Graveyard Shift

1990 "Stephen King took you to the edge with The Shining and Pet Sematary. This time... he pushes you over."
5| 1h29m| R| en| More Info
Released: 26 October 1990 Released
Producted By: Paramount Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

John Hall is a drifter who wanders into a small town in Maine. He needs a job and decides to seek employment at the community's top business: a large textile mill. He is hired to work the "graveyard shift" -- from around midnight to dawn -- and, along with a few others, he is charged with cleaning out the basement. This task strikes the workers as simple enough, but then, as they proceed deeper underground, they encounter an unspeakable monstrosity intent on devouring them all.

... View More
Stream Online

Stream with Prime Video

Director

Producted By

Paramount Pictures

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Images

Reviews

Smoreni Zmaj Although it is adaptation of Stephen King, I really do not want to waste time or words on this nonsense crap.3/10If you are really eager to read review, take a look at one written by rparham, cause that one really nailed it right.
Leofwine_draca This cheesy adaptation of a Stephen King short story is a bad film lover's dream come true. Fans widely agree that this is possibly the worst of the King stories, but I'm forced to disagree. Didn't anybody else realise how bad PET SEMATARY was? GRAVEYARD SHIFT is a hoot from start to finish, packed with atrocious acting, stereotyped characters, and all manner of rubbery gore to boot. There isn't really much of a plot with this one, it's just about people running around in the basement of a wool mill and in the catacombs beneath.In most cases, it's as bad as you would expect. They forgot to add a story, the dialogue is stupid, and the acting is about as bad as you can see - I've seen amateur productions where the actors display more conviction with their lines. David Andrews is particularly poor as the charisma-free lead. An exceptionally poor performance from a young Andrew Divoff also comes as a surprise, seeing as he later when on to bigger and better things when cast as a villain in the likes of WISHMASTER.Elsewhere, we have a totally forgettable love interest, a Fred Ward lookalike who goes crazy in the dank darkness, and a reliable Brad Dourif who is probably this film's only saving grace, giving as he does a hilariously over the top portrayal of a crazy exterminator who is the film's greasiest, most likable character. Where this film did surprise me were the number of atmospheric, haunting moments as characters run around some old caves while the beast lurks in the shadows. It's surprising for a film of this variety to actually be scary but it does work occasionally. I also liked the deeply macabre moment where one guy falls through the ground onto a giant pile of mouldering skeletons. With this and the tentacled monster, it's almost Lovecraftian in nature.It goes without saying that the monster is most effective when we don't see it, and the final appearance is a rubbery monstrosity for all the wrong reasons. For the monster turns out to be a giant slimy bat, which has been eating people for ages without anybody finding out (they never explain this). It's painfully obvious how fake the beast is but I admired the gore-splattered finale which has it crushed to death in a press. This move is to be avoided by fans of decent films and rat haters. For those to like their cheese mature and enjoy playing "guess who's gonna be killed next" then GRAVEYARD SHIFT is for you.
GL84 Following a series of accidents, the new worker at a troubled textile processing mill finds the incidents are being caused by a massive infestation of rats and must clear them out in order to keep it in business.There's not a whole lot to really like with this one as its pretty underwhelming. The biggest issues against this one is the fact that way too much time is spent here on the utterly useless subplot about the different workers at the plant, none of which do anything interesting overall or move the film along at all. The fact that this one tends to continually bring up the different affairs and inter-office dramas within everyone here really has the effect of slowing down the film so that it really drags through the first half. As well, there's just nothing all that interesting or exciting about all of these particular tangents which are just plain irritating as this makes it really hard to really matter what happens to them and how they tend to the various situations around here are. The better elements, here, though, do manage to counteract the flaws here as there's some rather decent efforts throughout this. There's a rather interesting series of attacks throughout which is quite entertaining at times as the encounters in the mill are highly enjoyable. The first encounter within the bowels of the factory works pretty well due to the claustrophobic setting and intense heat, the recovery team getting assaulted in the sewers underneath the mill are quite fun as the different surrounding get utilized to help with the rampaging assault on the crew, as well as the rather chilling encounter within the cemetery crypt which provides this one with plenty of opportunities to get rather enjoyable and entertaining. The best part, though, is the finale down deep in the underground shaft atop a pile of bones as the fight there includes a huge, mutated monstrosity that perfectly echoes the Gothic sensibility of the setting down there by placing such a creature in that situation to make the chilling encounter all the better. By plaguing all of this alongside the great special effects for the giant rat alongside the dead bodies floating around, this adds another level here to what works and really helps to sell the goo parts about this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.
gavin6942 In a very old textile mill, with a serious rat infestation, the workers discover a horrifying secret deep in the basement.We have legendary character actor Brad Dourif as the exterminator and Andrew Divoff (who later became famous for "Wishmaster" and "Lost") as Danson. Dourif really does steal the show, as he so often is known to do... not sure how this guy is not a bigger name among the mainstream and not more or less considered a fringe actor.The film received poor reviews from critics, and it currently (December 2012) holds a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.3 on IMDb. The tomato rating is much too low, and the IMDb one is still a bit low. I maybe be a bit generous with my rating, but I really do not see this being below a 5. Compared to many other horror films, it is a lost gem, and unlike some King films (e.g. "Pet Sematery") has not been overplayed to death.