[KING'S CORNER] The Langoliers (1995)

The Langoliers - King's Corner Review

Welcome to King's Corner. A recurring series of reviews based on the film and TV adaptations of Stephen King's novels and collections, reviewed and released in order of the original source material publishing date.

Director: Tom Holland

Starring: Patricia Weitig, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Bronson Pinchot, Dean Stockwell, David Morse, Tom Holland

Written by: Tom Holland

Produced by: David R. Kappes

Cinematography by: Paul Maibaum

Original Score by: Vladimir Horunzhy

Synopsis:

On a red-eye flight to Boston from Los Angeles, 10 people wake up to a shock: All of the other passengers and crew have vanished.

Thoughts:

Deep down I think that we all have a fear of flying. Trapped in a metal tube at least 30,000 feet in the air, one small fault can spell disaster for all onboard. Within the horror genre you don't need to look any further than the opening scene of 'Final Destination' to see how terrifying such an incident can be. What happens though when the disaster is something that can't be explained, that goes beyond our comprehension? These questions go beyond a simple technical fault or weather related accident as they force us to embrace a strange and terrifying phenomena which is the basis for Stephen King's story, 'The Langoliers'.

The first of four stories from his novella collection, 'Four Past Midnight' (published in August 1990) 'The Langoliers' has a setup like an episode of 'The Twilight Zone', as ten passengers on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston wake up to find that everyone else on their flight is missing. This sets in motion a time bending mystery complete with cosmic monstrosities. The idea for the story came to King from a single image which was a woman pressing her hand over a crack in the wall of a commercial jetliner. One night on the edge of sleep he realised this woman was a ghost and sat with it for a few minutes. The next day he started writing the story and within a month he finished it. 

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The Stephen King miniseries was all the rage in the 90's with 'The Stand' and 'IT' proving to be big hits with audiences. Producer Richard P. Rubinstein who had worked previously on King adaptations like 'Pet Sematary' and 'The Stand' through his company Laurel Entertainment optioned the short story. In the August 1995 edition of Cinefantastique he described the story as a "popcorn movie" believing it was like "Ten Little Indians meets an Irwin Allen disaster movie." Rubinstein had known Tom Holland while he was trying to get his adaptation of 'Thinner' off the ground and based on his previous work on the likes of 'Fright Night' and 'Child's Play' he felt he was the ideal choice to write and direct the miniseries for ABC. 

Some of the best King adaptations are the ones where a filmmaker can take a story (usually a short one) and add their own unique spin to it while retaining the spirit of it. 'The Langoliers' has the potential to be a tight 90 minute mystery/thriller but in adapting it to a three hour miniseries, Holland (with some minor adjustments) adapts the novel almost exactly like it is on the page. By being so reverential to the source material the adaptation feels baggy and meanders from time to time dragging the audience through the mystery. It doesn't help that it has a standard televisual look to it making it look very plain save for a few obvious uses of a dutch angle (to heighten Toomy's growing insanity) that don't add much to the story. It is very much a product of its time. 

In spite of this the air of mystery in the opening half of the miniseries is well developed. There is something eerie to the emptiness of the Maine airport when the survivors are trying to figure out what has happened. The use of sound works well in this manner too as the time they now find themselves in is void of any sort of echoes so all they can hear is themselves so whenever the strange crunching noises of the Langoliers can be heard in the distance it heightens the tension. Having said that, the bland score from Vladimir Horunzhy does the miniseries no favours as it sounds like stock music and dulls the atmosphere. 

LISTEN TO THE DISSECTION PODCAST

For the series, Holland assembles a fairly impressive ensemble cast full of well known faces but the performances they provide are uneven. Leading the group by default is pilot Brian Engle (David Morse) who is flying back to Boston after getting news that his ex-wife has died. In the role Morse exudes his trademark natural world weary quality which does some of the lifting the blandness of the script. It is not enough though as there is nothing compelling for him on the page so it feels like he is going through the motions making for an unsatisfying performance. 

As the British agent Nick Hopewell on his way to Boston to carry out an assassination, Mark Lindsay Chapman plays the part with a sense of bravado that also carries compassion. What undercuts this though is some of his dialogue which sounds like the writer's impression of how an English person speaks was lifted straight from 'Mary Poppins'. As with the character of Engles, Hopewell as a character feels underwritten until we are given a full rundown of his background moments before his act of self sacrifice to manipulate the audience into caring for him. Opposite him is school teacher Laurel Stevenson (Patricia Wettig) who comes across as being nothing more than a carer for the group. She is perfectly fine in the role but she is flung into a romantic relationship with Chapman's character late in the film to heighten the drama that doesn't work at all as it feels cheap and unearned. 

What does work well and is the standout of the entire miniseries is Bronson Pinchot's unhinged performance as bonds tradesman Craig Toomy. At the beginning he carries an obnoxious and demanding demeanour but after a confrontation with Hopewell it ends and he relives the childhood trauma brought on by his overbearing father, Pinchot goes big with a scenery chewing performance that breaks the monotony of the series. He has an exasperated intensity that holds your attention anytime he appears on screen and the more mentally unstable his character becomes, the more watchable his performance becomes too. 

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It wouldn't be a Stephen King story without the inclusion of a child with some sort of psychic abilities and 'The Langoliers' is no different as one of the passengers, Dinah Bellman (Kate Maberly) is a blind girl who can sense things the other passengers cannot. Maberly doesn't really light up the screen with her performance as she comes across more as a know it all rather than someone with a gift that defies belief. At times it feels like she is reading her lines from the inside of her blacked out glasses as she delivers her dialogue in a very flat 

manner. 

In terms of the rest of the ensemble, they seemed to be defined by their traits rather than their performances. The one standout from the rest though is Dean Stockwell as mystery writer Bob Jenkins. In short he is Mr. Exposition in the series as he tries to deduce what is happening and explain his take on events to the group. It might seem like a thankless role but Stockwell delivers a lot of cosmic jargon about the nature of time with a playful sincerity that keeps you locked in even if it seems ridiculous in nature. 

What this series is arguably most famous for (or infamous depending on your stance) is the presentation of the Langoliers themselves. Early on in the series we are shown exterior shots of the plane using CGI and the presentation of it is ropey at best but they are used sparingly as establishing shots so you can forgive them. What you can't forgive though is the effects used to bring the Langoliers to life. In the novella they are described as looking like beach balls with teeth which is a starting point to develop something more threatening and genuinely terrifying but here we are presented with some poorly rendered floating meatballs with spinning razor sharp teeth. All of the mystery and tension built up prior to their arrival is undone in an instant as they lack any sort of threat and are just downright laughable to look at. 

LISTEN TO THE DISSECTION PODCAST

What started as a strange image of a ghostly woman placing her hand on a crack on the wall of a commercial airplane ends with a cult miniseries that is remembered for all of the wrong reasons. In short it is a needlessly extended episode of 'The Twilight Zone' with an eerie atmosphere that is undone by some of the worst special effects you are likely to see in any adaptation of King's work. Add into the mix Holland's insistence on more or less adapting the story word for word and a cast of uneven performances and you get an unnecessarily baggy and emotionless adaptation of a pulpy piece of science fiction. 

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️

-Joseph McElroy