Vengeance diabolique

The film Sometimes They Come Back explores the proposition that if you got a big enough grudge against someone, especially if they helped aid your leaving this mortal coil rather abruptly, you can come back for payback. Doesn't matter if you've been good or if you've been bad and these three were definitely bad.

Tim Matheson comes back to his hometown with wife Brooke Adams and their son Robert Hy Gorman for a teaching job at the local high school. Tim's got some anger management issues which is why he left the last school he taught at in Chicago. He's got no great attachments to his hometown with his parents gone and his older brother killed back in 1963.

That's what this story is all about. He and his brother were stopped by some hoods in a train tunnel and the brother killed, but so were three of the hoods when young Matheson played by Zachary Ball stole their car keys as he ran. It's these three who kill three of Matheson's students with him having some peripheral involvement even if its premonitions and take their place. The three hoods from hell are malevolently played by Robert Rusler, Bentley Mitchum, and Nicholas Sadler. All transfered from Milford, Milford Cemetery that is.

Tim Matheson and the rest of the cast give good performances in this film adapted from a Stephen King short story. Fans of Stephen King and the horror genre should really like this one.

Sometimes They Come Back is a ghost story with scares, nostalgia, and heart-a rare Stephen King adaptation that strikes a perfect balance between chills and emotional depth. Tim Matheson delivers a standout performance as Jim Norman, a teacher haunted by a gang of greaser ghosts from his past. These spectral delinquents are a wonderfully menacing mix of leather jackets, pomade, and bad intentions.

Director Tom McLoughlin crafts a visually striking film, with eerie lighting and perfectly staged scenes that keep the tension simmering. While the special effects are solid for the era, one clunky train sequence-featuring a model train in a brick tunnel-sticks out like a ghost at a family reunion.

The ending, with its touch of schmaltz, might not please every horror fan, but it's hard to deny the satisfaction of a story where redemption takes center stage. It's a heartfelt conclusion in a genre that often leans into despair.

For fans of Stephen King or anyone seeking a ghost story with soul, Sometimes They Come Back is a nostalgic, spooky delight that lingers long after the credits roll.

An interesting ghost story about Jim Norman and his older brother Wayne. Both of the young boys were touted by a group of older boys, greasers if you will. These greasers ended up stabbing Wayne in a train track tunnel one day, a train came and during the madness all were killed except Jim and one of the greasers - both got away safely. Years later Jim ended up married with a young boy of his own and became a school teacher. They moved back to Jim's hometown where his older brother and the greasers were killed. Now the the vengeful greaser ghosts are wanting Jim dead - they will stop at nothing.

Not a bad film. These are a gang of evil vengeful spirits, just as nasty and no good as they were when they were alive. They can manifest themselves, materialize, into solid matter. They seem to be seen by others only when they want to be seen and they seem to have the ability to chose who sees them.

6/10

Another adaptation from the Stephen King staple, but this small story is given a little more weight and probably from that gets a little too bogged down and brightly overwrought. Making it somewhat irregular in tone, mainly around the jaded flashback sequences that always inter-cut the present time. Although atmospheric (those sounds we hear which are not there) and unpleasant in parts, it could have been a much darker journey than it was. Still what we got were some solid performances, creepy imagery of our demonic thugs and their done-up car, well placed suspense and a gripping little tale of history repeating itself, but with our protagonist trying everything to make sure it doesn't. A man and his family head back to his hometown for a teaching job, but are still haunted by the childhood death of his older brother caused by a teenage gang who died at the same time in a train accident. But then the heartache comes flooding back when he is harassed in and out of the classroom by the demonic teenagers that killed his brother wanting revenge for their deaths. The plot actually at first plays around with the idea that maybe it's all in the protagonist's weary mind after the first death, but soon enough that's psychological angle is shot down when the first dead teenager makes a classroom appearance. There the tension, while basic gradually builds up as Matheson's character goes toe to toe with the vengeful dead while no one around him believes him. Robert Rusler is truly menacing as the hot-headed leader and Nicolas Sadler is devilishly sly as one of the members. In their decayed make-up, it was a ghastly sight. Tim Matheson's tormented turn is very well pitched, as he battles past events and reality as the two come together in a nightmarish ordeal. Brooke Adams' is affably good and William Sanderson also shows up a minor part. Director Tom McLaughlin (who was behind other horror efforts "One Dark Night" and "Friday the 13th Part 6") gets the most out of this TV production, as while it looks cheap and it could have been much tauter it has some stylish touches, lyrical camera-work and a hankering for numerous slow motion reactions.

"I can't keep running."

Along with his wife and son, a man reluctantly returns to his hometown years later to take a teaching job. It isn't long before ghosts from his past come back to haunt him and do much worse. Tom McLoughlin, director of the most overrated film in the "Friday the 13th" franchise, directed this made for TV adaptation of the Stephen King short story.

Tim Matheson stars as the man tortured by memories of his brother's death and the men responsible. The film is strong on mood, successfully bringing to life that sense of time, place and small town atmosphere that King's stories thrive on. The film's best quality is it's villains. Robert Rusler is particularly intimidating as leather-clad gang leader, Lawson. The scene where Matheson first sees him again, posing as a student in his class, makes for a potent moment. Another great scene takes place in the gang's phantom car as they show their true forms to a jock victim.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't keep it's momentum going as we head toward the finale. The climax is a bit of a mess, and the ending gets overly schmaltzy. The ending to King's original tale would have worked a lot better than what we get here. As it is, this is worth seeing for the villains and overall mood, but it's definitely flawed. Brooke Adams doesn't get a lot to do as Matheson's wife.