The Worst Stephen King Movie, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Everyone has their own unique choice for the best Stephen King movie — but what's the worst?

Before Stephen King became a best selling millionaire novelist, he scratched by a meager living selling short stories on the side. Some of those early short stories appeared in the University of Maine literary journal "Ubris," but King finally made one of his first professional sales with "Graveyard Shift," a horror story purchased and published by the magazine "Cavalier" in 1970. The story would later end up in King's well-loved short story collection "Night Shift," a book that served as a kind of gateway drug to budding King fans. And as long as there have been Stephen King books there have been Stephen King movies — his 1974 debut novel "Carrie" was adapted to the screen by 1976. From there, Hollywood was off and running, bring King's work to the movies left and right. 

When 1990 rolled around, it was time for "Graveyard Shift" to make its big screen debut. Unfortunately, this adaptation is the recipient of a dubious honor: it's the worst Stephen King movie. At least according to Rotten Tomatoes. 

Before we go any further, it's important to note that Rotten Tomatoes (which was even hacked once) is not the final say in regards to a film's quality. It's merely a metric; an aggregation site that rounds up reviews for a movie and then assigns a percentage. That percentage is skewed depending on how many reviews are available for any given film. As of right now, 1990's "Graveyard Shift" has 7 reviews — and every single one of them is negative. The result: "Graveyard Shift" is the rare movie on Rotten Tomatoes that has a dreaded 0%. That makes "Graveyard Shift" the worst-rated Stephen King movie of all time. 

Even Stephen King himself doesn't seem to care for the flick. When asked by Deadline what his least favorite adaptation of his work is, King replied: "Should I even say that? I guess there are a number of pictures that I feel like, a little bit like, yuck. There's one, 'Graveyard Shift,' that was made in the eighties. Just kind of a quick exploitation picture." King didn't start out feeling that way, though. 

According to the book "Creepshows," King visited the set of "Graveyard Shift," which shot in King's home state of Maine, several times and even admiringly looked at some footage. "He was incredibly supportive," said screenwriter John Esposito. "I met him and was star-struck, there he was — the master." However, King had a somewhat ominous warning. "He was very friendly and put me at ease," Esposito said. "Before he left, he leaned over and said, 'Wait until you see what they do to your script.'"

In "Graveyard Shift," the Bachman Textile Mill (named after Stephen King's pseudonym, Richard Bachman) is located right next to an abandoned, flooded cemetery in a small town in Maine. As a result of its proximity to the graveyard, the place is crawling with rats. The mill is run by Warwick (Stephen Macht), a hard case who has affairs with women who work for him and treats everyone like garbage. Enter John Hall (David Andrews), a drifter who wanders into town looking for a job. Hall lands a gig at the mill, and ends up being bullied by some of his goonish coworkers and mistreated by Warwick.

Meanwhile, various characters keep getting picked off by some unseen presence. As the 4th of July holiday weekend rolls around, Warwick learns that the basement of the mill needs to be cleared out due to safety reasons. A bunch of workers, including Hall, are assigned the dirty duty of cleaning the place out. As Hall, Warwick, and a group of other workers descend into the bowels of the building, they encounter tons of rats. Through a series of mishaps, the workers become trapped in the basement and have to find a way out. Soon it becomes clear that normal rats are the least of their problems: there's a giant rat-bat-monster-thing that's been killing people at the mill. Eventually, everyone except Hall gets slaughtered by the monster. The rat-bat-monster is then destroyed by Hall after it gets caught in a cotton-picking machine. 

So — is "Graveyard Shift" really all that bad? Your mileage may vary, but in my humble opinion, no. This is by no means the best Stephen King movie, but it has its charms. Director Ralph S. Singleton, who never helmed a film after this, does a good job capturing how disgusting everything is. The cast is sweaty and filthy, and the mill is appropriately dirty. This is a gooey, grubby movie — it looks like everyone involved likely had to take several showers to wash all the grime off when production had wrapped. It's disgusting. I'm not grossed out by rats at all — in fact, I think they're kinda cute. But the rats in "Graveyard Shift" seem nasty as hell, their little furry bodies always slick with blood or other moisture. Heck, one of the first scenes of the movie shows us a rat taking a huge piss on a chair, and then some unlucky guy mopping that rat piss up with a handful of cotton. It's friggin' gross, folks. The rats are real rats, too, which adds a tangibility to the proceedings. One imagines if this movie got made today, all the critters would be CGI. That goes for the movies big bad, the giant rat-bat-monster, too. If "Graveyard Shift" were made today, the creature would be digital. Here, it's a big, wet, goopy puppet. You gotta love that. 

"Graveyard Shift" also does a good job capturing King's early blue collar worker vibes. Before he was a millionaire, King was a working stiff struggling to put food on the table, pounding out short stories in hot laundry rooms, dreaming of bigger things. His early stories and novels convey that struggle, and there's a real sense of that in the film. The employees of the mill don't want to descend into the rat-infested basement, but they do it, because they need the paycheck. I think we can all relate to that. Sure, we probably haven't been forced to climb down into a kingdom of rats, but we've all likely had to work crappy jobs and do things we resent in order to get paid. 

David Andrews is rather bland as lead character Hall, but Stephen Macht is a blast as the wicked boss Warwick. Macht employs a Maine Yankee accent ... or at least tries to. It's not really convincing, but it is memorable, and the actor brings genuine sweaty menace to the part. The other characters don't like him, and we don't like him, either. Throw in a brief turn from Chucky actor Brad Dourif, playing an weirdo Vietnam veteran exterminator who pals around with a little dog, and you've got something fun here. "Graveyard Shift" may sit at the bottom of the pack of Stephen King movies on Rotten Tomatoes, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.