Storm of the Century (1999)

Storm of the Century, written by Stephen King specifically for television, is one of the better renderings of his work in recent years. The small-town locale, though familiar territory for King, is brought new life by the miniseries' commitment to the severity of its cold-blizzard setting, in which much of the action occurs in the darkness of night or in the blinding white of the snow. The color scheme is often bluish gray, lending the setting a sort of suspended, otherworldly tone that contributes to the eeriness of the story. The seldom-heard New England dialect of its characters also adds to the feeling of the island town's isolation in its peril. Storm's slow pace is both its strength and its weakness. The first two installments (the series was broadcast in three two-hour segments) masterfully set up the story and build up the requisite creepy tension, showing just enough to make viewers ill at ease and eager to know what is really going on in the town. Colm Feore's performance as the evil outsider Andre Linoge is perfectly sinister, played with subtlety rather than scene-chewing theatrics. His dead-on stare alone is enough to induce goose bumps or at least a quickened pulse in the viewer; strangely, he is more effective in his early "normal" form than in the old-man makeup in which he later appears. This high quality of acting does not, however, fully extend to the rest of the cast. Although Mike Anderson (Timothy Daly) and the other "good folk" of the town are reasonably believable, the acting still remains at the TV-movie level. Perhaps the script may also be to blame for this, but the huge size of the cast would have been the greatest prohibitive factor in creating fully realized characters. Overall, though, the overdone quality of the townspeople's innocence and naïveté is fitting to the story and makes Linoge seem all the more sinister, especially in his "outing" of their secret sins. The special effects are a mixed bag. The frantic blizzard and events that occur in its flurries are very effective, but the CGI actions of Linoge's evil cane, for instance, look fake and are not as terrifying as they aim to be. The slow pacing of the story, though effective in setting up the plot line and tone, eventually betrays the series, never building up to any grand heart-pounding ending. Although this creates a slick, well-executed eeriness, it defies audience expectation and may disappoint many viewers. Storm of the Century, more creepy than scary, is still a well-made King miniseries, even if it does not rise to the heights of horror that earlier, similar works such as It achieved. ~ Dana Rowader, All Movie Guide