Battleground

This debut episode in the 'Nightmares & Dreamscapes' miniseries based on Stephen King stories is an adaptation of the short story that appeared in the "Night Shift" collection. There's no fooling around here: this is a straightforward suspense / action flick with a fair amount of gore and a very game performance by William Hurt. 'Battleground' doesn't waste time with filler, it just has fun with its utterly fantastic premise. Hurt plays Jason Renshaw, a highly capable professional hit man who as the story begins executes the boss of a toy company. Shortly after, he retires to his snazzy residence in a high rise apartment building, and receives a package in the mail. This package turns out to be full of toy soldiers, their weapons, and vehicles. That may sound harmless, but these things have a life of their own, and are able to inflict serious damage on our protagonist. During one eventful night, he and the toy soldiers have it out in their own private battle. Adding to the amusement factor, there's a nice nod to the classic "Amelia" segment of the 1975 TV horror anthology 'Trilogy of Terror' and at one point fans of Kings' work will be reminded of his story "The Ledge" which got adapted as the middle segment of the 1985 anthology "Cat's Eye". Director Brian Henson, son of the legendary Jim Henson, directs with efficiency, with adapting honours going to Richard Christian Matheson, son of the equally legendary Richard Matheson. The special effects here are truly impressive, not to mention the ingenious camera-work. This helps the viewer to truly be swept into the action, along with music by Jeff Beal that keeps the momentum going. Dialogue is kept to a bare minimum; in fact, Renshaw, the only principal human character, utters not a word during the whole thing. Actions speak louder than words here. However, it is nice to see Bruce Spence from "The Road Warrior" as the victim at the beginning and Mia Sara (who would go on to marry Henson) from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" as the lovely passenger on the plane. This is just pure fun, this episode, and a pretty respectful adaptation of the story. It's not without humour, which is another good thing. All in all, these are 55 minutes that go by quickly enough. Eight out of 10.

If you're looking for a horror story, this ain't it, despite ultimately deriving from Stephen King. "Battleground" is nonetheless a cool and entertaining fantasy story in which toys come to life to avenge the death of the toymaker against the assassin who killed him.

In the hands of lesser writers, the choice to have no meaningful audible dialogue (apart from stuff like grunts and yells) in the episode would feel gimmicky, but in this case the artsy choice worked well.

Odd as it may seem, genuine tension exists as the toys struggle to take down their murderous foe and it had me hooked until the satisfying end.

In Dallas, the hit man Jason Renshaw (William Hurt) breaks in the headquarter of a toys company and kills Hans Morris, the manufacturer and owner of the company. He returns to his fancy apartment in San Francisco, and later he receives a package of toys with soldiers, helicopters and heavy weapon. Suddenly he is attacked by the commando, and he tries to survive.

"Battleground" is a very silly and naive episode, without dialogs and with the character performed by William Hurt being attacked by toys. The explosions and shootout on the fortieth floor of the elegant building do not bother any neighbor. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Campo de Batalha" ("Battleground")

A package of toys with soldiers, helicopters and heavy weapon?? Really??? Is that supposed to be scary??? A pack of toys fighting a professional killer???

I wonder who give this tile the classification of "Horror". It doesn't even qualify as "Drama". It should have been "Comedy".

The "commando" toy, who is supposed to show an evil expression, completely wrecks the little suspense created by the other toys when he tries to stab the killer with a 6 mm knife.

The plot is very predictable. When the killer is counting the toys to see if one is missing, you KNOW there is one toy missing...

This is like Toy Story with aggressive toys instead of friendly and funny toys.

Don't waste an hour of your life watching this.

It doesn't worth it.

No dialogue and no commercial interruptions... How much better can it get?! This was some of the best TV I have ever seen! I was wowed by the suspense, William Hurt's presence and the fascinating toy soldiers.

William Hurt has aged and I couldn't take my eyes off him. His face was an enigma itself. He's a hardened hit-man who has to outsmart some tiny, but committed adversaries, and one just can't figure out how it will end up.

The most amazing part was watching a TV show with no dialogue! All action! William Hurt, fine actor that he is, is just the perfect choice for such a difficult role.

I wish there were more shows like this, but, sadly, there haven't been. Thank you, Stephen King!

But all I can say is thank goodness William Hurt is back!

BTW, his IMDb biography is missing all the interesting parts of his life. I heard him on a radio interview the other day, and I think his life story would make one hell of a book! He was reticent to talk about himself but what did come out was FASCINATING!

Give us more, Bill!