10 Worst Stephen King Film Adaptations
3. Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher was written in the aftermath of King's near fatal collision with a van while out walking in 1999. High on pain medication, this monster of a novel was blurted out, another victim to the lack of editing that unfortunately appears in many of his works. There is a good story in here, it just has to be located among the sludge.
So, a film adaptation would have a good chance to strip away the excess and boil the story down to its base. However, the film instead opts to up the gore content and play down the story side. There is a strong cast on show, with Thomas Jane and Damien Lewis leading, featuring Morgan Freeman in a supporting role. That mix alone should have guaranteed at least some strength to the film. Instead, toilet dwelling monsters, parapsychology and alien invasions are all lost in the mire, creating a befuddle mess of things, offering nothing in the way of trimming the fat.
There is also the simple fact that a film depicting itself as a serious horror film becomes one that features as much farting as the first American Pie. The **** Weasels come from the back passage of the poor host to be born, a sort of fecal version of O'Bannon's Alien, though not as frightening. The movie is a mess, harming not just the stomachs of the audience but the career of its director, he of Empire Strikes Back fame Lawrence Kasdan.