Sometime They Come Back - King's Corner Review
Welcome to King's Corner. A recurring series of reviews based on the film and TV adaptations of Stephen King's novels and collections, reviewed and released in order of the original source material publishing date.
Director: Tom McLoughlin
Starring: Tim Matheson, Robert Russler, Brooke Adams, Chris Demetral, Robert Hy Gorman
Written by: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
Produced by: Michael S. Murphy, Dino De Laurentiis
Cinematography by: Bryan England
Original Score by: Terry Plumeri
Synopsis:
When Jim returns to his hometown to start a new job, his past literally comes back to haunt him.
Thoughts:
Have you ever had a memory of something so horrible that you blocked it out only for the sight of something or someone to bring it all flooding back? A lot of Stephen King's work focuses on this idea, namely 'IT' where the people of Derry try to forget or ignore the horror Pennywise has inflicted upon their community. It doesn't just appear in his fantastical stories, this kind of repression also appears through the likes of more grounded stories like 'Dolores Claibourne'. It is an idea King loves to explore time and time again but one of the first examples of him using it came in the form of his short story from 1974, 'Sometimes They Come Back'.
Part of his 1978 short story collection 'Night Shift', like so many other stories from that collection, it was first published in Cavalier magazine in March 1974. It follows a school teacher who returns to his hometown for a job but it brings back his painful memories of his brother's murder. After he settles into this new role, the ghosts of his brother's killers emerge to torture Jim. Although King hasn't spoken much about the story in public it is clear through reading it that it was influenced not only by his career as a school teacher but experiences of being bullied as a child. The only time he has spoken about it was in how selling the story gave him enough money to pay for a doctor's visit and the medicine required to treat his daughter Naomi's ear infection.
'Sometimes They Come Back' was the last of the King adaptations from famous producer Dino De Laurentiis. Originally it was set to be a segment in the 1985 anthology 'Cat's Eye' but De Laurentiis saw the potential in expanding the story into its own feature for the big screen so he held fire on the project. It never made it to the big screen though and was instead made into a TV movie for CBS in 1991 with Tom McLoughlin at the helm.
The idea of greasers from beyond the grave sounds ridiculous but it is no more ridiculous than a sentient 1958 Plymouth Fury on a murderous rampage or a teenage girl going on a telekinetic killing spree in her hometown. In a smart move McLoughlin doesn't lean into this larger than life element straight away. He does what King does best with his stories by drawing you into the story by focusing on the characters. In the case of 'Sometimes They Come Back' our lead is schoolteacher Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) who returns to his hometown under a cloud of controversy with his wife and son to take up a teaching job at his old high school. Through his narration, Jim recalls the trauma brought about by witnessing the murder of his brother as a child. It forced him to leave his hometown of Liberty, Missouri in the first place but it still haunts him to this day. Overlaying this narration are some beautiful autumnal shots of this small town that brilliantly captures the mood and atmosphere of the place.
As Jim, Matheson plays the role of the tortured family man who can't escape his past in a simple yet effective manner. When we first meet him he has a happy-go-lucky attitude trying to convince his son that the move was best for everyone but you can always sense that deep down the pain from the past still dwells within him and this shimmers on his face now and again. It worsens as the supernatural and murderous elements of the story enter the come to the fore. You can see him unravelling but never going entirely off the rails as he tries to maintain a certain level of control over his life. This aspect of Matheson's performance adds a layer of believability to everything that is happening as it anchors the film just enough from becoming completely trite and too over the top.
Jim's wife Sally (Brooke Adams) is supportive of him knowing how much he has gone through from the murder of his brother as a child to the controversy in his old job that has brought him back home. Beyond that there isn't much to the character and Adams does what she can with the little material she has to work with. Her character is a perfect example of the trope of the supportive wife whose life revolves around her husband until she is faced with the inexplicable. For a story that is the prototype for so many tropes that define King's stories, this particular one comes off as being quite lazy in this adaptation.
Whilst these opening elements are quintessentially King and they are well realised for the screen by McLoughlin, the introduction of the supernatural elements don't work as well. The gang of Greasers that died in the aftermath of murdering Jim's brother return from the grave behind the wheel of a 1955 Chevrolet One-Fifty. They kill a member of Jim's class and take their place as a new student in the area. In the story it is an idea that doesn't entirely work and the adaptation's take on it doesn't fare much better.
The main problem lies in the presentation of it. In the flashback sequences they felt like cartoon characters embodying every stereotype you'd expect from a greaser bully. In short, they are the evil version of the T Birds from Grease minus the singing. It is through no fault of the actors who seem like they are having a ball playing these caricatures. Once they return to torment Jim, they go to another level in this regard as they make it look like the people they killed were by Jim's hand adding real world implications to the emotional and psychological damage they inflicted upon him. As vicious as they are (including moments when they take a demonic turn thanks to some over the top but great makeup effects) they don't ever come across as being truly sinister as their actions are muted by their comedic edge.
For a story that has a darkness at the heart of it, this adaptation never feels like it lives up to the potential of the original short story. In the story, the Greasers are sent back to hell by a demon that Jim summons in the wake of his wife being killed by them. It takes the form of his brother but before leaving it promises Jim it will return. It shows how Jim will never truly escape the trauma of his past and that it will always be a recurrence in his life which harkens back to the beginning of the story. He is and always will be locked in this cycle which feels like a more honest analogy for trauma in how it never truly leaves you. In the film however Jim's brother Wayne (Chris Demetral) returns and defeats the Greasers thanks to a trusty train from the afterlife. In the wake of this finale he tells his brother he is finally at peace and that they can both move on in their respective ways. It is simple and over sentimental, passing on the message that everything is going to be alright but this arc feels disingenuous and contradictory to the nature of the story.
'Sometimes They Come Back' is very much a safe, middle of the road adaptation of King's short story. It is easy to see how elements of it have been sanitised for TV as the darker, more cerebral elements of it have been exchanged for something more digestible for a wider audience. It is far from being one of the worst Stephen King adaptations but it also feels like a missed opportunity to do something special in relation to how the story handles the theme of trauma.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️½
-Joseph McElroy
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