THE TOMMYKNOCKERS (1993) - Stephen King's space invaders.

DIRECTED by John Power.

SCREENPLAY by Lawrence D. Cohen based on the novel "The Tommyknockers" by Stephen King.

STARRING  - Jimmy Smitts as Jim "Gard" Gardner,  Marg Hellenberger as Roberta "Bobbi" Anderson,  E.G. Marshall as Ev Hillman,  Joanna Cassidy as Sheriff Ruth Merril,  John Ashton as Trooper Butch Duggan,  Allyce Beasley as Deputy Becca Paulson,  Cliff De Young as Joe Paulson,  Traci Lords as Nancy Voss,  Annie Corley as Marie Brown,  Chuck Henry as Chaz Stewart,  Leon Woods as Hilly Brown,  Paul McIver as Davey Brown.

PLOT - In the small town of Haven, strange things are afoot. One morning whilst walking her dog in the woods, Bobbi Anderson discovers a strange piece of metal lodged in the ground. Bobbi feels compelled to start digging at the metal and finds that it is attached to something much larger that is buried underground, a ship of some sort...a ship that has come from the stars.

As Bobbi becomes obsessed with unearthing the ship, her sick, elderly dog starts to rapidly heal and become revitalised, Bobbi herself finds new ideas coursing through her mind, as if some unearthly intelligence where feeding her with new knowledge.

Bobbi's boyfriend, Gard - an alcoholic poet is concerned by this. He also notices other residents of the town are changing. The people of Haven are suddenly inventing new things but seem to be losing thier humanity in the process, they're physically changing too, as if they are turning into something perhaps more...perhaps less than human...

Only Gard is unaffected from this malign influence, mainly because of a steel plate in his skull, the result of an accident he was involved in when he was young. Can Gard overcome his personal demons and somehow find a way to save the people of Haven from this insidious alien menace ?

DIALOUGE - The Tommyknockers rhyme - "Late last night and the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door. I want to go out, don't know if I can, cos I'm afraid of the Tommyknocker man."

PERFORMANCES  - As with The Langoliers, The Tommyknockers is comprised of an ensemble cast, although in this instance there is a more easily defined pair of central protaganists.

Jimmy Smitts (I always thought you could use his name as a form of rhyming slang for diahoreah - "I can't come into work today, I've got a bad case of the Jimmy Smitts"), plays Haven's alcoholic poet in residence - Jim Gardner or "Gard" to his friends. Gard is the story's main hero, being the only character not to succumb to the alien creatures conditioning. Smitts puts across the character's internal dilemma effectively, Gard is a man who is not just battling alien invaders, he is also battling the bottle.  The scenes where we see Gard drunkenly proceed to screw his own life up further are sadly pathetic and done realistically. There's no "comedy drunk" swaggering around whilst "comedy music" plays on the soundtrack here, just a man who's trying to stay sober and get his life back and failing miserably. Whilst alcoholism isn't the story's central theme, it is at least treated sympathetically and Smitts's decent performance helps cement this. Gard is a flawed hero and as a result we find ourselves emphasising with him.

The other main character is Bobbi Anderson played by Marg Hellenberger. Bobbi is initially Gard's emotional rock. The two are lovers and Bobbi has been Gard's sponsor in his fight against alcoholism. Its a believable and tender friendship that Hellenberger and Smitts put across and there are some well done scenes where Bobbi is berating Gard for falling off the wagon, probably some of the best acted scenes in the whole miniseries. Bobbi, of course, succumbs to a destructive obsession of her own when she starts to unearth the buried spaceship and is the first town member to fall under the influence of the aliens. Hellenberger plays the subtle and later not so subtle changes that Bobbi goes through in a creepily engaging way. As the alien influence spreads, Bobbi becomes almost like a cult leader to the possessed townsfolk, and these scenes are played by Hellenberger with a suitably messianic relish.

The best supporting performance must belong to Traci Lords playing Nancy Voss. Nancy is basically the town slut and is having an affair with Joe Paulson (Cliff De Young), she's a nasty piece of work before being taken over by the aliens and becomes even worse upon falling under thier influence.  Nancy to all intents and purposes becomes the alien's personal enforcer, cold bloodedly killing anybody who doesn't fall into line, usually by way of disintegrating them with her "laser lipstick".

Its the way that Lords switches from seductive femme fatale to cold eyed psychopath that works so well in this performance, Nancy Voss is an entertaining screen villain.

The rest of  the performances are variable, ranging from the very good - E.G. Marshall as concerned grandfather Ev Hillman, to the not so good - the very annoying and "stage school" kids they've got playing Hilly and Davey Brown. Some of the acting is hampered by the flat directing in some scenes, many of which play out in a slightly soap opera manner. The middle segment of the story is particularly guilty of this.

SFX - The Tommyknocker aliens themselves are nicely done. They are good old fashioned "man in a rubber suit" practical effects. The Tommyknockers are well designed, looking like a cross between a traditional "Gray" alien and a bad tempered lizard, its all in that malevolent scowl that they wear at all times...

There are also some nice make up effects for the possessed townsfolk who look gaunt and sickly, recalling the look of the zombies in the original Night of The Living Dead.

There are also some creepily uncomfortable effects when we see what the aliens do to those who defy them or have outlived thier usefullness. People and animals hooked up to alien machinery being drained of thier life force. Its like a vivisectionist's wet dream.

The alien's actual power is portrayed as a vivid illuminous green light that pulses rhythmically. Its a simple enough effect but it does its job well enough and is faithful to the original novel.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Surprisingly mild for a King story. There are a few disintegrations courtesy of Traci Lords but these are purely early Star Trek stuff, a green glow surrounds the victims and they just fade away via a standard visual effect. There are some elements of body horror here and there but nothing too explicit.

RATING  - The Tommyknockers is a reasonably straightforward and faithful adaptation of the book. The story is engaging and the central characters are likeable, the aliens are a good suitably creepy monster, but ultimately it all feels a little flat. 

Its very slow moving in parts and comes over a bit too "daytime soap" in places, it's origins as an early 90's TV production are all too evident. For those who weren't around in the 90's, TV back then wasn't like the slick, highly budgeted, long form movies that we get in these Netflix and Amazon Prime saturated days. Rather, television was the poor relation to film. It was smaller, less extravagant and much more prone to the restraints of a budget. 

This lack of budget is what lets The Tommyknockers down, especially in the latter part of the story. In the novel you get quite a spectacular array of very bizzare events as the town of Haven goes wild. Here instead, you just get a bunch of people standing around in the woods at night, doing not very much at all, whilst Jimmy Smitts runs around a sparsly decorated alien spaceship set. It all feels a bit rushed, a bit lacking and comes off as being a bit humdrum at the end. Its a shame as the potential is there, like The Langoliers, this could do with a higher budgeted remake to do the novel justice. Its entertaining enough but when the end credits roll it does leave you thinking "Is that it ?".

Overall rating 3 scowling aliens out of 5, they're scowling because this could have been so much better. A missed opportunity let down by it's lack of a decent budget. If you want E.T.s with your Stephen King then you're better off sticking with the book.