Stephen King's Alpträume

Just to avoid any possible confusion, the above summary of Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a compliment. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen Hollywood completely decimate and almost sacrilegiously destroy King's brilliant writing. Needful Things and The Runningman are the worst of these atrocities, although they are far from the only ones. The remake of Carrie... the sequel that has nothing to do with King's novel... The Lawnmower Man (Which King sued to be disassociated from)... Christine... among others.

This mini-series, however, does justice to King's works, and treats them with the respect that they deserve. The acting is incredible. I can hardly believe that they were able to get William H. Macy, William Hurt and the majority of the other actors and actresses that they did manage to get for the project. Each is casted perfectly for their role, from the well-known stars to the little known gems. The direction is smart and clean; the set designs stunning; the animation (Battleground) superb, and the adaptations flawless. Each episode perfectly embodies the story from which it was based off of, and I cannot find any flaws in their translation into this mini-series.

I find it ironic that some of the upcoming episodes don't feature stories from the actual collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, although I suppose that they mean the title as a general one, as opposed to a specific one. At any rate, they were all well chosen, and I hope that more adaptations of King's work fall under this level of care and craftsmanship. I don't even mean novels specifically. I hope that ALL of his stories are likewise adapted as such, although I would indeed love seeing more adaptations of his short stories done this way (Especially "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" and "In the Death Room").

/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.

Warner do Brasil released on DVD the following episodes:

1) "Campo de Batalha" ("Battleground"): 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.

2) "Crouch End": The career devoted Lonnie Freeman (Eion Bailey) and his wife Doris Freeman (Claire Forlani) are in London in honeymoon. Loonie receives a message from the important client Squales inviting the young couple to have dinner with him in his house at Crouch End. While going to the dinner party, Doris is advised by the cab driver to return from Crouch End, which would be a thin spot in another dimension. Lonnie does not accept the non-sense explanation and have a weird experience with Doris.

"Crouch End" seems to be a bad homage to "Twilight Zone". The mysterious story has a great atmosphere, but an absolutely disappointing conclusion. My vote is six.

3) "O Último Caso de Umney" ("Umney's Last Case"): In 1938 in Los Angeles, Clyde Umney (William H. Macy) is a divorce private eye successful with women. On the weirdest day of his life, he sees his world turning upside-down when he discovers that he is a character of a series of novels made-up by the writer Sam Landry. Sam is grieving the loss of his son and wants to swap position with Clyde.

"Umney's Last Case" has a stylish noir production and an original story (I believe this show was produced before "Stranger than Fiction"). I liked the whole story, but the conclusion is abrupt and seems that the original intention could be to be continued. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Nightmares & Dreamscapes Vol.1 – Pesadelos e Paisagens Noturnas" ("Nightmares & Dreamscapes Vol.1 – Nightmares and Nocturne Landscapes")

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).

The first episode of Dreamscapes & Nightmares was an acceptable adaption of Stephen King's short-story, but not more. The second episode contains everything what makes a short-story by Stephen King fun to read. It is not what you see so often in nowadays' horror-movies. In those, let me call them modern, horror movies there's a lot of shockers and blood, but the episode "Crouch End" doesn't need that. Like the short-story it creates an atmosphere of horror, which neither the protagonists, nor the viewers can escape from. And this "all-around-horror-atmosphere" is what's missing in so many horror movies, but in not one of Stephen King's stories/novels and particularly not in the episode "Crouch End". Because of that, this is a show worth watching for everyone who loves the atmosphere and feeling Stephen King creates in his pieces of art! I'm very curious, if the following episodes are an exceptional adaption of Stephen King's style of writing, because this one definitely is!