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Stephen King's SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK: Book vs. Movie · Midnight Movie Theatre

0:00
Speaker 1: Okay, I recently reread the Stephen King short story collection
0:05
Speaker 1: Night Shift. First of all, let's just take a second
0:08
Speaker 1: to appreciate how badass this cover is. Is there another
0:11
Speaker 1: book that has a cooler cover than Night Shift with
0:15
Speaker 1: the eyes on the hand? And this is a short
0:18
Speaker 1: story collection. It has 20 short stories by Stephen King.
0:21
Speaker 1: 11 of which have made it into film adaptations, whether
0:25
Speaker 1: that's short films or full-length features. And that's not counting sequels,
0:30
Speaker 1: because if you count sequels, you've got to get into
0:32
Speaker 1: the Children of the Corn franchise, which I think there's
0:35
Speaker 1: 8 or 10 movies at this point now, which is
0:38
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. You get 8 or 10 movies out
0:40
Speaker 1: of a 29-page story. And that's similar to kind of
0:45
Speaker 1: what we're going to be talking about today. I just
0:47
Speaker 1: recently watched Sometimes They Come Back, which is another short
0:51
Speaker 1: story out of here. I believe this one's 30 pages,
0:54
Speaker 1: a little less than 30 pages long, and it has
0:58
Speaker 1: three movies attached to it. So we've got Sometimes They
1:00
Speaker 1: Come Back, Sometimes They Come Back for More, and Sometimes
1:03
Speaker 1: They Come Back Again. I haven't seen the sequels yet.
1:07
Speaker 1: I've just seen... The first one. And this is the
1:09
Speaker 1: second time I've watched it. I saw it on TV
1:11
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. And I don't know. I
1:14
Speaker 1: can't really remember. I remember thinking it was kind of funny.
1:17
Speaker 1: But I think that has to do with maybe some
1:19
Speaker 1: of the effects that happen in the movie. So we'll
1:23
Speaker 1: talk about that soon enough. I think it's worth taking
1:25
Speaker 1: some time to just appreciate how much money and jobs
1:29
Speaker 1: that Stephen King has generated. Obviously, not only for himself,
1:33
Speaker 1: but in everyone that's attached to his books. But just
1:36
Speaker 1: the children of the Korn franchise alone. Imagine how many
1:39
Speaker 1: jobs that produced. And then you think about the other
1:42
Speaker 1: ten movies that came from this. You have The Mangler,
1:45
Speaker 1: which also has some sequels. And then Trucks. I guess
1:48
Speaker 1: you get Trucks, and then you also get Maximum Overdrive. Basically...
1:53
Speaker 1: because of this story. It's pretty wild thinking about how
1:57
Speaker 1: many people made careers or just job opportunities based off
2:01
Speaker 1: of Stephen King's creativity. I haven't really gotten into his
2:05
Speaker 1: other short story collections, but I'm definitely going to. I
2:07
Speaker 1: think the only other one that I've read so far
2:09
Speaker 1: is everything's eventual, but that's like five or six short stories,
2:13
Speaker 1: I believe. Anyway, Sometimes They Come Back came out in 1991.
2:16
Speaker 1: It was a made-for-TV movie based on the 74 short
2:21
Speaker 1: story by the same name. Stephen King and made-for-TV movies
2:25
Speaker 1: go hand-in-hand, I believe. Salem's Lot, this just came out
2:28
Speaker 1: a year after It, the made-for-TV It series, then I
2:31
Speaker 1: think it's three years before The Stand made-for-TV miniseries. Obviously,
2:36
Speaker 1: there's A lot more than that. There's The Needful Things,
2:39
Speaker 1: The Shining, The Shining miniseries, which I'm not ready to
2:43
Speaker 1: talk about The Shining miniseries yet. Maybe eventually we'll get
2:46
Speaker 1: to that. Do a whole The Shining episode breakdown. Do
2:51
Speaker 1: all three of them. A fucking triple threat match with
2:53
Speaker 1: the book, the Stanley Kubrick movie, and the crappy ass
2:58
Speaker 1: made-for-TV movie that came out in the 90s. So this
3:03
Speaker 1: movie was originally going to be featured on Cat's Eye.
