books tend to just be sequels but that’s definitely not the case with King.  He’s concocted a vast web of interconnecting books that are in no way framed as sequels to each other, mainly through shared geography of fictional Maine towns.  Stories like IT, Tommyknockers, The Dead Zone, Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption, Cujo all take place in the same fictional Maine county with its core being the town of Castle Rock, and in 1993 Castle Rock finally got its starring horror movie story in Needful Things.

Based on the novel of the same name, Needful Things is the story of one Leland Gaunt, a mysterious and powerful being played by Max Von Sydow, who comes to the small Maine town of Castle Rock to open an antique store.  As you’d expect things start to go wrong as the residents of Castle Rock fall under Mr. Gaunt’s sway one-by-one with only the town Sheriff Alan Pangborn, here played by Ed Harris, left to oppose Gaunt’s machinations.  

As I mentioned yesterday, Pangborn was actually a returning character for Needful Things, having premiered in King’s 1989 novel The Dark Half.  It’s basically up to the viewer on how much you want to consider the film versions of The Dark Half and Needful Things to be interconnected.  There are no returning actors but if you accept that some time has passed I could definitely believe Ed Harris’ Sheriff Pangborn as the older version of Michael Rooker’s Pangborn. 

However you slice it, Pangborn really isn’t the core of Needful Things despite being our ostensible hero.  If anything, he’s closer to the film’s antagonist as Mr. Gaunt is very much our central character, with Pangborn’s interference only reaching meaningful levels in the third act.  Most of the film is dedicated to Gaunt’s creeping influence over the town as he slowly turns the people against each other and sows discord and violence amongst the townsfolk.  

That’s actually the most surprising thing about Needful Things, how little the actual story reflects the exaggerated “evil antique store” concept that’s come to inform a lot of pop culture jokes.  When people hear about a supernatural antique store they tend to imagine a sort of Twilight Zone-esc. establishment where the item you buy comes with an ironic twist, like a typewriter that writes bestselling murder mysteries then brings the mysteries to life.  There’s none of that kind of schlocky pulp style here, though the antiques do possess seemingly mystical qualities there’s nothing ironic to them, instead, they’re a pretty clear metaphor for substance abuse.

This is a pretty common theme in King’s work, mainly owing to his own issues with drug and alcohol abuse.  The way the antiques function is that they bring the holder a kind of mystical relief or release while increasing their dependence both on the antique and on Mr. Gaunt.  Gaunt is cast as a blend of a satanic dealmaker and drug pusher, knowing exactly how to put everyone he talks with at their ease while slowly needling his way into their trust and striking where they’re most vulnerable.  He actually has A LOT in common with the similarly deliciously named Mr. Dark from Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, only with an antique store instead of Mr. Dark’s magic carnival midway. 

Another big similarity between Mr. Dark and Mr. Gaunt is that they’re both superbly well acted.  Max Von Sydow is a veteran actor with a pedigree a mile long for a good reason and Needful Things is a nice reminder of how excellent he can be.  He’s the core of this movie and if it had been a less actor in the role it might’ve come off forced or cheesy but he absolutely nails the job of a friendly yet menacing devil in sheep’s clothing that always seems just a little too knowing.  

He never transforms fully into a satanic creature of the night but they do some very subtle make-up work with him as he seems to drain some kind of energy or pleasure from the town’s self-destruction, his nails growing into yellowed brittle talons and his death cracking and rotting.  It’s a very upsetting visual image and helps to keep Von Sydow’s natural grandfatherliness from completely robbing the character of any menace, even if he never physically challenges anyone. 

Aside from Von Sydow’s great core performance the rest of the production is very top notch.  Castle Rock is really well realized with a lived-in feeling that isn’t necessarily authentic to real life but walks the border of picturesque well.  The whole idea of the town is that its outward virtue is a thin and easily shattered façade hiding the web of dark truths and violent secrets under the surface, which is brought across nicely through the production design, especially when all hell breaks loose by the end of the film.  The real standout though is Patrick Doyle’s musical score.  It’s an ornate and gothic score that uses a lot of sweeping melodies and Latin choral singing that gives the proceedings a sense of scale and grandeur you wouldn’t have immediately anticipated. 

It would’ve been easy to just slot in a stripped down bare bones score with a lot of generic horror movie jump scare music but the larger than life orchestral score has a great effect of selling the importance of Gaunt’s devilry.  The movie even plays on this itself, implying that Gaunt has been responsible for a number of tragedies down through human history like Pearl Harbor.  That would seem a little over the top and clashing with his decision to prey on a small Maine town but it actually fits the sense of Gaunt as a more metaphysical being.  To him, the battle for one soul is of equal measure to the battle for a hundred, which again fits the gothic scale of the soundtrack. 

Needful Things was not a critical success at the time and has since more or less faded from the King adaptation conversation, which is honestly a real shame.  I understand why some folks would be turned off by it, the way Mr. Gaunt is framed as something close to the protagonist and the long-running time probably didn’t sit terribly well with the landscape in 1993.  However, after about 6 years of prestige TV dramas with morally ambiguous leads and small-town secrets, I feel like Needful Things has never been more in line with modern sensibilities.  It’s a great showcase from a great actor backed up by some moody cinematography and a soundtrack that goes above and beyond: highly recommended. 

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