(in reference to the full 184 minute original television version)
This was just much too ambitious a project to undertake, ESPECIALLY for TV, ESPECIALLY in 1979. There are no redeeming qualities for this film whatsoever. It does not succeed on any level. Standing alone, it is not scary or remotely believable. Compared to the source material, King's novel, it is very unfaithful and weak and watered-down. Can anyone take David Soul seriously?
I imagine the producers of this project merely envisioned dollar signs and weren't concerned with making a quality film. I'm not certain that a truly faithful adaptation CAN be created from King's novel. It just could not be condensed into what most audiences would accept as a normal and acceptable length.
However improbable, it may not be impossible. If a dedicated and talented genre filmmaker could receive worthy funding in order to demand high production values, perhaps it could be remade successfully, not as a 100% faithful and complete retelling of King's engrossing story, but at the very least it would have to be better than this 1979 schlock.
This was just much too ambitious a project to undertake, ESPECIALLY for TV, ESPECIALLY in 1979. There are no redeeming qualities for this film whatsoever. It does not succeed on any level. Standing alone, it is not scary or remotely believable. Compared to the source material, King's novel, it is very unfaithful and weak and watered-down. Can anyone take David Soul seriously?
I imagine the producers of this project merely envisioned dollar signs and weren't concerned with making a quality film. I'm not certain that a truly faithful adaptation CAN be created from King's novel. It just could not be condensed into what most audiences would accept as a normal and acceptable length.
However improbable, it may not be impossible. If a dedicated and talented genre filmmaker could receive worthy funding in order to demand high production values, perhaps it could be remade successfully, not as a 100% faithful and complete retelling of King's engrossing story, but at the very least it would have to be better than this 1979 schlock.