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Needful Things

1993

Fraser Clarke Heston

Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, J.T. Walsh ...

5.5

3,735

Horror. Mystery. Fantasy Leland Gaunt opens an antique and curio shop in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. Among his stock, each of Gaunt’s customers discover something that is their most desired object or brings back precious memories. In return for selling each item, Gaunt asks that the purchaser play a small, seemingly harmless practical joke on another townsperson. But each of the practical jokes is such that it digs deep into the receiver’s dark ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"Needful Things is yet another one of those films based on a Stephen King story that inspires you to wonder why his stories don't make better films (...) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"
		Jay Carr Boston Globe	"Solid B-level stuff, better than most filmed King novels"
		Michael Wilmington Los Angeles Times	"Things seem disappointingly diminished, squeezed and stuffed into a box too small."
		Jack Yeovil Empire	"The problem with Stephen King adaptation's is that for every The Shining, there is in invariably a Pet Semetary. This manages to fall somewhere in between (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Rene Rodriguez Miami Herald	"There are more laughs than scares, though the movie still carries a creepy undercurrent of nastiness that pops up periodically, to great effect"
		Clifford Terry Chicago Tribune	"Slow-paced and repetitive, Needful Things is overlong and overwrought, and the whole thing should be promptly exorcised."
		Ty Burr Entertainment Weekly	"We’ve come to expect certain things in movies adapted from King novels: brooding misanthropy, a pound or two of viscera, and Hollywood actors delivering their lines with bad Maine accents. Needful Things delivers on said expectations"

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