Stephen King allegedly disliked Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining for excluding a lot of the book and casting Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance. When he went to work on his own script for the remake in 1997, he included just about everything the original supposedly lacked. The result was a three-hour snooze fest with Steven Weber at the helm as Jack. Stephen King is not a bad writer, but he has a poor idea of how adaptation works. Perhaps he relaxed when he discovered Richard Christian Matheson (son of Twilight Zone writer Richard Matheson) would be writing the script to “Battleground”, the story that is episode one of the Nightmares and Dreamscapes series (taken from the title of the book of the same name by King). Having just seen it, I can certainly say that King’s work was in good hands this time around.
The TV version of the story stars William Hurt as an assassin who, in the opening minutes of the episode, kills a CEO of a toy company. After finishing his work, he returns to his home with a little dancing girl toy that spins around when activated (as well as a phobia of toys). Slipping into the evening, he receives a package from the same toy company — a box of toy soldiers. At first he figures it’s an amusing joke on the part of whoever knew he was there, but he soon finds out the joke is on him. As it turns out, the soldiers, though small and painted green, are very much alive and on a mission to kill him. The “toys can kill” sub-genre of horror has been done to death, but “Battleground” makes it exciting again.
The credit for the quality of this adaptation should be spread around. William Hurt gives depth to the character of the rather mute assassin, which would have been foiled if Matheson's script included a lot of macho dialogue; thankfully, it didn’t. The CGI in this thing was amazing as well. There wasn’t a lot of time spent showcasing the soldiers or giving them equally bad dialogue. The trick for the FX team was to somehow make the bad guys present and keep the viewer's attention on the POV of Hurt’s character.
Article comments
1 - Paul Roy
This was an awesome episode. William Hurt was outstanding as usuall, and the special effects were incredible. Much better than I expected. The second story "Crouch End wasn't nearly as good, so I hope the remaining stories are up to par with Battleground.
2 - Dave Nalle
I take it this is some sort of series. What channel is it showing on and when? That's basic essential info you ought to include in any review.
Dave
3 - Dave Nalle
Ok, answered my own question with the help of google. It's on Wednesdays at 9est on TNT.
Dave
4 - RJ Elliott
I loved this collection of short stories...can't wait to watch them on TV!
5 - Bobette Miller
TRUE, ORIGINAL MASTERPIECES.
6 - Mary
Doesn't anyone else have a problem w/ the fact that half the stories in this series aren't even in this particular book?
7 - RJ Elliott
Okay, I just watched "Battleground" ... it was pretty bad. I'm disappointed.
And to respond to this:
"William Hurt gives depth to the character of the rather mute assassin, which would have been foiled if Matheson's script included a lot of macho dialogue; thankfully, it didn’t."
There was NO dialogue, from ANY of the characters! None! Not a single person says a single word in this entire episode!