Stand by Me - Stephen King’s ‘odd one out’

Anyone who’s into their horror films cannot have heard of Stephen King.  He’s written countless creepy books, most of which have been transferred (not always successfully) to film.  So, your basic Stephen King film normally has one unseen evil entity making the lives of some sleepy American town a living hell.

Then we have ‘Stand By Me.’ It really doesn’t fit in with any of his other work.  Yes, we have the small American town as a setting, but that’s where the similarities end.  In fact... the film is pretty hard to describe to someone.  It’s about four boys who go off to find a dead body they have heard is lying somewhere in the woods.  That’s about it really.  And it’s hard for someone who hasn’t heard much about it to really get excited by that miniscule plot synopsis.

But, believe it or not, it’s actually pretty good.  Yes, there isn’t too much in the way of ‘threat.’ Not like King’s other tales of demons, monsters or the supernatural, always hot on his heroes’ heels.  Here, much of the charm of the tale is told simply by watching the four boys interact.  As any man will know, looking back on his childhood, the temptation to go and see a ‘real life’ dead body would almost be too tempting to resist.  Therefore I for one can identify with their simple motives. 

Then you have the characters themselves – a stoic River Phoenix, a bowl-cut haired Will Wheaton, an almost unrecognisably fat Jerry O’Connel and a completely insane Corey Feldman.  Every one is completely unique and quite relatable in their own way, so it’s hard to pick out a stand out performance.

Someone online described it as a ‘quiet classic.’ I can’t really top that description.  Just because it probably doesn’t sound the most thrilling of adventures, don’t let it put you off.  It’s only an hour and a half long and, packed into its average runtime, is more touching, heartfelt and poignant moments than you’ll get in King’s entire body of work put together.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather