SPOILER ALERT!
The critics were not enthusiastic about GRAVEYARD SHIFT when it came out in the theaters in 1990. It didn't seem to make much of an impact at the box office either. But since then appreciation of King's unique subterranean, giant mutant, carnivorous bat seems to have grown.
Stephen King tries to be an all-around horror auteur. Yet fans and near-fans equate King with horror tales of the paranormal as underscored by one his most popular books and theatrical adaptations, THE SHINING. Yet King shows he is quite versatile with sci-fi horror such as, IT, which featured an extraterrestrial sentient monster in somewhat paranormal settings, and the science fiction, THE STAND.
Here in GRAVEYARD SHIFT King offers us a no-nonsense, straightforward, what-you-see-is-what-you get, mutant horrifying monster yarn. King's short stories are often overlooked by the mainstream reading public.
Like many of his writing creations, GRAVEYARD SHIFT takes place in the state of Maine.
King's depiction of his home state, Maine, is a two-edged sword. While the King books and movies bring Maine into the national spotlight, it's often not in a delightful, touristy, shining way to attract tourists. Nay, for those Maine citizens who wish to keep outsiders to a minimum lest Maine turn into a northeastern California, King's books are a godsend. Watching any King movie set in Maine is designed to keep you from ever becoming curious about visiting much less relocating.
If America's vision of the Deep South is one of backwardness, persistent grinding poverty and impoverishment, misery and general unhappiness, then King's Maine is of little doubt the North's version of a Deep North, still rural and mired in the past and stuck in modern economic stagnation and slow collapse.
Even a lifelong Maine denizen might cringe at the degraded vision of backwoods Maine in GRAVEYARD SHIFT.
The movie is set in the fictional Maine rural town, Gates Falls, which bears a long, deep past long forgotten and best forgotten. It was once a prospering mill town, one of several along a fictional Maine river that originally powered the milling machines during the time of manufacturing and economic growth of the North in the first half of the 19th century.
In 1990 all that is forgotten history by the economically depressed remnants of Gates Falls and its even more depressed remaining citizens, many now scrambling to find employment in a rural town that hovers on the edge. The encroaching river has eroded into the long-abandoned, local, once-stately cemetery, turning it into a rotting, corroded, collapsing eyesore that no one ventures near.
The intruding river has also contributed significantly to the deterioration of the recently re-opened Bachman Mill. For those in the know, Bachman is an eye-wink. King once used the surname, Bachman as a pseudonym in his earlier books. The movie does not explain who re-opened the mill or why but the movie's beginning makes it quite clear that was a gross mistake. The large, wood constructed mill is seriously dilapidated, run-down, and collapsing in places in the lower levels. Worst, the mill especially the lower levels are swarmed by near infinite numbers of rats.
The mill is run by a psychologically unstable plant manager, Mr. Warwick, played by actor, Stephen Macht, from the 1980 sci-fi movie, "Galaxina", which starred the doomed Canadian actress and Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratton, who would be murdered by her estranged husband in Los Angeles later in 1980.
Warwick is the odd character who outshines the main protagonist and anti-hero, John Hall, a college-educated drifter, through Warwick's intense, eye-glaring, psycho-mental character acting. Warwick is the mill's plant manager. Yet Warwick also functions as a department manager, supervisor, and foreman, all in one. He performs a full day's shift as plant manager but comes back at night to work the graveyard shift as supervisor and foreman. He even oversees the clean-up crew in the deteriorated basement. The crew shortly discovers an even lower basement level, one that once held the equipment to derive river water power to turn the mill's machinery.
The re-opening of the long-closed Bachman mill disturbs lowest level denizen, a giant mutated carnivorous bat with rat-like characteristics. The ugly freakish creature from out of hell metaphorically, had been dining on corpses the beast exhumed from underground of the deteriorated cemetery. The encroaching river's path was slowly going under the cemetery, loosening and washing away the underground foundation dirt, making it easy for the subterranean creature to burrow to coffins and drag it back to its lair, the long-abandoned, warehouse-size underground level.
