Something wonderful is happening in Haven. Pray it doesn't happen to you.
A buried UFO slowly turns local inhabitants into gizmo-building alien mutants.
DirectorJohn Power
WritersStephen King, Lawrence D. Cohen
Part 1
May 9, 1993
In the small town Haven, in Maine, the aspiring writer Roberta 'Bobbi' Anderson lives in an isolated house with her alcoholic boyfriend, the poet James "Gard" Gardner; and their dog Petey. While Gard is traveling to a poet's convention, she stumbles with a green stone and she becomes obsessed to excavate the object. Further, she overhears voices that teach her how to fix the heater and how to write a novel using a typewriter operated by telepathy.
Part 2
May 10, 1993
As the people of Haven become more obsessed with their inventions, such as Nancy Voss's "disintegrator ray", Merrill goes missing and town's telephone line cuts off. Convinced that something in Haven caused his grandson's illness Ev Hillman begins researching the town's history, Trooper Butch Duggan returns to Haven looking for Merrill and his missing troopers and Anderson is determined to uncover the object.
Wuchak
@Wuchak
_**Something weird is happening in a small Maine town linked to a “cursed” area of woods**_ An eerie force that emanates from an infamous patch of forest causes weird things to happen in a small Maine town. A writer (Marg Helgenberger) becomes obsessed with its origins in the woods while her beau struggles with alcoholism and is perplexed by what’s happening (Jimmy Smits). Based on the Stephen King novel, “The Tommyknockers” (1993) was originally a two-part TV “miniseries,” which just makes it a long movie at three hours. It was inexplicably rated R for (supposed) sci-fi terror/horror & a tasteful sex scene, but it’s more like PG-13 at worst. The plot hails back to the sci-fi/horror of the mid 50s (I’d mention an obvious book/movie from that era, but I don’t want to spoil anything for those not already in the know). The story would’ve worked better if it were tightened up and released as a two-hour movie. As it is, there’s some padding and so my mind occasionally wandered, particularly in the mid-section. But, if you don’t mind the 3-hour runtime, the flick does a good job of establishing the town and its inhabitants amidst the increasingly bizarre events. The warmth & love of some characters is counterbalanced by the caving to carnality of others. Everything comes down to the final twenty minutes where the film delivers the goods with a compelling and somewhat horrific payoff. On the female front, Helgenberger looks real good in jeans while Lords is (to be expected) oversexed, but she’s effective enough in the acting department. The movie was shot in Puhoi, New Zealand, which is a half hour drive north of Auckland. Some interiors were done in warehouses in Auckland, such as the inside of the such-n-such. CAST includes John Ashton & Joanna Cassidy as cops, Robert Carradine & Annie Corley as restaurant owners, Traci Lords & Cliff De Young as postal workers and Allyce Beasley as the latter’s wife, a deputy. E.G. Marshall is also on hand. GRADE: B
