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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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.
I love the atmospheric setting for Graveyard Shift, a run down, rat-infested textile mill built over a network of tunnels and next to a cemetery. I love rodents: I used to own a lovely pair of white rats. I like bats (which are essentially flying rodents). And I like the rat/bat monster in Graveyard Shift, which isn't nearly as bad as some of the reviews here would have you believe.What I don't like about this film, however, are the people. Drifter John Hall (David Andrews) makes for a bland hero, mill foreman Warwick (Stephen Macht) is an obnoxious bastard with a really annoying accent, Brad Dourif as The Exterminator is way too over the top (even by Brad's standards), and Andrew Divoff and Vic Polizos are terrible as Hall's co-workers Danson and Brogan, the latter almost making me switch off as he blasts rats with a high pressure hose (not because I felt for the rats, but because he screams at the top of his voice with each blast. Very irritating!).Super cringe-worthy scenes include Warwick suddenly going nutzoid, smearing his face with dirt and acting like Rambo, and Danson suddenly breaking down in hysterics. Still, with a decent creature (I've seen plenty worse) and a fair amount of gore, Graveyard Shift is still worth a look, especially for Stephen King fans, on whose short story the film is based.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the so-bad-it's-brilliant end credits song that is comprised of snippets of dialogue from the film set to a cheesy backing track.
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...
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/*****).