Thinner

...for a King work: they've always had a mixed track record. Generally this one is a tribute to the F/X wizardry as Robert John Burke goes through multiple transformations. That in itself is pretty horrifying. Most of the King subtleties have been sucked out of it, but what's new? It's basically a decent supernatural thriller. There is a slow, relentless horror to the whole thing, which doesn't rely on huge "jump out of the closet" shocks (although there are a few of those). Basically a horror movie for adults.

When a gypsy caravan arrives in Fairview, the conservative judge Phillips (Howard Erskine) forces the gypsies to leave town. Meanwhile the gluttony lawyer Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke), who has difficulties to reduce his weight, successfully defends the mobster Ritchie Ginelli (Joe Mantegna) in court; during the night, he celebrates with his partner and wives in a dinner party. While driving back home, his wife Heidi (Lucinda Jenney) makes oral sex with Billy and he runs over the old gypsy Suzanne Lempke (Irma St. Paule), the daughter of the patriarch Tadzu Lempke (Michael Constantine). During the trial, Billy omits the reason of the accident; the chief of police Duncan Hopley (Daniel von Bargen) perjuries; and the bigoted judge declares Billy not- guilty for the accident. On the next day, Billy, Duncan and Phillips are cursed by Tadzu that puts a hex on each one of them. Billy gets thinner and thinner and while seeking out Tadzu to ask him to remove the spell, he suspects that his wife is having an affair with his doctor and friend Mike Houston (Sam Freed). Billy feels that his life is running out and asks for help to Ritchie to convince Tadzu using his method to call off the jinx.

The creepy "Thinner" is an underrated and one of my favorite horror movies based on a Stephen King's novel. The special effects and make-up were state-of-art in 1996 and even thirteen years later, they are very good. With the exception of Billy'/s daughter, all characters are corrupt in some level and deserve their fate. A couple of months ago, I saw another good movie based on the same theme - a gypsy curse – Sam Raimi's "Drag me to Hell". My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição" ("The Curse")

Alright people, what's up with all the negative reviews for this flick? Coming from a horror fan, I loved Thinner...simple as that. Working from a story by Stephen King, this is Tom Holland's return to kick-ass horror. Billy Halleck is a very overweight attorney who is cursed by a Gypsy after an unfortunate automobile accident. That's the set-up for this cautionary tale about accepting guilt. Greg Cannom's (Bram Stoker's Dracula) make-up is superb, the guy has two academy awards for Christ's sake. So lighten up. Joe Mantegna is hilarious as Ritchie the Hammer and Robert John Burke is intense ("I'm being ERASED!"). There might be a little hammy acting here and there, but what would a horror movie be without that? The story is just superb and the line between good and evil is very blurry here. Having no good guy makes it a very interesting film and a little more realistic. It's a perfect thriller in the Tales From the Crypt vein.

King adapted movies either work or they don't. Horror type flicks are very hard to do well. This did have a made-for-TV feel about it similar to other King flicks, but imo, the reason this was acceptable was in large part due to the acting and casting of Robert John Burke. Can you imagine seeing this man walk his dog at night? He seems outside the human race somehow…I guess that's why they choose acting as a profession. He so not normal. His voice quality was over the top, Simpson-esq in quality like in a cartoon…but that worked here.

Joe Mantegna and Michael Constantine were excellent. As stated previously, Kari Wuhrer is smokin' hot. Too bad she looks exactly like that Doritos girl who is on a UON stupid sitcom now. I guess you can't have two Doritos girls in Hollyweird.

You gotta love IMDb.com to look up all the work these actors have done. I knew I saw Burke and Wuhrer's face before but couldn't place them. I thought Michael Constantine was James Coco…but only tonight I saw Constantine in The Hustler w/Paul Newman, one of his first roles. IMDb confirmed this.

Even found out Joe's wife owns a pizza place in Burbank...need to stop by.

This engaging adaptation of the novel, which Stephen King wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, stars the under-rated Robert John Burke ("RoboCop 3") as Billy Halleck. Billy is a lawyer in Maine who happens to be grossly overweight. After he accidentally runs down an elderly Gypsy woman, his judge (John Horton, "The Shawshank Redemption") and police chief (Daniel von Bargen, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") friends conspire to help Billy avoid any punishment. This infuriates the old womans' even more ancient father (Michael Constantine, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), who places one of those old-fashioned Gypsy curses on Billy. Stroking Billy's cheek, he utters one word: "Thinner". Soon, Billy is rapidly losing weight, which he enjoys at first, until he realizes that he really is going to waste away to nothing unless something is done.

Just personally speaking, this viewer has a blast with this particular King story. Yes, it's unrelentingly downbeat, but I didn't mind that so much. And it's true: other than Billy's daughter Linda (Bethany Joy Lenz, 'Pearson'), there isn't a single character in the story that's particularly sympathetic. Still, this viewer found it refreshing that so many of the characters here turn out to be such a-holes. It's a highly entertaining tale, well told by co-screenwriter and director Tom Holland ("Fright Night", "Child's Play"). And it's fortunately not completely without a sense of humor, although the humor tends towards the dark.

There's wonderful music by Daniel Licht, but the real marvel of the movie is the astonishing, convincing makeup effects (supervised by Oscar winner Greg Cannom) that transform the thin Burke into an obese man. There's also a gem of a supporting performance by the always entertaining Joe Mantegna ('Criminal Minds') as a mafia man whom Billy had successfully defended in court. Therefore, the mobster feels indebted to the lawyer, and is more than willing to help Billy in his quest to convince the ancient Gypsy to remove the curse. The supporting cast is solid right down the line, with Lucinda Jenney ("Thelma & Louise") as Billy's possibly unfaithful wife (the script tries to leave this aspect as ambiguous as possible), Sam Freed ('Kate & Allie') as a doctor friend, the intoxicatingly sexy Kari Wuhrer ("Eight Legged Freaks") as Constantines' great granddaughter, Elizabeth Franz ("School Ties") in a bravura turn as the judges' distraught wife, and Peter Maloney ("The Thing") as an information provider. Director Hollands' son Josh plays Frank Spurton; King has his usual cameo (playing a pharmacist). What is a real laugh is the fact that actress Irma St. Paule ("Twelve Monkeys"), as the accident victim, actually looks OLDER than Constantine!

Good gloomy fun, but it won't be to all "tastes", especially the ending.

Eight out of 10.