10 Awesome Characters Trapped In TERRIBLE Horror Movies
3. Leland Gaunt - Needful Things
Needful Things is far from one of the better Stephen King movie adaptations - in fact, it's arguably one of the very worst, taking a deliciously campy premise and wringing most of the fun and intrigue out of it.
The only true success here is the depiction of antagonist Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow), who arrives in the town of Castle Rock, Maine and opens up the titular antiques store, from which he sells items appealing to the residents' deepest desires.
But given than Gaunt is actually the Devil incarnate, these items are sold at a huge spiritual cost.
This is a thoroughly silly romp directed with little flair by Fraser Clarke Heston (son of Charlton), yet Gaunt is such an amusingly menacing presence, courtesy of the brilliant von Sydow's well-honed performance, that it's difficult to write the film off entirely.
Without Gaunt - and such a tuned-in actor playing him - this disappointingly tame King adaptation would have desperately little to offer.