An extremely popular as well as a prolific writer, Stephen King may well turn out to be the Charles Dickens of the 20th and 21st centuries: telling gripping stories designed to chill and thrill the reader, while capturing with remarkable accuracy the day-to-day lives, worries, obsessions, fears, and hopes of the small-town New Englanders who are so often the protagonists of his works. With King's focus on storytelling, it's no surprise that much of his work has been translated to the screen; like King's body of written work, these film adaptations span the spectrum from brilliant to merely entertaining to occasionally clunky. The Stephen King Collector's Set offers four films ranging from outstanding to good: Misery, The Dark Half, Carrie, and Needful Things.

Misery

Misery is that exceptional creature: an outstanding novel that ends up as an equally outstanding film. Misery has to stand as one of King's best novels, possibly even his very best. The combination of intense psychological pressure, nail-biting physical terror, and fascinating glimpses into the writer's mind make Misery pack quite a punch... especially since it's one of King's leaner novels. The film version doesn't try to stick word-for-word with the novel, instead choosing the wiser path: being faithful to the larger experience of the book while making changes where necessary to make the on-screen experience as gripping as the reading experience.

The co-stars of Misery are key to the film's success: Kathy Bates, as the demented Annie, and James Caan, as the writer she dotes on, both bring considerable depth to their roles. Bates deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance in this film, and Caan is no slouch either; between the two of them, the tension in Misery is palpable throughout, and scene after scene is held at a nail-bitingly high pitch. This isn't a fluffy piece of entertainment that will be quickly forgotten... Misery will stick with you.

Carrie

Carrie, presented here as the 25th Anniversary Special Edition, is a stylishly crafted and entertaining movie. As befits the title character, Carrie herself is a memorable figure, grippingly portrayed by Sissy Spacek: she's both sympathetic and occasionally repellent, helpless yet powerful, and we see in her both the potential for beauty and for destruction.

Given the film's fairly straightforward narrative, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the cinematography and directing choices throughout the film. Brian De Palma brings a stylish and visually interesting approach to the film, using a variety of methods to present a subjective point of view at various times in the film, especially during the climactic prom scene. But he never overdoes it, using his "tricks," like one split-screen sequence that shows the chaos in the gym from different angles, sparingly so that we're always kept engaged and never become jaded.

At 98 minutes, Carrie is a tightly paced movie as well, and it's all to the good. We see enough to understand Carrie as the underdog in "high school hell" (which isn't overstated; Carrie's abilities may be exceptional, but her social environment is distressingly commonplace), and to be touched by the potential for her to open up and go beyond the cruel psychological limits placed on her by her fanatical mother. And from there, the tragedy ticks forward step by step to the climax; we don't need to know any more about Carrie's background than what we guess from her confrontations with her mother.

The Dark Half

The Dark Half, like Misery, is another story that puts a writer on center stage: this time a writer named Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) finds that when he figuratively "kills off" his alter ego, a pseudonym that he used to write gruesome pulp novels, he ends up having to face a literal, and very dangerous, embodiment of his own divided creative self.

The Dark Half is perhaps most interesting in the way it expresses some of King's own uncertainties and fears about his writing process. King wrote a number of novels under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman" at the same time that he was also publishing under his own name; eventually the two alter egos were reunited and Bachman was revealed as really being King, but it brings up some interesting ideas about the nature of the writing process.

All in all, The Dark Half is a reasonably entertaining film, one that is memorable more from particular scenes (such as those involving the sparrows that feature highly in the story) rather than from the overall story.

Needful Things

Needful Things takes on a challenging task: adapting one of King's longer novels. At 736 pages in my copy, it's quite a doorstop... and much of the novel's space is spent building up the characters, slowly revealing their weaknesses, showing how those weaknesses are exploited, and building up to a devastating finale. The film version does a creditable job in condensing the story's essential elements down far enough to fit into a two-hour film while still telling an entertaining story. The cast of characters is fairly large, with a number of important secondary figures along with Alan (Ed Harris) and Polly (Bonnie Bedelia), but the film does an excellent job of introducing them and handling them throughout the film, so there's never any confusion about who is who.

