Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King

/1/ Battleground had great production values and excellent cast in William Hurt. The first half was slow but it made up for when the doo-doo hit the fan later in the movie.

/2/ Crouch End is one of the few attempts at interpreting King's Lovecraftian inspired tales into a movie, and it mostly excelled at that. Great cinematography, good cast, imaginative directing and creepy special effects make this episode a perfect compliment to Battleground during the first week.

/3/ Umney's Last Case is unfortunately a victim of an over zealous writer intent on changing a lot of Stephen King's work in the original short story. Macy does a good job of trying to salvage this movie, but I would skip this story when renting the DVD.

/4/ End Of the Whole Mess will come across as slow, talky and a bit conventional to many, the writing is probably the deepest of the four aired so far, but that can't help the slow pace and melodramatic performances.

I did not get a chance to watch it on TV so i bought the DVD. I liked the series a lot and it was scary, but... DO NOT!!! Buy this on DVD. Even though it was good i think it is a waste just because i only really liked a couple of the episodes. I suggest you rent it or catch it again if they show it again. I would like them to make another season but whatever. In order from best to worst these are my favorites (there are also ratings on each episode): 1.BattleGround (10 out of 10)Awesome!!!! 2.Autotopsy Room 4 (9 out of 10)Very suspenseful andthought out 3.Ulmneys Last Case (7 out of 10)Interesting 4.The End ofthe Whole Mess (7 out of 10)Very Interesting 5.The Fifth Quarter (Six out of 10)Okay not great but the most realistic out of all of them 6.You Know They Got A Hell Of a Band (4 out of 10)I only liked itbecause of all the icons they showed 7.The Road Virus Heads North (4 out of 10)The most scary but just not that good 8.Crouch End (1 out of10 it was just horrible!)CRAP!!!! TOATAL CRAP!!!!

1.] "The End of the Whole Mess" - Very well done. Spot on adaptation of a neat little story. Livingston's performance is perfect - heartfelt and desperate. Henry Thomas was good too.

2.] "Battleground" - When I first read this story (about 15 years ago) I thought it would make a great TV movie - not a feature film - but at the time, I didn't think the SFX of the day could pull it off. This was a pretty good effort though, and I loved the lack of dialog. Hurt is not too bad either.

3.] "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" - Not bad adaptation. This was a good short story, one I always try to read when I pick up Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

4.] "Umney's Last Case" - Not bad story, Macy's performance pulled it off. I always wondered why the chose to adapt this one though, especially over some of Kings other classics.

5.] "Autopsy Room Four" - Again, great story, but the adaptation leaves a lot to be desired, and only because of the hokey performances, especially from Richard Thomas and Greta Scacchi.

6.] "The Fifth Quarter" - Good performance from Sisto, but again, why do this story over something like "Grandma" or "The Jaunte".

7.] "The Road Virus Heads North" - The only thing they got right was the painting. Everything else, including Berringer's performance, was cheesy.

8.] "Crouch End" - This was a good story, but the adaptation did not capture the creepy feel King brought out in the narrative. The performances were OK, and it started off on the right foot, but things quickly went south after they started wandering around the empty streets. I think director Mark Haber, just couldn't put his finger on what the point of that story was.

This fares better than much of Stephen King made-for-TV adaptations, though the episodes are hit or miss:

BATTLEGROUND 8/10 - easily the best episode AND an homage to the greatest made-for-TV horror ever, "Trilogy of Terror." There's even a cameo by our friend the Zuni Doll! It goes the "no dialogue" route, and William Hurt pulls it off well. The FX are ace. Loved this one. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill from here.

CROUCH'S END 5/10 - this is pretty awful and Claire Forlani has got to be the worst working "name" actress, but there's something eerie in it's Lovecraft-ness that I appreciated for a bit.

THE ROAD VIRUS HEADS NORTH 4/10 - Meh. It's good to see Tom Berenger and Marsha Mason working again. I guess.

UMNEY'S LAST CASE 7/10 - It has a neat noir-ish feel, mostly created by the inimitable character acting of William H. Macy.

THE END OF THE WHOLE MESS 6/10 - eh, this didn't translate too well, but it's watchable.

THE FIFTH QUARTER 7/10 - This one's sort of a heist story with great performances (Sisto, Samantha Mathis) and a surprising homoerotic subplot. Good stuff here.

AUTOPSY ROOM FOUR 4/10 - another King adaptation ruined by Richard Thomas! YOU KNOW THEY GOT A HELL OF A BAND 4/10 - I remember reading this as a youngster and finding it REALLY eerie. What's not to be scared of by evil dead rocknroll icons? Well, how about really lame evil dead rocknroll icon impersonators? This does not translate well to film.

If you enjoyed playing with toy soldiers as a kid (the kind that were green and came by the hundreds in a plastic or cardboard case) , you might enjoy this plot. It brings some of the battles you played out with them to full three dimensional fluid action with a full complement of smart munitions (unlike the WWII equipment some of us played with). Special effects are now cheap enough so that the quality is up to the standards of many moves. That and the up to par performance of Bill Hurt makes it thoroughly enjoyable. Also, although I did not see the other instances of this miniseries, it seems to have a quaint retro morality play theme, much as did most of the original Twilight Zone(s) and their spin offs. I suppose that is no surprise coming from a channel that is usually Law and Order around the clock (not that there is anything wrong with that).