Movies - Needful Things

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	Movies - Needful Things

Needful Things is a horror novel written by Stephen King in 1991.

Plot

In the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, where a new shop named "Needful Things" opens to the curiosity of the townspeople. One by one, they start to come into the shop, drawn there by something they want more than anything else. In young Brian Rusk's case, it's a Sandy Koufax baseball card with Brian's name signed by the ball player. In Danforth Keeton's case, it's a machine that simulates a horse race, and somehow predicts the winners for the horse race. They are all greeted by the seemingly kind old man, Leland Gaunt, and they all ignore the sign Leland has in his store, "Caveat Emptor". When they realize that they can't buy the object of their desire, Leland offers them a trade - perform a small 'favor' for him, in the form of a prank on someone else in the town, and the object is theirs. These betrayals and pranks (some of which deceptively seem to be harmless) gradually increase in frequency and intensity until the entire town is in complete chaos.

The only person not caught up in what Leland has to offer is Castle Rock Sheriff Alan Pangborn. At the beginning of the story, he's simply interested in figuring out who did certain acts of vandalism. As the story progresses, however, he suspects that they all have something to do with Leland. Things begin to come to a head when Leland manages to seduce Alan's girlfriend Polly with a necklace that somehow relieves her of her arthritic hands. Alan soon discovers that Leland is none other than the Devil himself, and that he travels from town to town, setting up shop and offering items for sale (which turn out, in reality, to be useless junk) until the townspeople's greed and selfishness are manipulated into turning on each other and destroying their town. Alan eventually manages to face Leland down, forcing Leland to leave town - but not without having influenced the destruction of most of the town and the deaths of many of the townspeople.

Needful things also features an appearance by a hood named 'Ace'Merrill, from King's short story The Body. Ace plays a significant role in the book, becoming an assistant to Mr Gaunt. Not surprisingly, Ace dies in the street with the Sheriff's bullet in his head.

About the book

Needful Things also marks a watershed in King's career, as he bids farewell to the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, a city he visited in The Dead Zone, Cujo, and The Dark Half.

This book is also considered by King to be the final part of a 'trilogy' of stories - the first of which was The Dark Half, and the second of which was The Sun Dog, a short story that was part of his Four Past Midnight collection.

Film

A movie adaptation was released in 1993, starring Max von Sydow as Gaunt and Ed Harris as Sheriff Pangborn. Bonnie Bedelia played Polly, Pangborn's girlfriend.

Cast

Max von Sydow
.... Leland Gaunt
Ed Harris
.... Sheriff Alan J. Pangborn
Bonnie Bedelia
.... Polly Chalmers
Amanda Plummer
.... Netitia 'Nettie' Cobb
J.T. Walsh .... Danforth 'Buster' Keeton III
Ray McKinnon .... Deputy Norris Ridgewick
Duncan Fraser .... Hugh Albert Priest
Valri Bromfield .... Wilma Wadlowski Jerzyck
Shane Meier .... Brian Rusk

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Needful Things ]

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