Hello horror fans, it’s Slick Dungeon here. I’m back to review one of the least seen and most disliked Stephen King adaptations of all time. I’ll be diving into Graveyard Shift in this review. There will be spoilers so if you care about that, run it past your horrible boss, take a little time off from the cleanup crew, watch the movie and come on back here to read the review.

Graveyard Shift Background

Graveyard Shift started off as a Stephen King short story in an issue of Cavalier magazine. But it wasn’t until the story showed up in the Stephen King collection Night Shift that it gained popularity. The story tells the tale of a crew of workers, abused by management, forced to work in harsh conditions who have to face a dark terror in the old mill.

As far as Stephen King stories go, this one is enjoyable and frightening. As far as a movie? There’s not much good to say about it. Upon release the film made a decent $11.5 million gross domestically, and took the top spot at the box office in the first weekend. But negative word of mouth crushed any real success for the film. Even now, it’s got a 0% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

But there is one, and only one, standout part of the movie, and his name is Brad Dourif.

I’m going to give you my review of the film. But just to cut to the chase, it’s not one I recommend.

Looking for Work

John Hall is a widower and a drifter. And he needs work. Badly. So, when he’s hired to work a rat infested mill by a corrupt foreman named Warwick, John is thankful. But he’s a realist and sees the problems here right away. Warwick is greedy, misogynistic, corrupt, and all around a terrible fellow.

Warwick’s mill has a rat problem. And I mean, a big rat problem. They are everywhere. Warwick hires an exterminator named Tucker Cleveland to take care of the problem. But even with his best efforts, and intense hatred towards rats, Cleveland can’t rid the mill of the rats.

As Hall begins work in the mill, he strikes up a romance with a coworker named Jane Wisconsky. But Warwick has his eye on her (and on the rest of the women in the mill). Warwick and his pals bully Hall relentlessly.

The Clean Up Crew

A select group of workers, who Warwick particularly hates, are assigned to a clean up crew. Their task? Clean up the basement, rid the place of rats, and have the mill up to inspection standards. And this will be no easy feat. People start disappearing as a strange creature keeps snapping them up while in the basement.

Warwick doesn’t care when people go missing. But he does send Cleveland to go to the cemetery, where he thinks the source of the rat problem is. Cleveland does his best to eliminate rats but he dies when a stone coffin falls on him.

Meanwhile, the cleanup crew does their best to get rid of the rats. They shoot them, turn fire hoses on them, and hit them with slingshots. Eventually they discover a network of tunnels that leads to the creature’s lair. Soon only Hall and Wisconsky are left. They stumble upon Warwick who has been trapped by the creature and driven insane. A scuffle ensues and Warwick stabs Wisconsky. The creature, a huge bat, rat hybrid tries to kill Hall but he gets the thing caught up in the equipment and kills it. An extended version of the movie shows Hall punch out his time card as well as Wisconsky’s. But the movie just ends with the mill still open and under new management.

Graveyard Shift is silly and ridiculous

If you are looking for a humorous horror film, this one would count. Although, I don’t think that’s intentional. There are moments clearly meant for comedy and those are the best in the movie. And every one of those scenes involves Brad Dourif as the exterminator. You’ll recognize him from his role as Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings and as the voice of Chucky from the Child’s Play movie. To me, he’s the only reason to watch this movie at all.

To see an over the top, completely outrageous performance in an otherwise ridiculous film, watch Brad Douriff in this. Otherwise, don’t waste your time on this one. It’s not worth it.

Ridiculously yours,

Slick Dungeon

Want More?

Want to see some of my other King reviews? Take a look here!

Looking for a good King read? Check out this one!

Are you one of the few people who have seen this one? If so, what did you think? Let me know in the comments!