3:07
Speaker 1: That ended up having two other stories from Night Shift.
3:11
Speaker 1: The Ledge and Quitter's Inc. This one was obviously fleshed
3:18
Speaker 1: out into a full-length feature made for a TV movie
3:21
Speaker 1: directed by Tom McLaughlin. It stars Tim Matheson and Brooke Adams.
3:25
Speaker 1: One thing that really got me right away in this adaptation...
3:30
Speaker 1: is how good it looks. This feels like a feature
3:34
Speaker 1: film that you would see in the theater, especially for
3:36
Speaker 1: the time. It looks so much better than a lot
3:39
Speaker 1: of movies do nowadays. I don't know what it is.
3:42
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the shots that they're picking
3:44
Speaker 1: or the cameras that they're using or what. It looks
3:47
Speaker 1: much better. It's really well acted. There's only a couple
3:51
Speaker 1: goofy acting moments, and it comes from one or two
3:54
Speaker 1: of the child actors, so I feel like you can't
3:56
Speaker 1: really fault that too much. But overall, like Tim Matheson
4:01
Speaker 1: and Brooke Adams do a great job. The story is
4:04
Speaker 1: about these two, these brothers, Jim and Wayne. Basically, they
4:09
Speaker 1: go for a walk. These greasers catch up to them
4:12
Speaker 1: in a train tunnel. And they bully them for their money.
4:16
Speaker 1: And in this altercation, Jim's older brother Wayne gets stabbed
4:20
Speaker 1: and killed. Jim takes off running. He gets the fuck
4:23
Speaker 1: out of there. The bullies get hit by a train
4:27
Speaker 1: and die. Except for one of them. One of the
4:29
Speaker 1: bullies also gets away. And this happened when he was
4:31
Speaker 1: a little kid. 20 some years later, he moves back
4:35
Speaker 1: to this town with his wife and his son. He
4:37
Speaker 1: starts a teaching job. They're trying to live a normal life.
4:41
Speaker 1: But then all of a sudden he gets a new
4:43
Speaker 1: student in class and is one of the bullies from
4:48
Speaker 1: when he was a kid. The kids straight out of
4:50
Speaker 1: like the 50s or something. These are these are more
4:53
Speaker 1: greaser bullies that we get in a Stephen King story.
4:56
Speaker 1: And I think they did a great job. This is
4:59
Speaker 1: something that I kind of remember how well the greaser
5:01
Speaker 1: bullies were in this. Honestly, I think they're really effective.
5:04
Speaker 1: The scene when they cut off Jim and Wayne in
5:07
Speaker 1: the tunnel when they're little kids is pretty scary. I
5:10
Speaker 1: feel like the bullies have a similar energy to Henry Bauer.
5:14
Speaker 1: And the scene where the blonde-headed bully is getting out
5:17
Speaker 1: of the car and he's just not breaking eye contact
5:20
Speaker 1: with the camera... is really creepy. It just feels very
5:23
Speaker 1: menacing right away. Anyway, Jim's teaching this class. He's got
5:28
Speaker 1: some rowdy students, but then he gets this new student
5:30
Speaker 1: and he's like, wait a minute, this motherfucker looks just
5:33
Speaker 1: like one of the guys that killed my brother. And
5:35
Speaker 1: that kind of continues on to where a student will
5:38
Speaker 1: die and they'll be replaced by another one of the bullies.
5:42
Speaker 1: And it comes down to Jim having to confront them
5:46
Speaker 1: and recreate the accident from when he was a kid,
5:51
Speaker 1: recreate the train crash, basically. And so in order to
5:56
Speaker 1: do this, he has to go find the other bully
5:58
Speaker 1: that didn't die in the accident and bring him to
6:02
Speaker 1: the crash site as well. And this guy eventually willingly
6:05
Speaker 1: goes and kind of sacrifices himself. Basically, the thought is
6:10
Speaker 1: that when somebody dies, a new spirit can come forward.
6:14
Speaker 1: And at some point, Wayne is trying to come forward.
