10 Horrifyingly Underrated Stephen King Adaptations

2. The Tommyknockers

Tommyknockers Stephen King
ABC

What The Critics Said:

Veteran Variety (them again) critic Tony Scott didn’t get on board with this miniseries, deeming the writing to be ‘pedestrian’ and ‘the characters obvious’ in his 1993 review.

Why It’s Worth A Watch:

The Tommyknockers remains King’s strongest foray into sci-fi, melding the best of the genre with an involving plot (a buried alien vessel in the woods sees the inhabitants of Haven, Maine go a bit Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers) and a very personal subtext, with the film being an interpretation of his withdrawal from drugs.

The miniseries sticks close to the source material, with events unravelling at a gentile pace, relying on a sequence of shocking moments to heighten the paranoia spreading through the town.

The series soars thanks to a driven, almost possessed performance from Marg Helgenberger and the ever-reliable Jimmy Smits. The eponymous space baddies still scrub up pretty well, too, and we challenge you not to feel some emotion at that finale.

In this post: 
Stephen-King
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing. He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.