I have seen preciously few movies as bad as this movie. It seems to take pride in its camp horror and cheesy gore - in fact, I would be surprised if it didn't, because that's most of what it has going for it.

Heh, man, I actually saw this in the theater when it came out, if you can believe that. And, in all honesty, I think I do remember feeling at the time that I wasn't overly impressed. But, I just watched an excellent HD Print of the film and I must admit that looking at it now I really appreciated it a LOT more than I did initially.Have you actually SEEN a lot of the Stephen King adaptations...? I'm not talking about the amazing Classic ones like 'THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION' which is likely one the GREATEST films ever made, or the other Classics like 'THE SHINING' or even 'SALEM'S LOT', but I'm talking about the run-of-the-mill other ones. Normally I find quite a few of them very overdone, plastic, and not terribly engaging. But, this one I felt was actually done fairly well for the type of film that it is.Remember, this is just your basic Monster movie, BUT with a really nice Gothic look and feel. I also REALLY liked the soundtrack which I thought was quite effective and added a lot to the mood (LOVED the male choir!) Apparently, even though the director never directed another film, I truly felt that he did a very good job crafting not only the excellent atmosphere, look, and sound of the film, but with SO damn many 'Horror' movies today filled with atrocious 'acting', I thought he did a great job bringing out the qualities of the characters in a more realistic way. That is one point in which I feel that many of King's adaptations do NOT do well. In my lowly and wretched opinion, in most cases the characters come across as 2 dimensional, empty, stereotypes that are completely unbelievable. And, even though this story had the requisite and mandatory Redneck types that flood King's work, in THIS case I think that the director had them come across in a much more believable and coherent way that didn't detract from the story like it has many times before.I guess I am kind of a sucker for this type of Old School Monster movie, ESPECIALLY when there is a strong Gothic look and atmosphere to it. Add to that the frigg'n OUTSTANDING performance by Brad Dourif (naturally...) and the surprisingly restrained but effective one by the boss dude (I personally thought he blew away the leading guy with the quality of his performance) you end up with a pretty good, entertaining old fashioned Horror movie that I felt was a lot of fun.I probably was a TAD generous with a '7' rating, and if I was grading it compared to ALL genres of Horror films, of course it wouldn't measure up as much. BUT... and it is a BIG BUT like Mariah Carey's... Compared within the TYPE of Horror movie that it is, I honestly felt that it was above average and merited a '7'So, I would say that as long as you DO like these older Retro Horror films, especially with a nice, moody Gothic atmosphere, and if you also like a good Creature Feature, I think that there is a good chance that you will enjoy it...

Following a series of accidents, the new worker at a troubled textile processing mill finds the incidents are being caused by a massive infestation of rats and must clear them out in order to keep it in business.There's not a whole lot to really like with this one as its pretty underwhelming. The biggest issues against this one is the fact that way too much time is spent here on the utterly useless subplot about the different workers at the plant, none of which do anything interesting overall or move the film along at all. The fact that this one tends to continually bring up the different affairs and inter-office dramas within everyone here really has the effect of slowing down the film so that it really drags through the first half. As well, there's just nothing all that interesting or exciting about all of these particular tangents which are just plain irritating as this makes it really hard to really matter what happens to them and how they tend to the various situations around here are. The better elements, here, though, do manage to counteract the flaws here as there's some rather decent efforts throughout this. There's a rather interesting series of attacks throughout which is quite entertaining at times as the encounters in the mill are highly enjoyable. The first encounter within the bowels of the factory works pretty well due to the claustrophobic setting and intense heat, the recovery team getting assaulted in the sewers underneath the mill are quite fun as the different surrounding get utilized to help with the rampaging assault on the crew, as well as the rather chilling encounter within the cemetery crypt which provides this one with plenty of opportunities to get rather enjoyable and entertaining. The best part, though, is the finale down deep in the underground shaft atop a pile of bones as the fight there includes a huge, mutated monstrosity that perfectly echoes the Gothic sensibility of the setting down there by placing such a creature in that situation to make the chilling encounter all the better. By plaguing all of this alongside the great special effects for the giant rat alongside the dead bodies floating around, this adds another level here to what works and really helps to sell the goo parts about this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Mostly an average shocker, based on a short story by Stephen King, "Graveyard Shift" does have a couple extra things going for it to make it a fairly amusing view. What distinguishes it is its commitment to looking as grungy and unappealing as possible. In fact, it may be the grimiest genre film since "C.H.U.D.", which also took place underground. King's grisly and ghoulish tale tells of the crew of a textile mill in a small town. The mill is infested - yeah, that's the understatement of the year - with rats, and periodically the employees disappear. As it turns out, there's something in the bowels of the mill that's much bigger and uglier than any ordinary rat. Atmosphere and set decoration are pretty strong here; horror fans will dig a particular chamber that's just stocked full of human bones. There's a sufficient amount of gore and very crude yet undeniably entertaining creature effects. David Andrews is a good looking but rather bland hero, but Kelly Wolf is cute and endearing as his feisty leading lady. It's very cool to see a pre-stardom Andrew Divoff ("Wishmaster") as one of two bullies; Vic Polizos plays the other (and *he* was actually *in* "C.H.U.D."!). The cast members that really make watching this thing worthwhile are Stephen Macht and Brad Dourif. Macht hams it up something fierce, speaking in an exaggerated Maine accent that's so hilarious one may crack up every time he utters a line. He's a mighty fine white trash villain; perhaps his best moment in the movie is when he goes completely bonkers, rubbing the dirt from an old bottle on his face as if he's going to war. And Dourif, as a mangy exterminator, delivers a performance that's really way too good for this sort of thing; he even manages to shed a tear during a riveting monologue wherein he explains the Viet Cong's use of rats as torture devices during 'Nam. One of his best lines has him firmly state that he's not the kind of veteran one would see Bruce Dern playing on film! The direction is by Ralph Singleton, in his sole feature film directing credit; he's usually been a producer, assistant or second unit director, or production manager. He makes this a pretty clunky affair that's still a hoot in all of its tacky glory. There's certainly much more prestigious Stephen King cinema than this, but there's still a respectable amount of entertainment value to be found here. That extends to the choice of music for the end credits, a decidedly non funky beat over which dialogue from the movie is played. Six out of 10.