Now streaming on Tubi, Graveyard Shift opened in theaters in 1990 and to say it was a flop would be an understatement. The film made a mere $11.6 million at the box office on a $10.5 million budget and also bombed with critics, earning the rare 0% Rotten Tomatoes score with no positive reviews. The film, which was based on one of King’s short stories of the same name, was directed by Ralph S. Singleton and starred David Andrews, Stephen Macht, Kelly Wolf, and Brad Dourif.
Graveyard Shift is So Bad Even Stephen King Dislikes It
In Graveyard Shift, drifter John Hall (Andrews) arrives in a small town in main and takes a job working at a textile mill that is located next to an abandoned, flooded cemetery. Because of this location, the mill is infested with rats. There’s also a strange situation where mill workers are dying during the graveyard shift. When the foreman assigns workers, including Hall, to clean out the mill’s basement, they discover something truly horrible below. It’s a solid story from King’s early years, but the movie doesn’t do it justice. King himself even said the film is his least favorite adaptation of his work, telling Deadline “Should I even say that? I guess there are a number of pictures that I feel like, a little bit like, yuck. There’s one, Graveyard Shift, that was made in the ’80s. Just kind of a quick exploitation picture.”
However, while Graveyard Shift may not be a masterpiece by any stretch, the film actually isn’t quite the disaster it’s Rotten Tomatoes score or King’s dismissal of it would lead one to believe. The film really does firmly capture the gritty, blue-collar element of King’s early writing in a way that reminds audiences that King does, in fact, understand the challenges of taking on a less-than-ideal job. Given the absolutely gross nature of what the characters in Graveyard Shift are tasked with, there’s something relatable about the struggle and need for a paycheck that leads one to do some difficult jobs. The film is also visually pretty gritty as well. The production featured real rats and practical effects — including the real horror of what is found in the basement. It makes for a gruesome, if not weird, watch. The movie might be lacking in its performances and overall storytelling, but it’s still a pretty entertaining watch.
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