Scary and effective, but becomes too convoluted

Rating: 4/10 (13 October 2007)

It's genuinely scary and pretty faithful to the story, for most of it, until the numerous twists and false endings bog it down. Cusack is pretty good, as he manages to be a likable leading man while also portraying his character's quick descent into madness, but Sam Jackson is wasted (unfortunately!), save for his one great line. The direction is impressive and adds to the terror, and the effects are solid without being too flashy. But the last half hour or so adds too many twists on top of one another, and the result is far from effective. It veers too far from the source material, and the ending is confusing in the worst way. Still, it's a fairly decent King adaptation, and I did find it scary.