Our Hail to the King series concludes (for now) with another anomaly from the venerable author's assemblage of adaptations - director Fraser C. Heston's 1993 take on his 1991 megatome Needful Things.

In the quaint New England town of Castle Rock, the opening of a new store causes quite a stir - but just how big a stir will soon become explosively apparent. Local Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris), recently transferred in and looking for a break from the chaos and violence of the big city, referees minor skirmishes between neighbours - while the owner of the mysterious emporium Needful Things, Leland Gaunt (Max Von Sydow), spies an opportunity to turn up the heat by offering each citizen in town the one item they desire most in the world, for impossibly low prices. At least, in cash terms - each deal involves a favour, a prank, a simple trick played secretly on a fellow citizen. Tricks that threaten to ignite long-simmering tensions that may engulf the whole place in flame and fury.

With the book an early King favourite for Devlin, he introduces Gali to this Golden Age of King movie version, released when the author's ubiquity was absolute. But, will it still take pride of place on the cinematic mantle, or does he now have buyer's remorse? Buy now. Pay later.

Rewind Movie Podcast merchandise, and shirt designs from some of our favourite films, available here.

If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.

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“I feel you will have to deal with this matter in the harshest possible way, Mr. Torrance.” Our Hail to the King miniseries continues with Stanley Kubrick’s now-legendary, then-controversial 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s 3rd novel The Shining.

Frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) to a reclusive shift as the winter caretaker of the remote Overlook Hotel, where Danny’s burgeoning gifts for telepathy are put to the test as malevolence, both internal and external, infests the rooms and hallways that the family are trapped within.

Our film picker Matt tackles another of his all-time favourites, as he takes Gali, Devlin and Patrick on a picaresque tour of how a once-terrifying, dread-soaked experience became a comfort watch of sorts. We talk the burden and bravado of creativity, the fear and fury of King, Kubrick, and their respective Jacks, and the legacy of a film overcame a muted debut to rise to the mantle of horror classic.

Head to our website for an extended introductory essay, and shop merchandise from this episode at Devlin’s webstore.

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“I'm uh, investigating a laundry folding machine with a bad case of demon possession.” We’re on the road to haunted Maine for Tobe Hooper’s 1995 Stephen King Bargain Bin curio The Mangler.

When the gigantic industrial speed iron at Gartley’s Blue Ribbon Laundry Factory graphically swallows an elderly woman, bug-eyed, troubled local cop Officer John Hunton (Ted Levine) and his amateur mystic brother-in-law Mark (Daniel Matmor) begin to see this as more than just a freakish industrial accident when strange occurrences and gruesome injuries follow, under the grotesque, watchful eye of the company’s mad owner (Robert Englund) who harbours an ill-concealed secret.

Released after the 1980s horror boom had long-since peaked, and before his fellow genre veteran Wes Craven breathed new life into it with the sly meta-horror Scream, Tobe Hooper had struggled to capitalise on his post-Poltergeist success, with his Cannon Films-funded Texas Chainsaw sequel flopping, leading him to embark on a pinballing career directing TV episodes and low budget features. This South Africa-shot would-be shocker, one of many adaptations of tales from Stephen King’s 1978 short story collection Night Shift, came at a time when the King name was increasingly ubiquitous. But with a spectrum of quality that ranged from the estimable Shawshank Redemption to the inexplicable Lawnmower Man, where does this mad tale of evil appliances land? Join Gali, Devlin and Patrick as they talk haunted refrigerators, magic legs, and expository antacids, and debate whether this is a forgotten gem, or a justly discarded sock in the cinematic laundry basket.

Rewind Movie Podcast merchandise, and shirt designs from some of our favourite films, available here.

If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.