Dread Central ~ View topic - Stephen King's 'Nightmares and Dreamscapes'

Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 1237 Location: ORLANDO

"Battleground" was awesome!

Great direction and as usual William Hurt was amazing. Goes to show how great an actor he can be to get so much across on screen without any dialogue.

I really enjoyed the shots from within the toy helicopters' cockpits as they attacked Hurt.

I missed the 2nd hour, but I guess I didn't miss much. Hopefully, future episodes deliver much like the first.
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Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 8052 Location: Bronx, New York

Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 70 Location: YMB

Battleground was great, William Hurt doesnt speak the entire episode which I found amusing.

Crouch End was one of my favorite short stories, couple slipping into a "thin" spot that crosses over to a Druidic British / HP Lovecraftian dimension. Followed the story pretty close until the end, and they all but cut out the police station scenes. Liked it alot better then most here except for the ending that didnt follow the story.

Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 8052 Location: Bronx, New York

Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Posts: 68 Location: Birmingham, AL

Battleground: A+ .... Hurt was awesome, direction and FX were great. Great action and suspense. A real achievement for a made-for-TV film.

Crouch End: Source material: A+. TV execution: C. I didn't dislike it, but it couldn't hold a candle to Battleground. I really hated the use of the "new wave" camera tricks and jerky editing, which really detracted from the Lovecraftian feel of the story. It managed to achieve a decent amount of atmosphere but failed to generate intrigue on the level of King's story. Some nice imagery some passable acting, although I found "Lonnie" to be kind of annoying after he gets sucked behind the "mystery bush."

I'll keep tuning in, though.

'Crouch End' COULD have been great, but the execution was terrible.

I got a hate letter from the FX department after I criticized their shoddy CGI work at the end.

Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 284 Location: IL

i was so fucking pleased with Battleground. The FIRST thing i ever read by Stepehn King EVER... was Battleground.. Night Shift is what got me hooked on King and lead the way to me being a crazy Stephen King fanatic for the rest of my life..

i was worried how they would handle Battleground.. i imagined how bad the CGI soldiers could look.. but DAMN.. it was PERFECT.. i loved that they used REAL people and rather than Completely CGI army men. Loved it.

Crouch End was...MEH.. that describes it best.. wasnt horrible.. wasnt too good.

Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 15

Add me to the Battleground was great, Crouch End was meh camp. I really enjoyed the Crouch End short story and was incredibly dissapointed, first of all the guy who played Lonnie way overacted and got very annoying with his shaking and overly crazed rants. I know it makes sense he'd be nuts after seeing unspeakable Lovecraftian horror but damn way to overdo it to the point of absurdity. And the CGI in the episodes was night and day, Battleground's was great, but that tentacled monstrosity at the end of Crouch End was fucking awful, I felt embarrased to be watching, it was so bad. That scene could have been so cool but the horrible effects ruined it. I guess it's back to In The Mouth Of Madness for my lovecraftian fix. All in all Battleground gets an A, Crouch End gets a C-. Here's to hoping Battleground and not Crouch End is a sign of things to come.

Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 862 Location: Xibalba

I thought BATTLEGROUND worked better as a film/episode than as a short story. I never liked that story, actually it made me roll my eyes at the silly concept back when I first read it. Now I think it's enjoyably juvenile and really got a kick out of the filmed version. Really well made in every way, too.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, CROUCH END was pure torture - and not in a good way. That's got to be the worst "acting" I've seen since those white dudes in the Thai movie THE TREK. I don't watch much TV anymore so maybe I'm just not accustomed to and accepting of this kind of crap. I alternated between feeling embrassed for the two leads and wanting them to die ASAP. When the husband is behind those hedges I was praying he'd die right there and that the rest of the episode would have no more dialogue. Sadly, I was wrong. Maybe if the actors had been doing a better job I could have forgiven the just as terrible directing. I have the suspicion that this was filmed by a total TV hack and when the producers saw how horrid it was, they had some other guys try to salvage it with unnecessary MTV style visual gimmicks. I'd also like to insult the screenwriter for writing some really, really stupid shit. What in the fuck was up with the endless exposition sprouted by the taxi driver? I realize the stuff needs to be transported in some way but come the fuck on, there must have been a better way to do it! And I hope he didn't write that the driver and the wife are making eye contact via the mirror because that was possibly the most hilariously bad scene in the entire thing, mostly due to the actress being such an untalented cow and the director not knowing how to come up with a watchable shot.

If you thought any of the MASTERS OF HORROR episodes were bad (like I did) then CROUCH END will show you just how bad TV horror can really be. At least the remaining episodes can only get better now.

Battleground was great.I loved the story,I was hoping they'd do it justice.=)
Crouch End I didn't even watch.
But again...Battleground was great!
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Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 862 Location: Xibalba

Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 70 Location: YMB

Flipped the channels around late last night and Crouch End was on, again I didnt think it was that bad mostly because I liked the story so much and well anything lovecraft.... BUT. Those CGI tentacles mein gott. Just killed it, I'd rather have seen the ground crumble near him and see something dark shift in the hole, then just hear him screaming.
They R00NED it.

Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 862 Location: Xibalba

Yeah, how the fuck can it be that an episode like BATTLEGROUND has pretty damn great visual effects yet CROUCH END has CGI that would make a Sci-Fi Channel director blush?

My review of Battleground is up: http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=961

Crouch End was awful. It's not my favorite story, but it still manages to screw it up anyway. Boring, boring, boring. They spent so much time on the cool visual style that they screwed up everything else. Forlani and what's his name were awful, the town looked all wrong, it was confusing and the CGI was crap. Seriously.... the cat's eye? Looked like my 3 month old neice colored it in with a crayon.

The army men in Battleground were real guys in makeup and looked amazing... let that be a lesson!

Next week looks like it's Umney's Last Case, which is a great story and stars Williem H. Macy - and The End of the Whole Mess, another great story starring Ron Livingston and Henry Thomas. So, color me stoked. I'll be there. Luckily... neither one of them should require a whole lot of CGI. Laughing

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Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 8052 Location: Bronx, New York

Good review. Very Happy

"Battleground" did rock my sox off, but I loved the commando. HE was the icing on a twisted cake.

And Hurt is such a good actor.
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