31 Days of Horror: Day 26 Movie: Needful Things (1993)

Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon every night of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.

31 Days of Horror: Needful Things

Day 26 Movie: Stephen Kings Needful Things

I have seen a lot of Stephen King book to film adaptations, this is one that the film just doesn’t do the book justice. The same with The Stand. The Needful Things book is probably 700 pages of twists and turns and side stories and character build up.

The film however does hit its mark. It is a great story where Satan moves into the town of Castle Rock (the little town is the setting for many King stories) and sets up a shop called Needful Things. The devil then sets the town on a rampage against each other through misdeeds and malcontent.

And unfortunately a dog dies too…

[ Rewind: Stephen King, Cujo and Gary Coleman ]

Interesting Facts:

Brian Rusk’s mother appears in the longer, 3 hours version. In her sidestory she purchases sun glasses worn by Elvis Presley. She can still be seen in the cut version of the movie at the end wearing the sun glasses.

The setting of Needful Things is a fictional town called Castle Rock, Maine – as in Stephen King’s novel. The distribution company Castle Rock was named after it when it released Stand By Me (1986). Castle Rock was also the setting for The Dead Zone (1983), Cujo (1983), and The Dark Half (1993).

Did you know that there is also a Castle Rock in Colorado. It is a Denver suburb. Stephen King uses a lot of characters and parallels from Colorado.

Stephen King’s original novel also featured a return appearance by Ace Merrill, the bully played by Keifer Sutherland in Stand by Me (1986).

Sherriff Alan Pangborn, played here by Ed Harris, also appears in The Dark Half (1993), released earlier the same year, in which the part is played by Michael Rooker.

Plot: Leland Gaunt comes to Sheriff Alan Pangborn’s pleasant little New England town, and opens a store. What this kindly Satan sells is whatever you need, from a surcease from pain to an object which you have always coveted. The Faustian price is, of course, corruption, and soon the poor sheriff’s town is wracked by jealousy, spite, and violence.

What is your favorite scary and/or Halloween movie? I would love to hear from you!

Day 1 Movie: Trick ‘r Treat

Day 2 Movie: The Exorcist

Day 3 Movie: Nosferatu

Day 4 Movie: White Zombie

Day 5 Movie: The Serpent and the Rainbow

Day 6 Movie: Creepshow 2

Day 7 Movie: The House of 1000 Corpses

Day 8 Movie: The Blob

Day 9 Movie: The Devils Rejects

Day 10 Movie: The Shinning

Day 11 Movie: The Omen

Day 12 Movie: The Thing

Day 13 Movie: Embrace of the Vampire

Day 14 Movie: (Stephen King’s) Desperation

Day 15 Movie: Dracula (1931)

Day 16 Movie: The Wolfman (1941)

Day 17 Movie: The Amityville Horror

Day 18 Movie: Frankenstein (1931)

Day 19 Movie:  Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Day 20 Movie: Halloween (1978)

Day 21 Movie: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Day 22 Movie: The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Day 23 Movie: ‘Salem’s Lot

Day 24: Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007)

Day 25 Movie: Dracula (1992)

Day 26 Movie: Stephen King’s Needful Things

Robert Forto | Team Ineka | Alaska Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Dog Doctor Radio | Denver Dog Works

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Dr. Robert Forto is a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the popular radio shows, Mush! You Huskies and The Dog Doctor Radio Show