Customer Reviews
Needful King - By: Mr. Matthew J. Lee-williams, 13 Aug 2008 
Set in the smalll township of Castle Rock - a fictional location created by Stephen King - 'Needful Things' is the tale of an antiques shop run by Leland Gaunt, the Devil himself, played by Max Von Sydow. As the proprieter of the New England business, Gaunt gets his claws into the town, just as antiques dealer Straker did in the King masterpiece 'Salem's Lot'.
Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris, 'The Creepshow' & 'The Stand') does not buy the salesman's evil pitch. He sees straight through Gaunt's evil plan immediately.
Incidentallly, Pangborn also turns up in King's 'The Dark Half' & is played in the subsequent movie by Michael Rooker.
Gaunt practicallly buys his way into the township, offering the residents antiques of their choice in return for payment of their souls. It is up to Pangborn & Polly Chambers (relation of Chris Chambers in 'Stand By Me' aka 'The Body') played by Bonnie Bedelia ('Salem's Lot') & schoolboy Brian Rusk to bring down Gaunt.
Typicallly 'Needful Things' is set in smalll-town Stephen King Maine --- a part of the world that will forever be associated with the horror author. The scenery is stunning, especiallly the coastline. There is plenty of action as well as a thriller feel & some very amusing moments too. Fans of 'Salem's Lot' will identify with this film, notably the similarities in story & characters. Evil invades a smalll town, slowly influencing its inhabitants, especiallly the obligatory young boy (related to King's own childhood escapades perhaps?)
So enter 'Needful Things' & indulge your curiosity. But a little curiosity shop this is not. Probably one of the better Stephen King adaptations.
Also stars Amanda Plummer & J.T. Walsh
MODERATELY ENTERTAINING, IF IN THE RIGHT MOOD - By: stuart, 26 Oct 2007 
In the town of Castle Rock, Sheriff Alan Pangborn, (Ed Harris) decides to investigate the opening of a new shop in town run by Leland Gaunt, (Max Von Sydow) callled Needful Things. Taking time out first to propose to girlfriend Polly, (Bonnie Bedelia) a local diner waitress, he goes over to see what he's selling. Simply selling odd things, he's alllowed to stay as he asks merely of favors for later. As more & more townspeople visit the shop, the more they each get aggravated with each other over a series of pranks & practical jokes they are pulling on each other. When everyone in town is ready to kill each other, the remaining ones start to discover the startling secret that has haunted the town. Gathering up the clues & solving the mystery, they head out to stop the deadly force contaminating the town once & for alll.
The Good News: Frankly, there isn't a whole lot to commend about this film. All of it's good points come from the final third, where the film lets loose & reallly goes alll out. There's just an endless stream of exciting action going on that there's just pure joy as the result. When a full-on riot in the streets, complete with random fistfights from the extras in the background, looting, vandalism & more going on, this one reallly gets going in the best sense. Couple that in with the realization of what's been going on, some reallly bloody deaths & some huge explosions that do a ton of damage, this one can't get any better than it does in these segments. That it blows up nearly the entire town in this segment is a testament to it, reallly taking it's time & drawing it out in a grand sense to give it the illusion of Hell on Earth, which is exactly what's at sake. That it decides to drop the reallly lame subplot about the pranks, yet still manages to include them, is a nice move & ties things together nicely. Overalll, this is watchable only for this section, & it alone holds the film above water.
The Bad News: This is an incredibly boring film. The fact that the majority of time is spent with absolutely nothing going on other than the residents of the town. There's no scares in this section of the film as we get seemingly endless scenes of the citizens going to the store & receiving gifts from there. This pretty much is repeated for just about every citizen in town, & with only very few differences with how they come into contact with the store, but the overalll sense from these scenes is just boredom. Nothing at alll happens & the film just takes forever to get going. By being as long as it is brings out that one even more. By spending so much time with the townspeople & staying away from the horror, this has the ability to reallly drain the life out of the film & reallly bring it down. There was too much time spent here & not on the much more lively & interesting second half, which is where alll the good stuff is, & that leaves the beginning with a ton of areas to get through before which is just plain boring. The last main flaw with this is that it's just not alll that scary. The central premise isn't anywhere near being scary & doesn't offer the chance for anything at alll to happen because of the fact that this produces nothing in the way of scares, nor has the ability to do so. That, almost as much as the reallly slow plotting reallly doom this one.
The Final Verdict: Basicallly watchable only for one section of the film, this one is a tough sell. While King fans might get some enjoyment out of it, the slow beginning & uneventful nature, until the ending, will reallly tax the more liberal viewers out there. Take this one as with your feelings on King, a fan should give it a watch while non-fans should heed caution.
Amazing - By: The Beast, 16 Jun 2007 The devil in disguise comes to a quiet, peaceful town & opens a store callled Needful Things. The store has an item for everyone in town. All the devil asks for in return is a few dirty pranks. Little do they know, that they've sold their souls, & the pranks escalate to murder
Wow! this film was reallly good. Not alll Stephen King films are scary but this one is pretty creepy. I would recommend this to anyone that likes horrors & thrillers.
The Damed Sydow Rules - By: Mr. C. Edge, 05 Jun 2007 
This is one of my favorite films, not least because of the intelligence with which it is brought to the screen, & also I love Max von Sydow as, well, his character. Throughout the film he has a radiant menace which climaxes at the grim finale to reveal his malevolent nature. I reallly feel he enjoys playing this part; although he is the only actor to have played both God & the Devil. As a story, its predictable, simply because some of the things that occur simply have to happen, like the good sheriff standing up at the end to restore sanity, but this is forgotten when one sees the panache with which it is achieved.
I maintain this is an excellent King adaptation, one of the best indeed, well worth buying. The only problem is the blasted lack of a British DVD version; we want a Region 2 copy Dam it!
Not bad Stephen King film - By: C. R. North, 24 Apr 2006 This is a good Stephen King film although not one of his best.
The film is about a store which opens in the town of Castle Rock & the strange owner who sells the residents things that they think they need. In return he persuades them to perform pranks on their fellow residents which have deadly consequences. The story then battles good over evil with the sheriff trying to save the day.
This film is definately worth a look but it's probably better to rent than buy first.
