Director
Mick Garris
Cast
Jonathan Jackson - Alan Parker
David Arquette - George Staub
Barbara Hershey - Jean Parker
Erika Christensen - Jessica Hadley
I've seen this movie twice before, and still couldn't remember much about it, especially the plot. The third time wasn't the charm I hoped it would be.
Though the story line that deals with death is fairly good, perhaps slightly reminiscent of King's story The Body which went on to become Stand By Me, this movie relies unnecessarily, and way too much, on jump scares-some of them laughable.
This one is based on the novella of the same name. What was also laughable was just how hard this Stephen King movie tried to be a Stephen King movie.
The plot
It's 1969, and a young artist (who wasn't an artist in the sixties?) named Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) - a University of Maine student - has a fascination with death. (Who didn't have a strange obsession with death in the sixties?)
He also thinks his girlfriend, Jessica, is trying to breakup with him - a thought that doesn't seem to be based on anything except his paranoia.
While sitting in his bathtub the day before Halloween, smoking weed, Alan stares intently on a razor blade and plays with the idea of slicing his wrist. And who should walk in right at that moment as he caresses the blade against his skin, but the Grim Reaper himself.
Death encourages Alan to do the permanent deed, while the murals painted on his bathroom wall begin to chant, "cut, cut, cut."
Alan accidentally cuts himself just as his girlfriend and a group of his friends barge into the bathroom with a cake to surprise him on his birthday. (Who wasn't barging into bathrooms with cake in the sixties?)
Alan wakes up in the hospital where Jessica berates him for his attempted suicide. She also scored him tickets to see John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band up in Toronto.
The day after he's released from the hospital, Jessica tells him he has a wall around him, and he again realizes she was going to leave him.
More "good news" comes when Alan gets a call letting him know his mother had a stroke. He has to forego the Lennon concert to visit his mom.
We see flashbacks via hallucinations of his childhood, and just what his relationship with her was like.
Alan starts hitchhiking to Lewiston, Maine. His trip starts off with a lift from a wannabe hippie/ Army deserter, who ends up crashing his VW.
Meanwhile, he sees a billboard advertising "The Bullet" roller coaster at an amusement park called "Thrill Village." He flashes back to a moment when he begged his mom to take him to ride the Bullet, only to chicken out thanks to the screams of the riders, just as they're next in line to get on. His mother slaps him on the head for being a wimp. This unfinished event consistently plays throughout Alan's trip to Lewiston to see his mom.
He then makes his way through a cemetery where finds a grave with the name George Staub. There's a picture George on the headstone.
Alan continues trying to hitch a ride, when someone almost immediately picks him up. He soon realizes that his new driver is actually George Staub (David Arquette) who's grave and picture he just encountered.
Though Alan realizes his driver is a dead guy, he tries hard not to let George catch on to this fact.
But George does know that Alan knows he's dead, because dead people always know everything, and their ride together ultimately boils down to an ultimatum for Alan. He must pick who will live and who will die. Alan, or his mother?
My thoughts
I've seen this movie twice before, and still couldn't recall much of the story line, or what events took place between the beginning and the end.
Mick Garris directed another, more obscure, Stephen King movie 12 years earlier - Sleepwalkers. I'll try to get to that one later. He also directed the Stephen King television movie Quicksilver Highway (1997) which stared Christopher Lloyd - get to that one, too! He's no stranger to comedic horror/ thriller. He was a writer for Disney's film, Hocus Pocus, which has gained a cult following lately. Riding the Bullet was lackluster.
The scary part, in a loose meaning of the word, don't come until Alan's ride with George, and the ultimatum he's left with. There's no way out of this one.
The movie relies on jump scares, and there's too many of them. Some of them occur within seconds of each other. I recall three consecutive jump scares in a row - the most I've seen in a single scene. It becomes a comedic gimmick before it just gets tiresome and stupid.
This movie has that coming of age motif found in a few Stephen King movies. This time around, it's a little saturated with the same flashback of Alan wimping out of riding the Bullet coaster when he was young. I understood that the Bullet was a sort-of premonition to the life or death decision Alan will have to make in the future. But the flashback popped up again and again in case I forgot the symbolism, or the title of the movie?
As he contemplates just how much his mother, who's on the brink of death, did for him growing up, in the midst of his ow fascination with death, he realizes death isn't as glamorous as his mind made it out to be. On top of that, Staub is making him pick a death - himself, or his mom.
This scenario is really a fascinating contemplation on death, and how it's viewed. It's compared to what death really is and how it affects other people. It's another story element King has used before in stories like Pet Sematary.
Alan does develop in this movie. Otherwise, the movie tries way too hard to be scary, doing a poor job of it.
I understand slapping Stephen King's name on the poster gives the audience an expectation to be frightening. But this movie made it comical, and that's not what it really intended to do. This was like watching a Hallmark version of a King movie. It was a good story line, a different take on the reality of death, but a dull and clunky presentation. I haven't read the story, but I would imagine, based on the movie, this must have been a depressed phase for Stephen King.
Watching Alan struggle with his ultimatum, as George Staub starts shouting for him to make a decision "now" or Alan and his mom are both goners, was the highlight of the movie
None of the acting really stands out. Jonathan Jackson doesn't play Alan with any personality, even when he's scared.
Too many cheap tricks and random thoughts distract from the real drama at hand. No wonder I forgot about this movie after watching it twice before.
Ambiguous King
Love reading your work, as always, Mikey!
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