6:17
Speaker 1: So the living bully, he kind of provokes the main
6:21
Speaker 1: bully to stab him to death. And he does. So
6:25
Speaker 1: then Wayne comes forward and they basically fuck these bullies
6:29
Speaker 1: up by hitting them with a ghost train because the
6:31
Speaker 1: train tracks have been closed down. But when all this
6:34
Speaker 1: is kicking off, it fucks everything up. And he's like,
6:38
Speaker 1: here comes a train. We're going off the rails on
6:41
Speaker 1: the crazy train up in here. And they get smoked
6:45
Speaker 1: by the train again. One of the things about the
6:47
Speaker 1: movie version is that these bullies are coming back for revenge.
6:50
Speaker 1: And I was kind of thinking like revenge on what
6:52
Speaker 1: they killed this fucking guy's older brother. And then they
6:55
Speaker 1: got hit by a train. Like, where's the revenge? So
6:59
Speaker 1: apparently when Jim was leaving the train tunnel, when he
7:02
Speaker 1: ran out, he grabbed their car keys and took off running.
7:05
Speaker 1: But when you see the movie, I mean, the way
7:07
Speaker 1: they park in the train in front of the train
7:09
Speaker 1: is They're like wedged into this tunnel. Like if they
7:12
Speaker 1: had the car keys, maybe they would have had a
7:14
Speaker 1: chance of reversing the car fast enough to get the
7:17
Speaker 1: fuck out of there. But most likely not. Most likely
7:20
Speaker 1: they would have gotten smoked by the train one way
7:22
Speaker 1: or the other. And maybe that's just their petty reasoning
7:24
Speaker 1: for coming back in a tormenting gym. But but in
7:28
Speaker 1: the when they recreate it, he throws them the key
7:31
Speaker 1: so that they have a chance to leave and they
7:33
Speaker 1: still get smoked by the train and go back to hell.
7:36
Speaker 1: And basically after that, Wayne and Jim, they have a
7:39
Speaker 1: little moment where Wayne's like, oh, damn, you're supposed to
7:43
Speaker 1: be my little brother, you know, because Wayne still looks
7:45
Speaker 1: like a little kid. And they hug it out. Overall,
7:48
Speaker 1: the story is about loss and how you deal with
7:51
Speaker 1: it and whatnot. And so he does that. Wayne ends
7:54
Speaker 1: up going back. I believe he can go on to
7:57
Speaker 1: heaven now because he was kind of in limbo this
8:00
Speaker 1: whole time, I think, as well as the bullies. And
8:03
Speaker 1: somehow they escaped. I don't really... I don't think they
8:06
Speaker 1: explain it. I don't think they need to explain it, though.
8:07
Speaker 1: It's a damn evil ghost movie or whatever. And that's
8:12
Speaker 1: pretty well how the movie ends. Jim, his wife and
8:15
Speaker 1: his son, they make it safe. At some point, the
8:19
Speaker 1: bullies do kidnap the son and I think the wife
8:22
Speaker 1: as well to make sure that Jim shows up to
8:25
Speaker 1: the tunnel. In the book, one of the big differences
8:28
Speaker 1: is that Jim doesn't have a son at all. So
8:31
Speaker 1: it's just him and his wife. They move back to
8:33
Speaker 1: this town. All this crazy shit starts happening. And the
8:37
Speaker 1: bullies end up killing Jim's wife in like a really
8:40
Speaker 1: brutal way. He goes to the hospital because he heard
8:43
Speaker 1: that she was in an accident or something like that.
8:45
Speaker 1: And when he gets there, one of the bullies is
8:47
Speaker 1: dressed up like a nurse and basically just starts mocking
8:51
Speaker 1: him and taunting him about how they killed his wife.
8:53
Speaker 1: And it's not like they either hit her with a
8:54
Speaker 1: car or they shot her or something. I don't know.
