All creative endeavors seem to go in cycles, and so it seems with the many films and TV projects adapted from the works of Stephen King. The initial wave of King adaptations followed a progression that would repeat itself in the decades to come, with high-quality, high-profile projects giving way to quick, cheap cash grabs. Following two early adaptations — the 1976 film Carrie and the 1979 miniseries Salem’s Lot, both of which were highly acclaimed — the first major frenzy began in 1980 with Stanley Kubrick's expensive, prestigious The Shining, and ended 10 years later… with a low-budget B-movie about rats.
Released 35 years ago, Graveyard Shift was based on one of King’s earliest professional sales, a short story of the same name that was first published in 1970 and later in his seminal 1978 collection Night Shift. The original story revolves around a textile mill worker named Hall who is recruited, along with other employees, by their sadistic boss Warwick to undertake an extensive cleanup of the building. As they descend into the mill’s long-unexplored basement levels, they discover a massive population of mutated rats. The tale ends with Warwick and Hall both devoured by a giant queen rat in the deepest level beneath the mill, as the other workers head down to find out what happened to them.