One element that stands out as absolutely perfect in Needful Things, however, is Max Von Sidow as "Leland Gaunt." I won't spoil the film by revealing anything about the character, but suffice it to say that Von Sidow's portrayal of Gaunt as an urbane, distinguished gentleman... with a bit of an evil gleam in his eye... is spot-on.

The one point that rankled with me about Needful Things is the film's conclusion, which is substantially different from that of the book. The novel has a truly apocalyptic conclusion and an overall darker tone in which each of the town's residents must battle his or her inner demon alone; the few individual victories are made more profound by the backdrop of devastation. On the other hand, the film does a Hollywood-style revision to create a positive, even uplifting finale, complete with inspirational speeches that convince others to see the error of their ways. That's not to say that the body count in the film version of Needful Things is low; it's still a dark vision of evil in a small town, but the very unnecessary revision of the story in the film saps it of some of its potential power.

The DVD

The four DVDs in this set are packaged in individual keepcases, exactly as they are packaged when sold separately, inside an attractive paper slipcase.

Video

Misery's transfer is widescreen, at its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but unfortunately it is not anamorphically enhanced. The transfer is adequate, but far from great, with heavy edge enhancement and some noise appearing in the image. I also noticed what appeared to be some compression artifacts, not surprising given that the widescreen image is forced to share the disc with a pan-and-scan version on the flip side.

Carrie is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and is anamorphically enhanced. The image quality is quite good, certainly above average for a film from the 1970s. Colors are natural and clean, and edge enhancement is moderate. Detail is quite good in close-up and medium-distance shots; long-distance images are softer and lacking in some detail, but on the whole it looks fine. The print is fairly free of noise, the only fault here is the appearance of a few large print flaws here and there.

The Dark Half, distressingly, is presented only in a pan-and-scan transfer that butchers the original widescreen aspect ratio of the film. This renders the transfer completely unacceptable in my book. But in addition to that, the transfer isn't even particularly good. Heavy edge enhancement renders the image less clear, and the picture has a slightly reddish tone to it overall.

Needful Things offers an anamorphic widescreen image that is presented at the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It's a decent transfer, with natural-looking colors, good contrast, and a print that's free of flaws. A moderate amount of noise and edge enhancement keep it from being as good as it could be.

Audio

Misery and The Dark Half both offer a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack that's satisfactory for the requirements of the film.

Carrie's DVD offers a choice of a remastered Dolby 5.1 and the original mono soundtracks. There's not lot to say for the 5.1 track, which puts a little bit of surround action to the sides a couple of times during the movie, but otherwise doesn't do anything to justify the additional channels. On the whole, the sound is flat and a bit muffled throughout the film, making some of the dialogue a bit hard to hear. It's adequate but that's about it.

Needful Things has a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack, and it gets the job done adequately. The sound is generally clear, though at times some of the dialogue is a bit muffled; there's also more variation than necessary between the quieter dialogue scenes and the louder non-dialogue scenes.

Extras

Carrie is the undeniable star of the "special features" category. This 25th Anniversary Edition has two substantial documentaries: "Acting Carrie," running 43 minutes, and "Visualizing Carrie," at 40 minutes. Between these two featurettes, we get an informative view of the making of the movie from the perspective of  both the cast and crew. A six-minute featurette on "Carrie: The Musical" explains how the film led to a musical Broadway show, and in the remaining special features, we get a photo gallery, a trailer, and a text section on "Stephen King and the Evolution of Carrie."

Misery, The Dark Half, and Needful Things each have a trailer for their respective films. Carrie, Misery, and The Dark Half also have insert booklets with some information on the making of the film.

Final thoughts

The star ratings for this set aren't particularly meaningful in this case, as the four different movies offer four different viewing experiences. Misery is by far the best of the films, with Carrie coming in second; Needful Things and The Dark Half are entertaining but not exceptional. In terms of transfer quality, Carrie and Needful Things come out best with anamorphic widescreen transfers that are of generally good quality; Misery is widescreen but not anamorphic; and The Dark Half is unfortunately only presented in pan-and-scan format. On the whole I'll give a "recommended" for this set, but especially given the reasonable retail prices of the individual films, viewers may consider picking up Misery (which would certainly get a "highly recommended") and Carrie separately, renting Needful Things, and skipping The Dark Half due to its transfer.