This Forgotten and “Problematic” Stephen King Body Horror Movie Is Now Free-to-Stream
I love Fright Night director Tom Holland and am a big fan of Stephen King. A project that the pair collaborated on is now available to stream. That’s exciting! However, the property in question comes with its fair share of controversy. Let’s run that down, shall we? The film which I will talk about is Thinner. It’s based on the King’s novel, which is the same name as the one directed by Tom Holland.
So, where does the controversy come in? People are reevaluating the 1996 film through a modern lens, and the response has been less than enthusiastic. People have mentioned that the characterizations of both overweight people and Romani people are offensive. So, if you take this one in, keep all that in mind.
Thinner isn’t the first King property to feature less-than-savory depictions of heavyset folks. To name a few from King’s novels, crude references to Myra’s tendency to overeat are featured in It. Not to mention, the notoriously unhinged Margaret White is depicted as obese in Carrie.
On the one hand, including characters of differing shapes can be taken as a size representation. On the other hand, readers have noted that many of his heavyset characters tend to be villainous women. So, there’s a lot to unpack.
Check a few Twitter (X) reactions below to see what I mean about the characterizations in Thinner.
please don't watch thinner there is literally nothing redeemable about that movie in any way. watch sleepwalkers
— the brotherhood of evil lesbians (@obiwormkenobi) December 4, 2023
has anyone read/watched stephen king’s thinner? i hate it bc it’s so problematic but i think abt it ALL THE TIME
— zero .ᐟ (@zeruugu) December 24, 2023
Where is this controversial Stephen King film available to stream?
OK. So, there you have it. Some people dislike the characterizations in Thinner. If you’re game to check the film out for yourself and draw your own conclusions, you can find it streaming on Tubi as of the publication of this post.
The setup for Thinner is this:
Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke) is an obese lawyer who accidentally hits a Romani woman with his car after his wife distracts him. Given Halleck’s influence in town and general prejudice against Romani people, he manages to brush the incident under the rug with some unethical legal help from his associates. However, the victim’s father, Tadzu Lempke (Michael Constantine), places a curse on the heavyset man, and he starts to lose weight at an alarming rate, which is followed by other macabre events.
That’s all we have for you at present. Stay tuned for more updates on which films within your interest set are available to stream and where to find them. If you’d like to chat more about King’s oeuvre, you can find me on Threads @FunWithHorror.
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