A new shop opens in a small Maine town to much curiosity. Leland Gaunt is the proprietor of the shop - he is an elderly man but always manages to have in stock exactly what his customers want and the prices are extremely low. In return for this favour, Leland asks the buyer to go and perpetrate a little prank on one of their fellow townsfolk. He seems to know all about the town's grudges, rivalries and feuds - and his pranking is incendiary - notching up tensions in the town until they reach fever pitch and mass acts of violence and craziness break out. The first novel written after he had been through rehab for alcohol and drug abuse, Needful Things is a fantastic novel by Stephen King. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a novel premise and Leland Gaunt's manipulation of the townsfolk to play tricks on each other is a brilliant plot mechanism to bring chaos and madness. The way he turns civil society into a bunch of vengeful maniacs is very frightening indeed. Gaunt is definitely one of King's best scary villains, one that cannot be toppled, as we see in the end. The word 'sinister' does not do Leland Gaunt justice as a baddie.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
A new shop opens in a small Maine town to much curiosity. Leland Gaunt is the proprietor of the shop - he is an elderly man but always manages to have in stock exactly what his customers want and the prices are extremely low. In return for this favour, Leland asks the buyer to go and perpetrate a little prank on one of their fellow townsfolk. He seems to know all about the town's grudges, rivalries and feuds - and his pranking is incendiary - notching up tensions in the town until they reach fever pitch and mass acts of violence and craziness break out. The first novel written after he had been through rehab for alcohol and drug abuse, Needful Things is a fantastic novel by Stephen King. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a novel premise and Leland Gaunt's manipulation of the townsfolk to play tricks on each other is a brilliant plot mechanism to bring chaos and madness. The way he turns civil society into a bunch of vengeful maniacs is very frightening indeed. Gaunt is definitely one of King's best scary villains, one that cannot be toppled, as we see in the end. The word 'sinister' does not do Leland Gaunt justice as a baddie.