Graveyard Shift

Bland David Andrews is a quiet hunk drifter who starts the late shift at a grimy Maine textile mill, headed over by a sadistic sleazeball boss (Stephen Macht). The basement work crew start falling prey to a giant rat monster that lurks underground. Real rats are all over the place too, to clean up the bodies.

The gore FX are mostly top-notch, the sets are good and there's plenty of violence and action, but this pointless movie is one big, unpleasant cliché thanks to poor direction and scripting (by John Esposito, based on the Stephen King story). Everyone yells and screams a lot, but Kelly Wolf (as a tough female worker who can hold her own) and Brad Dourif (as 'Nam vet pest exterminator Tucker Cleveland) are the only two who bring any spark to their roles.

Truthfully, the production isn't so bad (no worse than most King adaptations) and the direction is rather passable. The bug, like in most bad films, is the script.

With such a strong cast and good production values, this should have been a great film.

But somehow the story bogs down at the beginning, more interested in the terrible management of an old mill than the giant monster in the basement. The story makes a play at being true to the source while making a statement but by the last 30 minutes it suddenly remembers that it's a horror movie and tries to stuff the denouement and everything else into a few rushed scenes. The monster, which was actually quite good, doesn't even get time to breathe.

Brad Dourif does his best to save the movie, playing a creepy exterminator with a Jeffery Combs style mania (if the two of them were ever in a movie, the world would explode from the awesome).

But in the end this film had everything, from a giant bat to a good cast, and it still sucked.

A surprisingly good rat flick (another in a long line of minor classic neglected King adaptations). The changes made to the story are really quite good. In particular Brad Dourif as the Exterminator. He has a scene where he's describing how rats were used in 'Nam (not present in the short story) that's mesmerizing -- Dourif completely owns it.

Stephen Macht is great with his ridiculous "Maine" accent and scene chewing. It's a kind of perfect demented B-movie performance.

This is just another good rat movie let down by an abrupt, nonsensical ending. This one ends as just a boring creature feature with a giant bat underground. None of the foreboding or terror that preceded it. Killing off the best characters in lackluster ways. It really felt like the filmmakers had no idea where to take it, or ran out of time and money. Sad.

You don't hear or read much about this movie based on a short story written by Stephen King and I think that's a shame. It sure ain't no big masterpiece but it got several things going for it. Though, there is ONE aspect that makes this film very memorable ! The very creepy atmosphere. Graveyard Shift takes place is a textile factory during a very hot summer. Temperatures are so high, the men have to work at night...during the Graveyard Shift !

You can actually feel the heat these men are working in. You can feel the sweat running down their back and you can feel the dirt on their bodies, caused by the hard work. That's a very good mood being set. When it comes to the level of "scary" I would dare to say that some scenes equal to that of "Arachnophobia"... Because the hideous little creatures here are rats, and these animals scare and disgust people as much as spiders do. Graveyard Shift contains some great acting performances as well. Andrew Divoff is a decent actor and the guy who plays Warwick is fantastic ! He has the face of a natural born bastard so the role he plays fits him very well. I don't know his name but he reminds me of Fred Ward. I'll keep my eyes open for possible other movies he starred in. And then there's ...Brad Dourif!! This guy always delivers !!! Whether he plays in big budget productions like LOTR: The Two Towers or in small obscure horror films, he's always brilliant. Especially here, as the "Exterminator". His little Vietnam anecdote is the best scene in the whole film. He's still too underrated, if you ask me. So these are all good elements, no ? Then, why is Graveyard Shift not up there with the big titles in the genre? Well, the low budget obviously killed this movie. Most scenes are very dark and hard to follow. The big monster is supposed to be very impressive, but you're never able to see it properly. Half of the time, you're wondering "what? ...what happened ??" Real shame and waste. I'm convinced that with a few clear and decent special effects and make-up, this movie could have been one of the best horror films of the 90's.

Stretching a Stephen King story about a rat-infested cotton mill in Maine to 90 minutes may have seemed like a good idea, but giving the rat infestment too much close-up coverage was not. Dwelling a little more on the human element and why the townspeople behave as they do toward the new mill worker (a drifter with a college ed), would have helped. Unfortunately, the script doesn't give any of the actors a chance to develop credible characters.

Nevertheless, loopholes and all (inconsistent motivations for the things certain characters do), GRAVEYARD SHIFT manages to serve viewers a fair share of unexpected twists and turns in the course of a typical King tale of terrorized victims which just happens to take place in his favorite domain, Maine. None of the performers are well-known (which can be a good thing), except for Brad Dourif who is hilariously over-the-top as The Exterminator. It doesn't help that the female lead is particularly unappealing.

What helps considerably are the able performances of David Andrews and his uneasy relationship with boss Stephen Macht, heavy on the Maine accent. Macht has the perfect face for sneering villainy. Andrews' predicament as the new mills worker is what kept me wanting to see how things turned out. The rat-filled prologue should have warned me of things to come, but even a dedicated horror fan should get some unexpected jolts from the last half-hour.

Not a great horror film, but one with the atmosphere down perfectly. You can almost smell the stench of Andrews' surroundings and the sweat on his back as he makes the most of a gruesome situation. I understand the new DVD version is an excellent transfer that makes the most of the gritty atmosphere.

Definitely not for those who can't stand the sight of the nasty little critters. I just happened to be in the mood for a spooky movie, and settled back to watch this on TV. Certainly not the worse King film committed to film and it does have its moments of pure terror.

But still, the subject matter is just a bit too unpleasant to give this any sort of "must see" recommendation. Strictly for die-hard King fans.