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It’s the ethos of The King Beat column that something is always going on in the world of Stephen King, and in the last eight weeks, I have yet to be proven wrong. A week after news about Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck, Scott Derrickson’s The Breathing Game and more, my feature this week includes highlighting a special remix of The Langoliers, a review of The Mist’s new 4K UHD release, and interviews with The Boogeyman director Rob Savage.
All of that plus my reading recommendation for the week is below, so read on!
The Timekeepers Of Eternity, A Special Edit Of The Langoliers, Is A Treat For Spooky Season 2023
Reading various reviews, books and essays, and gauging responses on social media, I get the sense that I like writer/director Tom Holland’s The Langoliers miniseries from 1995 more than most. I’ll admit that it hasn’t aged particularly well – the biggest problem areas being the stale cinematography and ludicrously bad visual effects in the climax – but it’s a faithful translation of Stephen King’s novella that invests in its compelling ensemble of characters and unfurls a fascinating and creative take on a special kind of time travel. It’s a fittingly weird adaptation, but its strangeness is nothing compared to Aristotelis Maragkos’s The Timekeepers Of Eternity: a re-edit of The Langoliers that is now available to watch for free online on Vimeo.
First premiering at Fantastic Fest in 2021, The Timekeepers Of Eternity is a wild re-composition of what Tom Holland created nearly 30 years ago and filters the story through the perspective of Craig Toomey – the irritable banker played by Bronson Pinchot who is riding a quick decent into madness. The character is traumatized from his upbringing under the thumb of his abusive father, who detested any and all forms of slothfulness, and he unravels as his unexpected trip through a rip in time has made him “late” for an important meeting. His method for calming himself is slowly ripping long strips of paper, and this habit is infused into the aesthetic of the work. As described on the movie’s Vimeo page, the original footage has been “edited, printed and animated into a paper nightmare.”
When watched back-to-back, the episodes of The Langoliers miniseries have a runtime of nearly three hours, but because The Timekeepers Of Eternity eliminates most of the material concerning the ensemble beyond Craig Toomey, the whole thing is only 62 minutes – and it’s a trip. Those who know the story/adaptation may get more out of it than others, as that knowledge fills in gaps when it comes to the understanding of what’s happening to the characters, but it’s also fascinating to see how Aristotelis Maragkos includes necessary exposition while keeping the focus on its main subject.
It’s also worth noting that the animation finds a phenomenal way to eliminate the wretched CGI Langoliers from the TV miniseries, but I won’t spoil what’s done here and let you watch to find out.
The Timekeepers Of Eternity has screened around the world at different festivals since its premiere, and it was first posted on Vimeo last month – a wonderful, special treat for Stephen King fans in Spooky Season 2023. It’s unclear if the re-edit is going to be made permanently available or if the movie is only going to be up for a limited time, so do yourself a favor and watch it now while you can!
The Mist 4K UHD Is Worth It For The Black And White Version Alone, But I Wish There Was A Bit More To The Release
If you’re a fan of both Stephen King and physical media, this fall has been rather amazing. In addition to The Boogeyman arriving on Blu-ray (more on that in a minute), studios and boutique labels have announced 4K UHD upgrades for some terrific King adaptations including Cujo, Silver Bullet, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, and The Dead Zone. The first of these special releases to arrive on store shelves this season is the brand new version of Frank Darabont’s The Mist – and while I’d argue that it’s a “must buy” for any collector, it should be known that there is a big downside to the set.
To start with the good: The Mist is a film that is among the best Stephen King movies ever made, and the 4K UHD allows fans the opportunity to watch the best version of it in the best possible home video format. The four discs include both the theatrical and black and white presentations of the film, and the latter (the one that Frank Darabont personally promotes watching) looks particularly stunning in this set. It has the aesthetics of a beautifully preserved monster movie from the 1950s, and it adds a special atmosphere to the whole dark adventure.
There is a commentary track and the Blu-rays featured in the packaging are loaded with special features – including diaries from set, a conversation with Frank Darabont and Stephen King, and videos about the making of the effects – but here is the big downside: none of the material is new. While there are over two hours of total extras to dig into, all of it was previously included in the two-disc collector’s edition that was first released in 2008 (the year after The Mist hit theaters).
For those who are already well into building the Ultimate Stephen King collection, the 4K UHD bonuses are a disappointment, as it would have been nice to have at least a new featurette reflecting on the movie’s legacy after nearly a decade-and-a-half (nobody who has seen it will ever forget the devastating ending) – but that does feel like looking a gift horse in the mouth given the beautiful work that has been done with the film for the release.
The Mist 4K UHD is on sale now, with a beautiful slipcover SteelBook edition available exclusively at Best Buy.
As The Boogeyman Arrives On Blu-ray, Watch My Full Interviews With Director Rob Savage
If you’re a horror fan, Rob Savage is a director you should be keeping an eye on. A little over three years ago, when Hollywood was just months into grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, he made a spectacular splash into the feature world with his screenlife film Host (a movie our staff picked as one of the best of 2020), and following his gory follow-up Dashcam in 2022, he successfully scared the hell out of audiences with his Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman this past summer.
Between the theatrical and home video releases of Savage’s 2023 movie, I had the chance to talk with the filmmaker twice in the last few months, and now that The Boogeyman has arrived on Blu-ray, the amazing CinemaBlend video team has cut together both interviews in full for this week’s The King Beat.
First up is the in-person conversation that I had with Rob Savage during the Los Angeles press day for his film back in May. It’s a fun chat that covers a number of subjects, including the massive ways the screenplay changed when writer Mark Heyman came in to do a draft of the script; the way the ending ties back to the twist in the original short story, and the Stephen King Easter eggs that can be found in the movie. Be sure to watch all the way to the end, as there is a fun surprise in the final moments!
When The Boogeyman became available on digital platforms last month, I had the chance to chat with Rob Savage again, this time (arguably appropriately) via Zoom. The very first topic of our conversation, his potential future making more Stephen King adaptations, was a highlight of my King Beat column a couple weeks ago, but we touched on other topics including how he bonded with star Sophie Thatcher and the inspiration for the Elvis Presley music featured in his film’s end credits:
As noted The Boogeyman is now available for purchase on both Blu-ray and DVD, but you can also watch it with a Hulu subscription or via digital platforms including Amazon, Vudu, Google, and Apple.
Recommendation Of The Week: “The Mist”
For those of you who pre-ordered The Mist 4K set and are making plans to watch it as part of 2023’s spooky season festivities… why not do yourself a favor and first read the novella on which it’s based? It’s no secret at this point that the ending of Frank Darabont’s movie features the superior conclusion to the narrative (even the author would agree), but King’s version is still a chilling read that delivers some shocking monster madness while positing some pretty terrible things about how humans act during a crisis.
First published as part of the 1980 anthology tome Dark Forces before being edited and included in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew, “The Mist” is a gripping tale that centers on a group of people who find themselves trapped in a grocery store while their town is flooded with a mysterious fog concealing hordes of violent interdimensional creatures. A commercial artist named David Drayton tries to protect his young son amid the chaos, but before too long, the madness going on outside is matched by a different kind of madness developing inside due to the incitement of a religious fanatic named Mrs. Carmody.
Head back here to CinemaBlend next Thursday for the latest edition of The King Beat, and in the meantime you can explore my previous King column: Adapting Stephen King, a chronological exploration of every Stephen King movie, TV show, and miniseries.
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