8:57
Speaker 1: They make it sound like she blew up and he's
8:59
Speaker 1: just kind of like, fuck. And so he runs off
9:02
Speaker 1: and he goes, and this is one of a few
9:05
Speaker 1: stories in this book that involves the Necronomicon. I can't
9:08
Speaker 1: be 100% sure without looking it back up. There's a
9:12
Speaker 1: few stories that have the Necronomicon in it, or at
9:15
Speaker 1: least like alluding to it. And I think this is
9:17
Speaker 1: one where he goes and he finds this book that's
9:19
Speaker 1: about like black magic. And this is where the book
9:22
Speaker 1: differs from the movie. So the movie has a happy ending.
9:25
Speaker 1: He reconciliates with his brother and he... gets past his grief,
9:30
Speaker 1: gets past his loss and stuff like that, or at
9:32
Speaker 1: least like comes to terms with it. And the book,
9:34
Speaker 1: he finds out that he has to cut off his
9:37
Speaker 1: finger in order to bring his brother Wayne back to
9:39
Speaker 1: help him defeat the bullies. And so he fucking chops
9:43
Speaker 1: his finger off and sacrifices it for the spell to
9:46
Speaker 1: work or this ritual to work. And when his brother
9:49
Speaker 1: Wayne comes back, it's like not really his brother. It's
9:51
Speaker 1: like an evil demon that maybe kind of looks like
9:54
Speaker 1: his brother, but it doesn't act anything like his brother.
9:57
Speaker 1: It's not caring. It's not friendly. It doesn't even really
9:59
Speaker 1: seem to give a shit about who he is. It's
10:01
Speaker 1: just like, what do you want me to do? And
10:03
Speaker 1: he's like, I need you to fucking kick these ghosts ass.
10:05
Speaker 1: They're going to kill me. They've been fucking up my
10:07
Speaker 1: whole life. I need them out. And so fake brother
10:11
Speaker 1: Wayne comes out and he He fucking triple clotheslines the
10:15
Speaker 1: bullies to death, basically. Sends their asses straight back to hell.
10:19
Speaker 1: No problem. He's just like fucking dust his hands off.
10:22
Speaker 1: Lickety split. Whoops their fucking asses. Stone Cold stuns all
10:26
Speaker 1: three of them bitches back to hell. And after that,
10:29
Speaker 1: he turns to Jim and he's just like, hey, bud,
10:32
Speaker 1: eventually I'm going to come back for your soul. Sorry.
10:35
Speaker 1: It's just the way it is. I'm an evil demon.
10:37
Speaker 1: I'm not your fucking brother. And then he just like
10:39
Speaker 1: cannonballs himself back into hell as well. He's like, hasta
10:42
Speaker 1: la vista, baby. and just fucking sends his own ass
10:46
Speaker 1: back to hell or wherever he came from. And so
10:49
Speaker 1: Jim's like, fuck. For some reason, I thought he had
10:51
Speaker 1: to also cut his hand off during this whole thing.
10:54
Speaker 1: I know he cuts his finger off, but anyway. So
10:57
Speaker 1: he has to do all this shit, fuck his whole
10:59
Speaker 1: hand up, and still, evil demon Wayne is like, that's
11:04
Speaker 1: not enough. I'm going to come back sometime and get
11:07
Speaker 1: your ass. For real. And so Jim's like, Oh, fuck.
11:10
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of how the story ends on
11:12
Speaker 1: this really like ominous cliffhanger where, you know, eventually his
11:17
Speaker 1: ass is going to get ground into devil meat as well.
11:19
Speaker 1: Devil dust. So a little bit more of a bleak
11:22
Speaker 1: ending than the movie has doesn't really reconcile anything. And, uh,
11:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it's also about like dealing with loss. But
11:30
Speaker 1: when you think about the way that that ends, it's
11:32
Speaker 1: almost like, nah, dude, you're fucked. Your brother Wayne's dead.
11:35
Speaker 1: Your wife's dead. You just got your fucking hand chopped
11:38
Speaker 1: off by yourself. Dude, you're going to have a shitty time.