The creature begins to prey on individual graveyard shift personnel whose absences go unnoticed.
Warwick recruits a special basement cleanup crew for the shutdown week of July 4th, offering double-pay as incentive. This includes the nice-guy drifter, Hall, his new girlfriend who was once the plaything of Warwick, who is slowly becoming what seems to be more unbalanced, even insane, at that point.
The cleanup crew discovers the large trapdoor to the bottom level. When they all investigate it, including Warwick, that is when the nasty, foul, giant mutant hellbat creature ambushes them. The monster quickly kills one of the crew then starts after the others. At this point Warwick finally goes insane and berserk, after the two men with him meet violent, deaths from the creature. In the small mountain of human bones in the bottom of the lowest level, Warwick has fallen into it. When Hall and his girlfriend try to rescue Warwick, he awakes and attacks both of them, beating Hall mercilessly and knifing his girlfriend to death.
Warwick runs off and into the monster. Rather than panicking and running, Warwick decides a la Viking to fight it out to the death with the creature, using his Buck sheath knife. Of course the creature kills Warwick. Hall awakens and runs after Warwick running into the creature still dining upon Warwick's remains. Hall beats a hasty retreat and finds his way back up into what was once thought the bottom basement which holds the picker machine, a large, grinding machine that swallows up bales of raw cotton into its multiple, grinding shears.
The bat mutant monster follows Hall to the picker machine level and almost succeeds in grabbing hold of Hall.
Hall succeeds in activating the picker machine which catches the long rat-like tail of the giant bat creature. The machine pulls the shrieking bat monster through its grinding shear machinery, shredding it until finally the picker jams and stops. Hall stares at the horde of rats that descend to consume the beast's shredded bloody fragments in the machine.
The last scene before the credits is a new sign outside the mill's front office, reading, "Help Wanted", with a secondary sign dangling beneath, "Under New Management". That is surprising since at the movie's beginning, a state inspector had written a report advising the mill's closure although Warwick bribed the man with two hundred dollars to delay the submission of his report.
A shout-out goes to a supporting character, the still young, Brad Dourif who gained his fame playing eccentric and sometimes crazy characters. He plays the role of a rat exterminator under a veneer of a crazy dude but who often shows the sane, professional side of himself while discussing his profession. The near psycho façade Dourif's character sometimes displays is supposed to be the result of really bad things he saw while serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Later in the movie, Dourif's character is killed while exploring underground in the collapsing cemetery when a concrete stone sarcophagus coffin slides back and crushes him.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2020
This Stephen King classic has a strong cold open. This first death scene had some personality to supplement its desired mystery (i.e., the off-screen death). Considering we see very little of our killer, it was still very satisfying and tactfully executed. Also rather cheeky considering the victim dies after spending 5 minutes basically lecturing an audience of basement rats.
The old textile mill in a small Maine town has a flooded basement, decades of debris, an alarming rat infestation, and poses a significant health and safety risk to any who enter. Desperate to pass a safety inspection, the shady manager of the mill bribes the safety inspector to buy some time and forms a graveyard shift clean-up crew (including Andrew Divoff; Wishmaster 1-2, Lost, Faust: Love of the Damned). He also hires a very enthusiastic exterminator (Brad Dourif; The Hazing, Child’s Play, Curse of Chucky, Cult of Chucky).
Not long after, a second accident steals away another employee complete with some monstrous creature effects. The monster effects are pretty great considering we never see much at once. The realistic eyes, the big wings and claws, the gaping wet esophagus when its mouth is open. As deaths progress, we also enjoy some dismemberment and a shredded beef-flinging bloody stump. We come to discover that the creature wanders a network of mines under the mill which connect to catacombs of the neighboring cemetery.
