Graveyard Shift

1990 "Stephen King took you to the edge with The Shining and Pet Sematary. This time... he pushes you over."
5| 1h29m| R| en
Details

John Hall is a drifter who wanders into a small town in Maine. He needs a job and decides to seek employment at the community's top business: a large textile mill. He is hired to work the "graveyard shift" -- from around midnight to dawn -- and, along with a few others, he is charged with cleaning out the basement. This task strikes the workers as simple enough, but then, as they proceed deeper underground, they encounter an unspeakable monstrosity intent on devouring them all.

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Paramount Pictures

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Also starring Kelly Wolf

Reviews

Dotbankey A lot of fun.
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Smoreni Zmaj Although it is adaptation of Stephen King, I really do not want to waste time or words on this nonsense crap.3/10If you are really eager to read review, take a look at one written by rparham, cause that one really nailed it right.
bsmith5552 "Graveyard Shift" is another adaptation of a Stephen King work, this time a short story.Drifter John Hall (David Andrews) wanders into a small southern town in search of a job. He finds one at a rat infested textile mill where he is assigned to the graveyard shift operating a cotton processing machine. Foreman Warwick (Stephen Macht) tells him the previous employee "didn't work out". Actually he was ground into hamburger by said machine after tormenting the rats around him.Hall strikes up a friendship with Jane Wisconsky (Kelly Wolf) who has been harassed by foreman Warwick who has placed her in with a motley crew working at getting rid of the rats. An unusual exterminator (Brad Dourif) has also been hired to rid the mill of the pests.For some unknown reason, Warwick forms a crew to "clean up the basement". In addition to John and Jane we have Danson (Andrew Divoff), the fire hose bearing Brogan (Vic Polizos) and Carmichael (Jimmy Woodard). During the cleanup, Hall finds a trap door leading to who knows where. Warwick and the others descend into the hole and find that there is something unusual going on, discover a monster within and............................Plenty of grisly deaths, blood and gore to satisfy horror fans. The rats alone are enough to make one's skin crawl. The monster appears to be a giant bat which doesn't make much sense. We never learn of it's origin. We are also at a loss to explain why anyone would willingly want to work in a place such as this.This tale probably worked better as a short story rather than as a feature length film.
Leofwine_draca This cheesy adaptation of a Stephen King short story is a bad film lover's dream come true. Fans widely agree that this is possibly the worst of the King stories, but I'm forced to disagree. Didn't anybody else realise how bad PET SEMATARY was? GRAVEYARD SHIFT is a hoot from start to finish, packed with atrocious acting, stereotyped characters, and all manner of rubbery gore to boot. There isn't really much of a plot with this one, it's just about people running around in the basement of a wool mill and in the catacombs beneath.In most cases, it's as bad as you would expect. They forgot to add a story, the dialogue is stupid, and the acting is about as bad as you can see - I've seen amateur productions where the actors display more conviction with their lines. David Andrews is particularly poor as the charisma-free lead. An exceptionally poor performance from a young Andrew Divoff also comes as a surprise, seeing as he later when on to bigger and better things when cast as a villain in the likes of WISHMASTER.Elsewhere, we have a totally forgettable love interest, a Fred Ward lookalike who goes crazy in the dank darkness, and a reliable Brad Dourif who is probably this film's only saving grace, giving as he does a hilariously over the top portrayal of a crazy exterminator who is the film's greasiest, most likable character. Where this film did surprise me were the number of atmospheric, haunting moments as characters run around some old caves while the beast lurks in the shadows. It's surprising for a film of this variety to actually be scary but it does work occasionally. I also liked the deeply macabre moment where one guy falls through the ground onto a giant pile of mouldering skeletons. With this and the tentacled monster, it's almost Lovecraftian in nature.It goes without saying that the monster is most effective when we don't see it, and the final appearance is a rubbery monstrosity for all the wrong reasons. For the monster turns out to be a giant slimy bat, which has been eating people for ages without anybody finding out (they never explain this). It's painfully obvious how fake the beast is but I admired the gore-splattered finale which has it crushed to death in a press. This move is to be avoided by fans of decent films and rat haters. For those to like their cheese mature and enjoy playing "guess who's gonna be killed next" then GRAVEYARD SHIFT is for you.
Lucien Lessard John Hall (David Andrews) is a drifter looking for a job in a small town, somewhere in Maine. He is hired by Warwick (Stephen Macht) to work the Graveyard Shift at the local textile mill. Some of the employees are starting to disappear during the night shift. When Warwick hires John and a group of other workers to work in the fourth of July for clean-up work. Soon enough, they discover the unknown.Directed by Ralph S. Singleton made an decent horror movie, based on a short story by Stephen King (Cat's Eye, Creepshow, Stand by Me). The two-thirds of "Graveyard Shift" is pretty good, but the Giant Rat-Bat(!) shows up towards the end, the feature turns silly. Still, there is some good performances by Andrews, Macht and Brad Dourif as the Exterminator. Andrew Diroff, Best Known as The Djinn in "Wishmaster 1 & 2" is wasted in a supporting role. Die-Hard fans of Stephen King might forgive some of the flawed. Despite, an messy third act. It is worth a look. (*** ½/*****).