You can have whatever you want and favors mean more than cash at Needful Things. Everyone finds what they can’t lie without here or what they’ve regrettably let behind in a past life.
The movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Needful Things does a good job bringing to life one of King’s most underrated villains, Leland Gaunt. For those not familiar with the story, Mr. Gaunt (Max Von Sydow) is the Devil in human form, and he comes to Castle Rock, Maine to open a collectibles and antiques shop. Ed Harris plays the town’s sheriff, who has his suspicions after just his first meeting with the store owner and serves as the rational anchor as the town unravels.
Of course, die-hards will point out the movie’s derailment in many areas from the book, but let’s be realistic that it’s impossible to fit all the details of a 700 page book into two hours. The movie brings forth the mainstream style of a big studio while preserving King’s spiderweb design of greed and seduction’s hold on us. It teeters into dark comedy at times, showing the town as ugly from the beginning, with grudges festering around every corner. Yep, perfect pickings for the Devil to exploit.
The pranks each customer plays on each other to “pay off their debt” leads to murderous consequences, and all the while Mr. Gaunt revels in it. Max Von Sydow was a perfect pick for this role.
This movie won’t scare you or make you keep the lights on until the very last second before bed. Instead, it will, at least it did for me, cast gloom over the power that possessions and the want for prestige can hold over us. The more we want, the more the Devil entangles our minds to do his will. And what this story makes chillingly clear is that his will isn’t to destroy the world. No, it’s to watch it torture itself into madness.
As Mr. Gaunt says at the end, “This town wasn’t my best work, but it was fun.” Then he drives away.
Have you seen Needful Things (or read the book)? What did you think? Comment below.
You can reserve the movie here and the book here,
Horror fan and interested in the Hoboken Library’s Horror/Thriller Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org, or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.
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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 
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