By the end, the textile workers have turned against each other and are making short work of each other as the monster patiently picks them off. Somehow, the monster always seems to be where it needs to be throughout this labyrinth of forgotten mines. I was beginning to expect there were a lot of creatures.
The cavernous lair and its sea of bones was an awesome sight. But, oh my, when we finally truly see the monster… it’s a slimy gross animatronic delight! A lot of care went into this beast. Its ear twitches, mouth movements and the way it articulates its slimy claws give it life. And while I love this thing’s appearance, why the heck does it look like its completely covered in snot? The thing appears to be a giant bat… with a prehensile rat tail. We get to see quite a lot of this gloriously disgusting monster. If I’m being honest, it’s pretty great and well worth the wait. Plus, it comes to a super chunky gory end.
For his only feature film ever, director Ralph S. Singleton did a great job. I really enjoyed this movie. The story is very linear, easy to follow, but still very satisfying.
Overall this was actually considerably better-paced, gorier and more exciting than I had remembered (having last seen this in the 90s). The monster looks great and it all really holds up!
Stephen King’s gory, slimy, 80s creature feature is a monstrous good time that really holds up.
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2020
What a surprisingly fun and gory monster movie this turned out to be. This movie held up so much better than I could have imagined. There’s nothing prosaic going on here, just a well-made straightforward slimy monster movie… and for that, I love it.Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2020
This Stephen King classic has a strong cold open. This first death scene had some personality to supplement its desired mystery (i.e., the off-screen death). Considering we see very little of our killer, it was still very satisfying and tactfully executed. Also rather cheeky considering the victim dies after spending 5 minutes basically lecturing an audience of basement rats.
The old textile mill in a small Maine town has a flooded basement, decades of debris, an alarming rat infestation, and poses a significant health and safety risk to any who enter. Desperate to pass a safety inspection, the shady manager of the mill bribes the safety inspector to buy some time and forms a graveyard shift clean-up crew (including Andrew Divoff; Wishmaster 1-2, Lost, Faust: Love of the Damned). He also hires a very enthusiastic exterminator (Brad Dourif; The Hazing, Child’s Play, Curse of Chucky, Cult of Chucky).
Not long after, a second accident steals away another employee complete with some monstrous creature effects. The monster effects are pretty great considering we never see much at once. The realistic eyes, the big wings and claws, the gaping wet esophagus when its mouth is open. As deaths progress, we also enjoy some dismemberment and a shredded beef-flinging bloody stump. We come to discover that the creature wanders a network of mines under the mill which connect to catacombs of the neighboring cemetery.
By the end, the textile workers have turned against each other and are making short work of each other as the monster patiently picks them off. Somehow, the monster always seems to be where it needs to be throughout this labyrinth of forgotten mines. I was beginning to expect there were a lot of creatures.
The cavernous lair and its sea of bones was an awesome sight. But, oh my, when we finally truly see the monster… it’s a slimy gross animatronic delight! A lot of care went into this beast. Its ear twitches, mouth movements and the way it articulates its slimy claws give it life. And while I love this thing’s appearance, why the heck does it look like its completely covered in snot? The thing appears to be a giant bat… with a prehensile rat tail. We get to see quite a lot of this gloriously disgusting monster. If I’m being honest, it’s pretty great and well worth the wait. Plus, it comes to a super chunky gory end.
For his only feature film ever, director Ralph S. Singleton did a great job. I really enjoyed this movie. The story is very linear, easy to follow, but still very satisfying.
Overall this was actually considerably better-paced, gorier and more exciting than I had remembered (having last seen this in the 90s). The monster looks great and it all really holds up!
