Review of Thinner (1996) by James S — 12 Mar 2012

Not one of Stephen King's most inspired stories, this is less The Shining, more the kind of thing he dashed off in a weekend one time with a write it and they will read it anyway because it's got my name on it sort of attitude. Similarly, this adaptation wreaks of TV movie standards and looks like it's been filmed on a soap opera budget. And I mean American soap operas, not the ones with explosions like Eastenders.

Robert John Burke does a decent pantomime villain performance as an overweight mafia lawyer who one night takes his eyes off the road and runs down a jay walking gypsy woman. After charges against him are dropped he is cursed by an old mystic gypsy dude with the word "thinner" and a sly caress of the cheek. He begins to lose weight....and also his mind.

It's a rambling tale from here on. Burke with the help of his mafioso counterpart, an under playing Joe Mantegna, tries to persuade the gypsies to take the curse off him, all the while boiling with rage after deciding that everything was some how his wife's fault. There's some interesting make up jobs done on some of his pals who have received a similar fate but there's really not a whole lot going on in the movie to get excited about. As a thriller, it's too cheap and boring, as a horror it isn't scary enough, or even at all.

The films saving graces are Burke, who's performance is unflinchingly evil and sometimes fun to watch and a surprisingly macabre ending which does leave an unnerving feeling behind, even if the rest of the film leaves nothing else.

Thinner isn't the worst of Stephen King adaptations, it is better than Needful Things at least, but it's going down that same road. The weak script, poor production combined with a lack of anything really gripping going on make this a pretty sorry affair.