FAQ

When newcomer Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) opens an antique shop in Castle Rock, Maine, curious residents are eager to patronize him because he features unusual items that they've always wanted, such as a 1956 Mickey Mantle baseball card for 11-year-old Brian Rusk (Shane Thomas Meier), a Hummel figurine for widow Nettie Cobb (Amanda Plummer), and an ancient Azca necklace that cures the arthritic pain of cafe owner Polly Chambers (Bonnie Bedelia). Can't afford it? That's no problem because Gaunt is always willing to reduce the price in return for a few harmless pranks. Soon, the town is overflowing with jealousy, spite, and murder, and only Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) seems to be aware of what's actually going on.

Yes. Needful Things is also a 1991 novel by American horror writer Stephen King. The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter W.D. Richter.

It's a 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300d W189 automatic "Adenauer".

The film goes into very little detail about Gaunt's origins. While viewers are aware that there is something supernatural about Gaunt and the items in his store, it isn't until Brian Rusk attempts suicide that he voices to Sheriff Pangborn his feeling that Gaunt is "a monster...not a man." Pangborn then tries to warn Polly that Gaunt is "evil...not a human being" and to convince Fr Meehan (William Morgan Sheppard) that Gaunt is "the devil." By Gaunt's own admissions and the newspapers that Pangborn finds, it's also apparent that Gaunt is immortal. So the best that can be concluded about Gaunt is that he is an evil, immortal, nonhuman being whose work is to manipulate humans into destroying themselves. Some Stephen King fans have likened Gaunt to other "evil, supernatural beings" in King's various works, such as Randall Flagg in The Stand (1978), Pennywise in It (1986), Tak in Desperation (1996), and Andre Linoge in the TV miniseries La tempête du siècle (1999) (1999). Others have likened Gaunt to the outer gods in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. None of these have been confirmed by King himself.

Director Fraser C. Harris produced a three-hour long version for American TV, which was aired or airs on Turner Broadcasting System's channels. Scenes of violence were mitigated, however. On the other hand, one can find dozens of extended plot sequence. Unfortunately, this extended version has not been released on any home cinema format as of today.