A sheriff starts arresting or killing everyone he meets in and around the small town of Desperation, Nevada. The group locked in jail must work to escape and figure out what evil has taken control of both he and all the animals in the area, who seem to serve him. It’s linked to an abandoned mine, our treatment of immigrant Chinese in the old West, an ancient evil and oddly enough, God.

I was a big fan of the book, and as such I expected to be disappointed with Desperation, but I wasn’t at all. It has been years since I read it, and that added to my enjoyment because I didn’t remember what happened until the movie reminded me.

For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised.

Generally I frown upon movies where dogs are evil, and really hate it when they have to be killed, as they inevitably are when evil. Just the same, this one wasn’t too offensive to my dog-loving sensibilities.

My main complaint was that the story often seemed hurried, explanations just flew fast and furious and I felt a little spoon-fed often. It just seemed too convenient, the story would play out before us for a while, then a guy would say “here’s what’s going on…” and explain most of what’s behind the scenes.

I guess that’s often a problem with making a book into a movie, in the book the explanation was unveiled rather than hurriedly tossed at us.

That being said, the strength of Desperation isn’t the story but the tension. If how the story was paced is the weak point, it was made up for with the pacing of the action and suspense. At least three times I yelled, “Go motherfucker, go!” when I didn’t feel those onscreen were exercising the proper haste in the face of danger.

A weird aspect, though, was how everyone treated a kid who prayed like he was a freak. As if the US is a secular country and Christianity is something new and unknown. Either that or he coincidentally just ended up with a whole group of atheists. I’m serious, the phrase, “this God of yours” is used about fifty times. Of course, the book was written before God made Bush president, so maybe that’s the explanation for this social awkwardness.

Anyway, I liked it. It wasn’t by any means on the level with some of Stephen Kings miniseries, but it was better than many of the movies.

6 out of 10 of the sweetest bicycle accidents ever