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2023
Top reviews from other countries
Roland Deschain
Probably only for the hardcore Stephen King fans.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2023
JMD Nelson
Fun Creature Feature for a Friday movie night!! (Review of the Shout!Factory BluRay)
Reviewed in Canada on August 1, 2020
JMD Nelson
Reviewed in Canada on August 1, 2020
PLOT:
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Based on the short story of the same name from Stephen King's Night Shift Collection, the story centers on a drifter named John Hall (David Andrews) and a handful of blue-collar workers, working at the recently re-opened Bachman Mill in the small town of Gates Falls, Maine. The mill in question also happens to have a huge rat problem as well as another, more serious one; people keep disappearing or turning up dead.
The bully of a foreman Warwick (Stephen Macht) thinks that the deaths and disappearances are either related to people walking off site or accidents happening, but Hall and the others speculate otherwise. Hall knows it's got something to do with the rats and the ancient sub-cellar in the basement that he and a few others will be cleaning the 4th of July long weekend for double pay.
And what Hall, Warwick and the others will discover in the old sub-cellar will leave none of them unscathed!!
REVIEW:
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Graveyard Shift is truly a fun, creepy and gory Friday night flick that does its source material proud. Everyone involved brings their A-game, from the actors to the music, to the special effects for the giant, vicious, winged creature that stalks the mill during the graveyard shift.
David Andrews as Hall is every bit as mysterious and as your typical drifter, while being charming and charismatic at the same time. Stephen Macht does an equally wonderful job too as the menacing, snake-like Warwick, who may or may not know the truth behind what's happening at the mill. (The movie never makes it clear, but you can tell that there's just something not quite right with this guy!!)
It's also nice to have a horror film where the characters involved are a bunch of everyday working people, and not a bunch of fresh-faced teens. It seems every horror film as of recent always stars a group of CW-type teens to appeal to the younger audience. That’s fine, but it gets old after a while.
BluRay Extras:
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We’ve got:
- 2 Interviews with director Ralph S. Singleton
- An Interview with Kelly Wolf (plays Jane Wisconsky)
- An Interview with Stephen Macht (plays Warwick)
- An Interview with Vic Polizos (plays Brogan)
- An Interview with Robert Alan Beuth (plays Ippeston)
- Theatrical Trailer
- Radio Spot
Video Quality 8/10 (There is some slight grain)
Audio Quality 10/10 (Nice clean transfer)
VERDICT:
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Definitely one of King's better, lesser known works. It might not be up there with the likes of The Shining, Carrie, Cujo or IT, but this film can definitely hold its own and does what it does well!! It's creepy, unsettling and at times outright claustrophobic!! (Especially the last act in the sub-cellar with all of the dimly lit tunnels and desolate corridors!!) Plus, the giant winged creature is a nice pay-off, although the film doesn't explain what it is or where it came from. (The short story by King DOES though, and I'd recommend giving it a read or a listen before seeing this!!)
But I personally love this flick and would definitely recommend it to horror fans, creature feature enthusiasts or even Die-Hard Stephen King fans everywhere!!
Graveyard Shift; Good Benefits, Early Retirement!!
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BorderBoy
90’s Horror.
Reviewed in Mexico on October 12, 2021
BorderBoy
Reviewed in Mexico on October 12, 2021
El primer corte de la cinta recibió una clasificación X por tener más escenas gore, posteriormente tuvo que ser recortada para alcanzar así la clasificación R, la versión de tv contenía algunas escenas alternas a la versión de cine, pero es la fecha que la cinta uncut no ha sido estrenada.
Cabe mencionar que aunque no es de las mejores cintas basadas en historias de King, es una entrada decente en las películas de monstruos. La cinta tiene buen ritmo, y de uno a uno van cayendo los protagonistas en las garras de ese monstruo, interesante y aterrador, cabe mencionar que para ser una cinta de los 90’s tiene buenos efectos prácticos.
Además cuenta con con la participación en un papel secundario de Brad ‘Chucky’ Dourif.
El Blu-ray de Shout Factory tiene audio en inglés y subtítulo en inglés.
NO contiene audio ni subtítulo en español.
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Austin haigh
Most underrated Stephen King adaption
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2016
