When is a renaissance not a renaissance? When it’s a Stephen King-aissance. Six years after Pennywise’s rebirth, the King-film industry has produced the patchy likes of It Chapter Two, Firestarter, Doctor Sleep and Pet Sematary. Salem’s Lot is MIA. Now, Brit director Rob Savage mines a King short story for a mix of mourning allegory and monster movie that’s fitfully scary but also ill-plotted, clichéd and murky.
With predecessors Host and Dashcam, Savage made wickedly resourceful work of no-budget webcam conceits. Without that framework, he struggles to distinguish the sketchy script by duo Scott Beck/Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place, 65) and Mark Heyman, which softens and simplifies King’s curt, nasty tale.