11:42
Speaker 1: And then eventually you don't know when you're always going
11:44
Speaker 1: to be like, when is this demon going to come
11:46
Speaker 1: back and fucking kick my ass? Take me back to
11:49
Speaker 1: hell or whatever. So very interesting. I feel like the
11:54
Speaker 1: movie ending feels a lot better. The movie ending almost
11:58
Speaker 1: makes more sense for the metaphor for the story in
12:02
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But I will say the movie
12:06
Speaker 1: ending doesn't make much sense for them having two more
12:09
Speaker 1: sequels after this. This one feels like a wrap. They
12:13
Speaker 1: tied it up nicely. It's a solid movie and it
12:16
Speaker 1: has a solid ending. The book is what gets me
12:19
Speaker 1: because the book leaves it open for sequels. If they
12:23
Speaker 1: would have ended it the way that the book does,
12:24
Speaker 1: you'd be like, oh, damn, there is going to be
12:26
Speaker 1: a number two. We're going to go. We're going to
12:28
Speaker 1: catch up with Jim sometime when some more demons come
12:31
Speaker 1: back to get his ass. But that's not how they
12:33
Speaker 1: do it. I don't know. I'm kind of curious to
12:34
Speaker 1: watch the others now. I did see that. And sometimes
12:37
Speaker 1: they come back again. Hilary Swank is in it. So
12:40
Speaker 1: that might be interesting to check out the movie. I
12:43
Speaker 1: watched the trailer. The movie looks like ass, but I
12:45
Speaker 1: might have to check it out just to see how
12:47
Speaker 1: the fuck do they come up sequel for this movie.
12:50
Speaker 1: One of the other things that the movie does differently
12:52
Speaker 1: than the book, so the students' deaths are all on screen.
12:57
Speaker 1: You see how every one of these students dies. It's
13:00
Speaker 1: three high school kids from his class. The first one
13:03
Speaker 1: gets driven off a bridge by the bullies. It's an
13:07
Speaker 1: interesting idea of how the rules work because Jim sees
13:11
Speaker 1: this happening, and so he takes off after The bullies
13:14
Speaker 1: in his van, they're chasing this kid on a bike
13:16
Speaker 1: and eventually they run him off a bridge and he
13:18
Speaker 1: just falls into a bunch of rocks and is fucking dead.
13:21
Speaker 1: And they show it and he's all bloody and shit.
13:22
Speaker 1: And I was kind of like, damn, they show this
13:24
Speaker 1: on TV. It's wild that this is a made for
13:26
Speaker 1: TV movie. The second one is this lady in the class,
13:30
Speaker 1: and they think that she commits suicide. And Jim has
13:34
Speaker 1: these dreams of where her body is. And so he
13:36
Speaker 1: leads police to her and they find her. But they're
13:39
Speaker 1: also getting more and more suspicious of him. They're just like,
13:42
Speaker 1: wait a minute. Why are you always around when your
13:44
Speaker 1: students are dying? And also in the movie, in his
13:47
Speaker 1: previous job, he had like a mental breakdown. And that's
13:49
Speaker 1: why he lost his last job. So everyone's already kind
13:52
Speaker 1: of looking at him a little suspicious. Like, are you
13:54
Speaker 1: going to fucking snap? How are you doing in there, bud?
13:56
Speaker 1: How's your mental state? And then the third student. So
14:00
Speaker 1: in the book, the third student is basically just completely
14:04
Speaker 1: ambiguous on what happens to him. He tells Jim he's
14:07
Speaker 1: going to go move to like Kansas City or something
14:10
Speaker 1: with his cousin and live there. He does the same
14:12
Speaker 1: thing in the movie, but then the bullies pick him
14:14
Speaker 1: up and they literally dismember him in the car. And
14:17
Speaker 1: you don't see it. It's one of the sillier moments.
14:20
Speaker 1: The driver just pulls out a switchblade. Their whole faces
14:24
Speaker 1: turn into monster movie makeup, which is pretty decent. Honestly,
14:27
Speaker 1: it looks pretty cool sometimes. The main bully kind of
14:30
Speaker 1: looks like a tall version of the leprechaun, which I
14:32
Speaker 1: thought was pretty cool. And you just see them throwing
14:35
Speaker 1: his arms and legs and shit out the window into
14:38
Speaker 1: this lake, including I think they throw his head out
14:40
Speaker 1: as well. So that's a major difference. The cops and
14:44
Speaker 1: the town in general suspecting Jim as possibly being the
14:48
Speaker 1: one that's killing his students is also a lot different.
