Tele 5 treats horror and Stephen King fans to three classics this Wednesday evening: “The Firebug” (8.15 p.m.), “Cemetery of the Cuddly Animals” (10.30 p.m.) and “Cujo” (0.40 a.m.). Especially the latter is worthwhile!
Hardly a week goes by without news about various Stephen King projects that await us in the future. Besides the first trailer for the Netflix adaptation of “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone”, it was also recently confirmed that Stephen King’s latest novel, “Fairy Tale”, will be directed by “The Bourne Ultimatum” maker Paul Greengrass. In addition, more than 30 (!) other productions based on a novel by the Master Of Horror are currently in development.
Tele 5 has also thought that more Stephen King is always better than too little. That’s why today, 21 September, three (!) Stephen King films will be shown in a row. Starting with “The Firebug” at 8.15 pm, followed by “Cemetery of the Cuddly Animals” (1989) at 10.30 pm and finally “Cujo” at 0.40 am. All three films have since gone down in history as horror classics, with “Graveyard of the Cuddly Animals” probably being the most popular overall. But is it also the best? Not quite.
THE HORROR HIGHLIGHT RUNS TO THE END
The Firebug was Stephen King’s 1984 novel Fire Child made into a film. The film became famous mainly thanks to its leading actress: Drew Barrymore. The then child actress slips into the role of Charlie McGee here, who is hunted by a dubious secret service because of her telekinetic powers. Barrymore displayed a wonderfully ambivalent presence that even her adult colleagues, David Keith and Heather Locklear, were no match for. Beyond that, however, the mystery horror isn’t particularly popular: on RottenTomatoes, the percentage of positive reviews is just 38%!
“Cemetery of the Cuddly Animals”, which now belongs to the small basics of the horror genre, does a little better, although the horror shocker is not particularly successful overall either: On RottenTomatoes, the share of positive reviews amounts to 51%, which is just above average. Even today, “Graveyard of the Cuddly Animals” still scores points for its dense atmosphere, but as an adaptation the whole thing fails almost completely, because here the focus is more on the quick shock and not the profound examination of grief and loss. Curious: The screenplay was written by Stephen King himself. Many critics are of the opinion that King did not understand his own novel.
“Cujo” is also a classic that is of course well known to horror lovers. And according to RottenTomatoes, the horror film about an out-of-control St. Bernard is well worth seeing: here, the share of positive reviews is a solid 60%. Even if “Cujo” is a bit outdated, the animal thriller directed by Lewis Teague still works very well as a classic terror film. Even today, it is impressive how cleverly and insistently the tension is gradually increased until the big escalation awaits in the finale. A remake has been in development for several years, but nothing has come of it yet.
But no matter how well or how badly the three films have done with critics worldwide, it is interesting to see how horror films still worked in the 1980s and what was considered scary and disturbing back then. And in the case of “The Firebug”, it’s definitely worth preferring the first film version, because the remake, “Firestarter”, which went down without a sound in the cinemas this year, is a real flop that, in addition to all its flaws, also completely lacks the oldschool charm of the original.
