Review – Storm of the Century

As I think I noted somewhere else, my usual habit is not to review made-for-TV movies. Of course, my usual habit is not to watch made-for-TV movies to begin with, so this is a rarity in any event. Further, I did watch all six hours of the series, and I did pay attention to almost all of it. So I’m going to go ahead and count this one, policy or not. Besides, I figure it will come out on video sooner or later, and that will make the review at least sort of legit. Here we have Stephen King writing an original teleplay. His pacing is a bit off, with some parts dragging on far longer than necessary and others flying by without proper development. He also steals liberally from his own prior works (a mysterious stranger who knows everyone’s darkest secrets suddenly shows up in a small Maine town ... Needful Things anyone?), as well as “borrowing” from other sources (I know William Peter Blatty doesn’t exactly hold the IP rights to the Bible, but the whole “I am Legion, for we are many” thing should really be considered co-opted). As with many other King projects, it’s not bad but probably could have been a good deal shorter and still achieved the same effect. Mildly amusing