14:51
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen in the book at all. One of
14:53
Speaker 1: the things in the movie that is interesting, and I
14:55
Speaker 1: think this is kind of just chalked up to... just
14:59
Speaker 1: like what's a cool horror movie scene to have. So
15:01
Speaker 1: when the bullies are chasing that kid on the bike
15:04
Speaker 1: and Jim's chasing after them as well, people only see
15:07
Speaker 1: Jim's van. They don't see the bullies hot rod, like
15:10
Speaker 1: bumping into the kid's tire and stuff like that. And
15:14
Speaker 1: there's really no explanation for that because then throughout the
15:16
Speaker 1: rest of the movie, all the teachers, all the students,
15:19
Speaker 1: they can see them when they're in class. They're not
15:21
Speaker 1: invisible or anything like that. But there's another moment where
15:24
Speaker 1: Jim goes to the bathroom to confront them and you
15:27
Speaker 1: can't see the bully's reflection in the mirror. So it's
15:30
Speaker 1: kind of like, well, is that a permanent thing or
15:32
Speaker 1: is it just I think it's just a cool movie trick.
15:35
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it does raise a lot
15:36
Speaker 1: of questions of like, does anybody else suspect that these
15:39
Speaker 1: guys are supernatural? Because they look like they're straight out
15:42
Speaker 1: of the 50s. They act fucking weird. They drive like a,
15:45
Speaker 1: you know, a flame car that shoots fire out of
15:48
Speaker 1: the tailpipes and shit like that. Anybody else seeing this
15:51
Speaker 1: or is it just Jim? Everybody else just thinks they're nice,
15:53
Speaker 1: normal kids, I guess. There's probably some other things that
15:56
Speaker 1: are missing, some little things. I mean, it's a book adaptation. So,
16:01
Speaker 1: of course, there's going to be like quite a few
16:03
Speaker 1: differences there. But the bully that escapes, I don't really
16:08
Speaker 1: think he's as big a deal as he is in
16:11
Speaker 1: the movie. I don't think he needs to be there
16:13
Speaker 1: for the ritual or whatever. I think it's just the
16:15
Speaker 1: three bullies that died. They come back and I don't
16:19
Speaker 1: really think he meets up with them. I know he
16:20
Speaker 1: goes back and talks to a police officer, like the
16:24
Speaker 1: police officer that he talked to right after his brother died.
16:27
Speaker 1: And he does that in the book and the movie.
16:29
Speaker 1: But I don't think he does that with the bully.
16:33
Speaker 1: like he does in the movie. So other than that,
16:37
Speaker 1: it's really just the tone overall. It really shifts in
16:41
Speaker 1: the movie compared to the book. In the book, it
16:43
Speaker 1: gives you the idea that you can't undo the past,
16:46
Speaker 1: that they're not comforting at all. And sometimes when they
16:50
Speaker 1: do come back, they're worse than before. And in the movie,
16:53
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, he faces his past, confronts his trauma,
16:57
Speaker 1: Wayne receives closure, which is nice. He can move on.
17:00
Speaker 1: And the family survives, so good defeats evil in the movie,
17:04
Speaker 1: which is, you know, it's kind of nice. Be sure
17:08
Speaker 1: to like and subscribe. I do have some bonus episodes
17:11
Speaker 1: on Patreon about Are You Afraid of the Dark and
17:14
Speaker 1: some Twin Peaks episodes. We're going to get some more
17:17
Speaker 1: posted up there soon enough. I also have other Stephen
17:20
Speaker 1: King videos out right now. I have the Stan miniseries,
17:23
Speaker 1: a three-part breakdown, Cujo the book. Does it shine? Is
17:28
Speaker 1: there the shining in the book Cujo? You definitely want
17:31
Speaker 1: to check that one out. But that's all for tonight,
17:33
Speaker 1: so good night.