Needful Things

Last night I was watching a 1993 film on television called Needful Things, directed by Fraser C. Heston, and based on a novel by Stephen King. The film is set in the small town of Castle Rock in Maine, where a mysterious stranger named Leland Gaunt (played by Max von Sydow) arrives and sets up a shop called Needful Things, which at first glance appears to be an antiques store, but it turns out that Gaunt sells customers the one object they most desire, at a cash price that they can just about afford. However the money is only half the price, the other part of the price is that the customer has to play a malicious prank on someone else in the community, all of the pranks are designed to point to someone other than the actual culprit (usually someone else that the victim has an existing grudge against). Soon the town is tearing itself apart with misdirected revenge attacks. Stephen King has often been said to write "supernatural soap operas" and the novel of Needful Things (which is a very long book) is certainly like that, however it is essential to the plot that the character's lives and relationships are given in detail. Much of it is, naturally heavily cut or condensed for the film. It is interesting and well-acted, but it does take a while to get going and isn't very scary.

While I was getting ready to head out to work this morning I had a call from my Dad telling me he had lost his bank card and thought he had left it in a bag from the computer store we had visited on Sunday. I had the bag and sure enough it was there, so he was understandably relieved, although he had already cancelled the card.

It was a quiet day at work, as usual. After work I went along to the Cineworld cinema to meet my Mum and Dad. The film we saw was The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, directed by Mark Herman, and based on a novel by John Boyne. The film is set in Germany during the Second World War and tells the story of the eight year old son of the commander of a concentration camp who strikes up a friendship with a boy in the camp, who he communicates with through the fence. It's a good film, and well-made. It was also very thought-provoking.

We went out to a restaurant called The Tailend for something to eat. It's a fish restaurant and I had some haddock in batter with mushy peas, chips and bread and butter. It was some really nice food.