SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK (1991)

Directed by Tom McLoughlin
Written by Stephen King (story), Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal(screenplay)
Starring Tim Matheson, Brooke Adams, Robert Rusler, Chris Demetral, Robert Hy Gorman, William Sanderson
Check out the trailer here!!

Not one of Stephen King’s stronger adaptations, SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK was a TV movie from an age of cinema when every one of King’s stories both short and novel length simply had to be adapted into film. Originally, this film was to be a part of the CAT’S EYE anthology, but Dino De Laurentis decided that it was strong enough to be a full-length film on its own. Littered with a lot of the less effective tendencies in King’s bag of tricks, SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK serves as a reminder that not all of his stories are gold.

Featuring the same heavy dose of nostalgia that is prevalent in such stories as IT and STAND BY ME (aka THE BODY), SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK follows a teacher named Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) who reluctantly returns to his home town for a teaching opportunity, despite bad memories of his brother dying at the hands of a quartet of punks who look like they’ve leapt from the set of GREASE. Like THE SHINING’s Jack Torrance, Norman struggles with a temper, having lost his previous job because of it. Some of the more effective scenes show Matheson struggling to contain his temper in front of an unruly class, though Matheson’s pleasant demeanor lacks the fangs Nicholson bore in THE SHINING. Still, Matheson does a decent job as a man conflicted with inner demons trying to contain them in order to be a good husband and father to his family.

Those inner demons burst to life as the punks who killed Norman’s brother return from the dead and begin showing up as transfer students in his classroom. Like Kiefer Sutherland and the rest of the bullies in STAND BY ME, they threaten to destroy the good intentions of our hero, but just as Matheson’s face (which hadn’t aged much since ANIMAL HOUSE over ten years prior) lacks that menace as Nicholson, Robert Rusler (who was on a roll at the time with appearances in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE, WEIRD SCIENCE, and the classic VAMP), Nicholas Sadler (who was set to be Michael Pitt 20 years before Michael Pitt and starred in MOBSTERS and STOP OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT), and Bentley Mitchum (from TV’s short lived OUTSIDERS series and DEMONIC TOYS) lack the proper fright factor to instill the fear they were going for as the bullies. Basically, the three ghosts laugh a lot and drive their car into folks a la another King standby, CHRISTINE.

Tom McLoughlin, having just come off of directing one of my favorite FRIDAY THE 13TH’s (PART 6: JASON LIVES), tries to push the envelope with some nice practical effects and a few bits of humor that work. There’s a bit where Brooke Adams (who plays Norman’s wife) grabs a knife before investigating a noise. She pauses, looks at the knife, then grabs a bigger one. That’s kind of funny, as is the bullies tossing parts of a jock they have just ripped apart out of their car window one piece at a time. Moments like these occur throughout this film, making me wonder what kind of fun McLoughlin might have had if this were an R-rated theatrical release instead of a made-for-TV flick. As is, there are some nice practical effects when the bullies reveal their rotted corpse selves, which are darn cool looking.

Practical effects and decent acting save this relatively toothless adaptation which serves as more of a Cliff’s Notes version of better King stories than standing on its own as a strong ode to the King. SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK ends rather limply as the family hugs it out and the music swells, hoping for that wave of nostalgic wholesomeness that permeates a lot of King’s lesser work. For some reason, this film warranted two sequels; SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK…AGAIN and SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK FOR MORE (I was hoping for a fourth—SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK FOR PUDDING, but it doesn’t look like it was in the cards). I haven’t seen any of the sequels and don’t really have a desire to. Still, for the King completist, SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK is not the worst King adaptation, but pales in comparison to his better works.