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When it comes to the horror genre, there’s no bigger name than Stephen King. His novels and short stories have been adapted to the big screen over and over again for almost 50 years. While The Shining, Carrie and Gerald’s Game rank among the best horror films ever made, there have been more than a few adaptations the author would like to have buried. 1990’s The Graveyard Shift may fall into that scary category and the critically panned film is coming to Peacock soon.
The Graveyard Shift, based on King’s 1970 short story of the same name, is haunting Peacock on October 1. The film has a monstrous 0% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While that’s only from 7 reviews, the audience score isn’t much nicer. With over 5000 ratings, the audience score is currently at a scream-worthy 23%. If that wasn’t worse enough, it’s the only King project with a 0% on the popular rating website. Because of that, it ranks dead last in King adaptations. Even other extremely rotten films like Firestarter (2022), Maximum Overdrive and The Dark Tower have at least a 10% approval rating. The film also didn’t make a caving dent at the box office, only making $11.5 million worldwide.
What’s ‘Graveyard Shift’ About?
The film follows a down-on-his-luck man named John Hall who desperately needs a job. He stumbles upon a small town and takes on a seemingly simple graveyard shift job at a local textile mill. However, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. As they descend further underground, John and his crew get hunted down by a mysterious monster. While it’s a film on the lower end of King adaptations, the presence of genre heavyweights like Brad Dourif (Chucky, Urban Legend) does make its viewing a bit more enjoyable. Also, its poor rating couldn’t stop the film from getting some love on physical media over the years. As recently as 2020, the horror-centric boutique label Scream Factory released a special edition Blu-ray of Graveyard Shift. They’ve been supporting King on physical media for over a decade, putting films like Silver Bullet, Creepshow and Carrie on 4K for the first time.
‘The Graveyard Shift’ is Waiting For You
Even though Graveyard Shift leaves a lot to be desired in the approval department, the horror genre was built on nightmares that were reviewed poorly at first before becoming cult classics. Halloween and The Shining are just two films that come to mind in that ghoulish context. Maybe its Peacock release is exactly what The Graveyard Shift needs to change the film’s dyer narrative. Only time will chillingly tell. As horror fans wait for October and Halloween, you can view Graveyard Shift’s trailer below.
This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
