tedrico SUBSTANDARD ACTING & FX. however ... for the most part, like most Stephen King movies (not all), this was a B-rate film! Having read the "Regulators" by Stephen King but not "Desperation" by Richard Bachman (King's pseudo name). I was left wondering why the 2 don't quite match up ... or perhaps they do! In the film, "Desperation", God is a character with no equivalent in the book, "The Regulators". And in "The Regulators", Seth is a character with no equivalent in "Desperation". Or... is the Seth character the parallel universe equivalent of the God character in "Desperation"? If you've read them and are familiar with Seth -- you can certainly see a parallel between the two as Supreme & All Powerful Creator. The first hour of this film, is utter garbage, but it picks up immensely via use of Black & White flashback footage, that shows the viewing audience how the demon, "Tak", was unleashed from deep within the Nevada Silver Mines in the first place. This film adaptation only rates 2 stars in my book. NUFF SAID!

giftedbuttwisted First off, I would like to say that Desperation is my all-time favorite book. Then I have to say that, this is a terrible adaptation of it. The book focuses on David Carver's connection to God and how it connects to the events going on in Desperation. Personally, I'm completely agnostic but the way the movie portrays Carver's connection to God is not deep enough. In the novel, it's a lot more than just "I'm doing things because God told me to". That is the biggest flaw in the movie. I could go on and on about how the acting is terrible and the script sounds like it was written by a middle schooler and the cheap special effects for TAK, but i'm just gonna leave it at...trust me...read the book, skip the movie

sam_aj_01 Several people fall victim to the town sheriff of Desperation, when they are thrown into a jail cell in the deserted mining town, they must fight for their lives against an ancient supernatural entity.There is no comparison to the book! The film closely follows the events in the film but I wish it hadn't as much, it seems so confusing and boring that I wanted to re-read the book to check-up on what was going on. Apart from that, there's a lot of stuff missing towards the end that completely ruins it although I would say the whole set for the film is very realistic. Although the film fails to achieve the things in the book, its still a great piece of horror. It's something worth watching to "relate" your book to, but not something you'd consider buying...

LoneWolfAndCub There are NO spoilers in this review, just questions I would like answered! My one question is: how? How on earth could such a talented writer, who brought such amazing horror novels such as: IT, Pet Semetary, Carrie, Christine and The Stand, write such nonsensical drivel. Everything, from the random comments the characters would make to the religious droning which was too contrived and forced to be of any depth, was terrible. The story, after starting off with a bang, descended literally into nothing. What the hell happened? Someone tell me please! Now, I have not read the novel, which is probably better than this movie, but an ounce of explanation would have helped. Who is Tak? Where did he come from? Why did he speak in a computerised voice? Was he God? What happened to the hundreds of dogs, did they just vanish? Those are a few questions I would love answered, as the story barely touches upon them. Besides the lackluster story, the characters are clichéd to the point of embarrassment. I mean, come on Mr. King: a skeptic, phony writer who becomes the hero, a kid who can speak with God, a drunken old man who tells the story, give me a break! Furthermore, it does not help that there are three good actors out of the bunch (Tom Skeritt, who looks like he is sleepwalking through the role, Steven Weber and the always reliable Ron Perlman). The little religious kid could NOT act to save his life, neither could the annoying hitchhiker or the kid's parents.What else is wrong here? Poor special effects, a made-for-TV feel and mediocre direction courtesy of regular Stephen King collaborator Mick Garris (who I find incredible overrated). Admittedly, he does conjure up a few genuine frights and a couple of eerie scenes, but these can not make up for the slow pace and lack of interesting story. There are only a few King adaptations which I have thought either fall into the overrated category or not-as-good-as-they-could-have-been category and this falls into the latter (assuming the book was at least good).1½/5