'SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK' REVIEW + COMPETITON

SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK

DIRECTOR: TOM MCLOUGHIN

CAST: TIM MATHESON, BROOKE ADAMS

RUNNING TIME: 97 MINS

RELEASE: 1991 

Steven King movie adaptations tend to fall into three camps. There's the lavished, big budget, tendered with care productions such as the much loved 'Shawshank Redemption' or 'Stand By Me'. There's the more raw, grisly work that mostly emanated from the 70's and were constructed by auteur filmmakers more concerned with producing an effective vision than being faithful to the source. I'm talking 'The Shining', 'Carrie', et al. Then there's the third and probably vastest selection, party to straight to video, T.V. Movie of the week, miniseries and cheapo, hack, nasties. 'Sometimes They Come Back', released here in the UK for the first time on DVD, alas, doesn't fall into either of the first two camps. Originally released in 1991 and made for telly, it's quite a light, simple film that could provide nostalgia for anyone who grew up in the early 90's wading through the horror section of their local corner video store.

It's funny how Steven King films have become so ten a penny over the years that even by the time of this films release they had established their own selection of staples. 'Sometimes They Come Back' is certainly no less reminiscent. We have the faithful, lovey dovey family man protagonist, gentle of face and wavy of hair. In this case Jimmy, played by the gentle faced, wavy haired Tim Matheson. 50's flashbacks abound, a small innocent town with a guilty secret and of course you just have to have the too cool for school, leather jacketed, quiff sporting 50's bullies.

Our butter wouldn't melt hero has avoided his home town ever since his older bro Wayne died protecting him from the local aforementioned bullies 30 years previous. An incident that also saw three of the four bullies also killed as a train smashes into their car after young Jimbo ran away with their keys. Jimmy finds himself returning, wife and sprog in tow to pursue his teaching career. A choice he is uneasy with but feels is best for his family.

Soon after settling in to his new home and job his new students start clogg popping in mysterious circumstances. After each death the pupil is replaced with a new one, each replacement looking and acting mysteriously like the bullies associated with his childhood trauma. They clearly hold Jimbo to blame and are not gonna let him or his family get away with it so easily.

Whereas in most of these back from the dead films it's the victim that returns to punish their former oppressors, 'STCB' is notable for having the initial bullies rising from their grave to enact 'revenge'. It's a neat twist. And 'STCB' could have been a riot in theory. But the production saw fit to lighten the whole affair, while giving it that mix of seriousness and silliness that works if you have the right director. Unfortunately helmer Tom McLoughlin has no intent, voice or vision, failing to transfer any sense of childhood relationship nostalgia that many other King adaptations get right. The Kingster's 'IT' adaptation was also a broad, inoffensive TV film but that did manage to capture those youthful bonding elements.

The filmmaker's biggest mistake was opting to drop much of the original 30 page story's darker, more ambiguous themes. Themes that could have made it a far more interesting and even quite fun film. Instead the film draws out a very short story to feature length in, dropping much of the material, leaving little for the narrative to do except go through the motions while the characters carry little in the way of depth and the villains sport haircuts so laughable they'd look out of place in any decade. Interesting for 90's nostalgia nuts or King afficiandos but a bit of a plod for any viewers more used to sloshing gore or artfully constructed scares.

RATING: 2 OUT 5

Review by Justin Abbott


Like the look of this one anyway? We have one copy of the film to give away courtesy of our good pals at Second Sight - just pop us an email with your postal address and the copy will be yours! PLEASE NOTE UK READERS ONLY!