Video Review detailing differences between the short story and the movieThere are slave-paying jobs that I do not regret ever being offered. A slaughterhouse would be one. A textile mill overrun with hundreds of possibly disease-carrying rats would be another. "Graveyard Shift," the worst Stephen King adaptation of a short story or novel I have ever seen, is so ugly, so mean-spirited and so dull that I wish I never sat through it.
A somewhat aloof drifter named Hall (David Andrews) arrives in a small Maine town looking for work at the textile mill (he arrives by Greyhound bus). Stephen Macht is Warwick, the mean-spirited, truly vile boss who thinks nothing of smacking and punching his secretary in front of all the workers - he's sleeping with her to boot. This textile mill looks run down and the interior is not any improvement - rats dominate the basement where numerous other workers have died. Apparently, a monstrous rat bat (you read that right) devours its workers so, sure, you could say there is a worker shortage. Meanwhile Hall slings diet Pepsi cans at the rats, is teased by other workers, and starts to hang with Jane Wisconsky (Kelly Wolf) though their romantic interest only comes down to a simple kiss while they are sullied cleaning up the basement. The conclusion has all the workers working double time while this monster has its feeding time. I think quadruple pay would be warranted - let's speak to the union.
Brad Dourif appears as an overzealous exterminator (a character not present in the short story) and he is the one thrilling aspect to this dreary slog of a movie. The rats are disgusting and so are the people who are merely disposable, unsympathetic character types whom I would never want to meet. This execrable film is based on the collection of nail-biting short stories from Stephen King's "Night Shift." To say that this "Graveyard Shift" is worse than the "Maximum Overdrive" adaptation is being kind - it is the kind of movie you watch glimpses of on a TV monitor while working 11-7am and realize that your job is far more exciting.
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