10 Stephen King Universe Fates Worse Than Death
2. 1922
Thomas Jane, in one of several collaborations on Stephen King adaptations, stars here as Wilf, the farmer who murders his wife to prevent her from selling the land they live on.
That is only the beginning of Wilf's troubles though, as he begins to hear the scratch, scratch, scratching of rats. The rats chew through his wife's body, through the walls of the house and eventually even manage to take a chunk from Wilf himself. Henry, their son, abandons his father, running away with the neighbours daughter, Shannon.
This too ends in tragedy when she is shot in the stomach, causing first a miscarriage and then her death, after which Henry shoots himself. All this while, Wilf stays on in the house, letting it crumble around him, growing ever-more dilapidated.
He is driven insane by the continued scratching of the rats and then later, the ghost of Arlette, his wife, taunts him with the knowledge of what happened to their son. He is trapped in a hell of his own mind, eventually finding himself writing his confession, years later, begging for freedom.
The ghosts of family, whether real or figments of his imagination, are standing waiting for him, but the film ends before he can be granted the freedom of death.