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Graveyard Shift
Paramount // R // May 28, 2002
List Price: $24.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
When the well of ideas runs dry for Hollywood producers, it seems that Stephen King's Night Shift is the first place they turn. One of several collections of King's short stories, Night Shift has spawned a seemingly endless barrage of films of varying length, including Cat's Eye, The Boogeyman, The Lawnmower Man (if in title only), Trucks, Maximum Overdrive, The Mangler and its sequel, The Woman In The Room, The Children of the Corn, and, I'm sure you saw this one coming, Graveyard Shift.
As with pretty much anything associated with Stephen King, Graveyard Shift takes place in a run-down, one-horse Maine town. David Andrews stars as John Hall, a mysterious man looking for a new start in life. Fate brings him to Bachman Textiles (a none-too-subtle reference to King's best-known pseudonym), where foreman Warwick (Stephen Macht) bestows upon him a prestigious minimum wage position working the sort of unpleasant hours hinted at in the movie's title. The rat-infested mill is in sorry shape, and with closure impending, Warwick assembles a skeleton crew to clean out the basement while the rest of the workers enjoy the 4th of July holiday. The merry band of misfits consists of the usual stereotypes, including John the Quiet Loner, the Spunky Dame, the Balding Voice of Reason, the Brutish Bully and his greasy sidekick, and Obligatory Black Guy, and Warwick as the Blatant Villain. They have more to fret about than the dodecaseptaquadrillion rats scurrying about the place. The enormous creature that has been knocking off Bachman employees over the past few months has his eyes -- or whatever sense a blind rat-bat hybrid would use to stalk his prey -- set on the cliché buffet, and predictably, not everyone will make it out alive.
I saw Graveyard Shift theatrically. Not only did I go to the theater with some actual desire to see the movie, but I vaguely seem to recall enjoying it. To give some inkling as to how poor my taste in movies was at the tender age of twelve, I had seen Ghost Dad theatrically four months earlier. Sad, but true. Whatever appeal Graveyard Shift may have held back then has apparently long since disippated.
The plot is, if you'll indulge my semi-witty attempt at wordplay, rather run-of-the-mill. Trapping a group of clichés in a creepy, enclosed place while some force ices 'em one by one is a tried and true premise. Graveyard Shift doesn't bring anything new to the table, not bothering to offer up particularly interesting characters or particularly interesting kills. It's been a year or so since I last read the short story, and though it doesn't stand out as one of King's better works, I don't recall disliking it as much as this movie.
Graveyard Shift has a few familiar faces in its cast. David Andrews looked painfully familiar, and I racked my brain for the length of the movie trying to remember what I'd seen him in. A quick jaunt to IMDb revealed that he had starred in Cherry 2000, easily among the greatest B-movies ever produced. Wishmaster's Andrew Divoff also steps in for a minor supporting role. Brad Dourif, who's had at least a cameo in every horror movie produced in the past twenty years, puts in the movie's most memorable performance as an over-the-top, crazed exterminator.
Graveyard Shift probably deserved to remain buried. Paramount unearthed the movie for this DVD, which was released alongside Silver Bullet last week to offer Stephen King fans a disappointing double feature.
Video: Graveyard Shift is presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The image is respectably sharp and as close to flawless as a 1990 low-budget horror flick is likely to get. Black levels are strong, with the exception of a purple-ish series of shots when a jilted floozy sorts through the mill searching for blackmail material. Film grain only particularly stood out in a couple of brief moments following the credit sequence. Typically nice work from Paramount.
Audio: This DVD release of Graveyard Shift sports a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, and a dilapidated mill is the perfect setting for some six-channel hijinks. The audio starts off on a high note, with some effective use of the full soundstage as a hapless worker finds himself surrounded by an army of peering rats. This is quickly followed by some very noticeable panning across the front speakers as John first strolls into town. That sort of ambiance and directionality are pervasive in many of the scenes in the mill, particularly after the clean-up crew trots down to the basement, though the mix is otherwise anchored front-and-center. The subwoofer gets a respectable workout, most memorably reinforcing the bone-shattering brawl between John and Warwick near the end of the film. The quality of the remix is a pleasant surprise, providing more of an immersive experience withou resorting to gimmicky effects.
Paramount has also tacked on a stereo surround English track and a French stereo dub, as well as English subtitles and closed captions.
Packaging: The theatrical one-sheet for Graveyard Shift is one of the few from this time period that stands out in my mind for whatever reason, featuring a cycloptic skull wearing a lit safety helmet. I'm not entirely sure why, but the folks at Paramount opted to crop off the majority of the art, leaving a fraction of the skull and almost lopping off the helmet entirely. I'm not entirely sure what the basis of their fear of using theatrical art on DVD is, but it certainly is strange. Graveyard Shift is packaged in an Amaray keepcase and includes a chapter list insert.
Supplements: Not a blessed thing. Surely a trailer for a twelve-year-old movie isn't that hard to come by. Also, the trimmed-down version of the film that turns up on cable television with some regularity included some additional material. I can't say that I would be terribly interested in seeing more of Graveyard Shift, but I wouldn't think an extensive amount of time, money, or effort would be required to include such footage here. Graveyard Shift, by the way, has been divided into eleven chapter stops.
Conclusion: Graveyard Shift is a total bore. At least Silver Bullet's campiness had me laughing occasionally, but the only physical reaction Graveyard Shift inspired was a compulsion to press the 'Skip Chapter' button repeatedly. I was able to resist that urge, as I prefer to endure the suffering for my beloved readers. I'm a disturbingly huge fan of graphic, low-budget horror, but Graveyard Shift lacks any redeeming value. Of all of the dreadful films that have capitalized on Stephen King's success, Graveyard Shift might be at the bottom of that dismal heap. If the temptation is just too great, give it a rental, but I'd recommend leaving Graveyard Shift to rot on store shelves. Rent It.
