This Day in Horror History: Stephen King’s NEEDFUL THINGS Opened in 1993
On this day in horror history, director Fraser C. Heston’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Needful Things with Ed Harris and Max von Sydow opened in 1993.
While the flick received generally negative reviews and holds a mere 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it snagged a B- CinemaScore and was nominated for three Saturn Awards, winning best-supporting actress for Amanda Plummer.
In 1996, TBS aired a 3-hour version that included an hour of footage not included in the theatrical release. The film was released on DVD in 2002 and on Blu-ray in 2015 but it wasn’t until this past January that Koch Media unleashed a three-disc set that sported the open matte TBS extended cut.
The film begins when a creepy older man named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) moves to a small town in Maine and sets up an antique shop. Gaunt has the remarkable ability to sell people exactly what they want most, but his ideal purchases come at a price that involves more than just money. Through Gaunt’s manipulation, the citizens of the town gradually turn on one another, resulting in violence that Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) struggles to contain.
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