As with pretty much anything associated with Stephen King, Graveyard Shift takes place in a run-down, one-horse Maine town. David Andrews stars as John Hall, a mysterious man looking for a new start in life. Fate brings him to Bachman Textiles (a none-too-subtle reference to King's best-known pseudonym), where foreman Warwick (Stephen Macht) bestows upon him a prestigious minimum wage position working the sort of unpleasant hours hinted at in the movie's title. The rat-infested mill is in sorry shape, and with closure impending, Warwick assembles a skeleton crew to clean out the basement while the rest of the workers enjoy the 4th of July holiday. The merry band of misfits consists of the usual stereotypes, including John the Quiet Loner, the Spunky Dame, the Balding Voice of Reason, the Brutish Bully and his greasy sidekick, and Obligatory Black Guy, and Warwick as the Blatant Villain. They have more to fret about than the dodecaseptaquadrillion rats scurrying about the place. The enormous creature that has been knocking off Bachman employees over the past few months has his eyes -- or whatever sense a blind rat-bat hybrid would use to stalk his prey -- set on the cliché buffet, and predictably, not everyone will make it out alive.
I saw Graveyard Shift theatrically. Not only did I go to the theater with some actual desire to see the movie, but I vaguely seem to recall enjoying it. To give some inkling as to how poor my taste in movies was at the tender age of twelve, I had seen Ghost Dad theatrically four months earlier. Sad, but true. Whatever appeal Graveyard Shift may have held back then has apparently long since disippated.
The plot is, if you'll indulge my semi-witty attempt at wordplay, rather run-of-the-mill. Trapping a group of clichés in a creepy, enclosed place while some force ices 'em one by one is a tried and true premise. Graveyard Shift doesn't bring anything new to the table, not bothering to offer up particularly interesting characters or particularly interesting kills. It's been a year or so since I last read the short story, and though it doesn't stand out as one of King's better works, I don't recall disliking it as much as this movie.
Graveyard Shift has a few familiar faces in its cast. David Andrews looked painfully familiar, and I racked my brain for the length of the movie trying to remember what I'd seen him in. A quick jaunt to IMDb revealed that he had starred in Cherry 2000, easily among the greatest B-movies ever produced. Wishmaster's Andrew Divoff also steps in for a minor supporting role. Brad Dourif, who's had at least a cameo in every horror movie produced in the past twenty years, puts in the movie's most memorable performance as an over-the-top, crazed exterminator.
Graveyard Shift probably deserved to remain buried. Paramount unearthed the movie for this DVD, which was released alongside Silver Bullet last week to offer Stephen King fans a disappointing double feature.
Video: Graveyard Shift is presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The image is respectably sharp and as close to flawless as a 1990 low-budget horror flick is likely to get. Black levels are strong, with the exception of a purple-ish series of shots when a jilted floozy sorts through the mill searching for blackmail material. Film grain only particularly stood out in a couple of brief moments following the credit sequence. Typically nice work from Paramount.
Audio: This DVD release of Graveyard Shift sports a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, and a dilapidated mill is the perfect setting for some six-channel hijinks. The audio starts off on a high note, with some effective use of the full soundstage as a hapless worker finds himself surrounded by an army of peering rats. This is quickly followed by some very noticeable panning across the front speakers as John first strolls into town. That sort of ambiance and directionality are pervasive in many of the scenes in the mill, particularly after the clean-up crew trots down to the basement, though the mix is otherwise anchored front-and-center. The subwoofer gets a respectable workout, most memorably reinforcing the bone-shattering brawl between John and Warwick near the end of the film. The quality of the remix is a pleasant surprise, providing more of an immersive experience withou resorting to gimmicky effects.
Paramount has also tacked on a stereo surround English track and a French stereo dub, as well as English subtitles and closed captions.
Packaging: The theatrical one-sheet for Graveyard Shift is one of the few from this time period that stands out in my mind for whatever reason, featuring a cycloptic skull wearing a lit safety helmet. I'm not entirely sure why, but the folks at Paramount opted to crop off the majority of the art, leaving a fraction of the skull and almost lopping off the helmet entirely. I'm not entirely sure what the basis of their fear of using theatrical art on DVD is, but it certainly is strange. Graveyard Shift is packaged in an Amaray keepcase and includes a chapter list insert.
Supplements: Not a blessed thing. Surely a trailer for a twelve-year-old movie isn't that hard to come by. Also, the trimmed-down version of the film that turns up on cable television with some regularity included some additional material. I can't say that I would be terribly interested in seeing more of Graveyard Shift, but I wouldn't think an extensive amount of time, money, or effort would be required to include such footage here. Graveyard Shift, by the way, has been divided into eleven chapter stops.
Conclusion: Graveyard Shift is a total bore. At least Silver Bullet's campiness had me laughing occasionally, but the only physical reaction Graveyard Shift inspired was a compulsion to press the 'Skip Chapter' button repeatedly. I was able to resist that urge, as I prefer to endure the suffering for my beloved readers. I'm a disturbingly huge fan of graphic, low-budget horror, but Graveyard Shift lacks any redeeming value. Of all of the dreadful films that have capitalized on Stephen King's success, Graveyard Shift might be at the bottom of that dismal heap. If the temptation is just too great, give it a rental, but I'd recommend leaving Graveyard Shift to rot on store shelves. Rent It.
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