This Haunting Stephen King Horror Miniseries Is Even More Terrifying to Watch 31 Years Later

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This Haunting Stephen King Horror Miniseries Is Even More Terrifying to Watch 31 Years Later

Before Pennywise, the dancing clown terrorized preteens on HBO This: Welcome to Derry, The stand gave viewers goosebumps as an ABC miniseries. Based on Stephen King’s 1978 novel of the same name, The stand brought apocalyptic horror to the small screen in a four-episode adaptation. Although the horror master’s work is still relevant among fans of the genre, the high quality of King’s recent film and television adaptations has reignited interest in the 1994 miniseries.

What is Stephen King’s “The Stand” about?

Image via ABC

When a man-made virus escapes the containment of the government laboratory, an escaped security guard spreads its deadly effects across the country. Within weeks, the virus, known as superfluous, decimates the world’s population, causing societal collapse worldwide. As the few humans immune to the virus collect their supplies and search for other survivors, a final conflict between good and evil will force them to choose sides. On the side of the pure and righteous is Mother Abagail Freemantle (Ruby Dee), beckoning people to come to Nebraska, and on the dark side was the charismatic and evil Randall Flagg (James Sheridan), attracting the corruptible to Las Vegas.

“The Stand” is Stephen King’s Magnum Opus

The beginning of The stand It’s the end of the world, and so within a few minutes, the viewer is aware that they are not watching a watered-down horror story. As Cult of the blue oyster‘s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” plays in the background, the cameras weaving between a trail of corpses that appear to have died instantly from exposure to the virus in its strongest form. Eyes open, mouth open, the effects of the virus are explicitly shown before the introduction of the first of many main characters. The corpses are not the result of a supernatural threat or an evil curse; the death on display is the result of humanity’s search for the next great weapon, making the horror more plausible and, therefore, more frightening.

Once the end-times catalyst is introduced, viewers are introduced to a wide variety of characters spread across the land, none of whom are identified as the heroes or villains of the story. Stu Redman (Gary Sinise) is one of the first to come into direct contact with the infected, and the only one to manage to escape by surviving from his small Texas town. From there we meet musician Larry Underwood (Adam Stork) in New York, neighbor Frannie Goldsmith (Molly Ringwald) and Harold Lauder (Corinne German) in Maine, and Nick Andros (Rob Lowe), a deaf-mute attacked by a group of thugs along a stretch of highway in Arkansas. This is just the beginning of a long line of characters who play a role in the story, each playing a vital role in the confrontation between Abagail and Flagg.

The stand takes his time with presentations and destruction of society, allowing the audience to understand each character and their home environment before putting them all together. This pace also replicates the same feeling of discovery one would have while reading the novel, where building a proper foundation is necessary for an emotional attachment to build. The stand asks the audience to be patient and attentive while all the pieces are put into place, but the miniseries never sleeps – especially during opening hours, as there is a sense of impending dread as to what is to come. The other shoe has already dropped, but only the public is aware of the virus that will soon affect every individual and ultimately cause them all to fight or work together.

‘The Stand’ Wasn’t ABC’s First Stephen King Adaptation

By time The stand created on ABC, the channel had gained experience in organizing television events featuring adaptations of King’s most famous novels. Most famously, the network traumatized an entire generation of children with the 1990 version of He featuring Tim Curry like Pennywise. ABC would return to Maine in 1993 during the adaptation The Tommyknockersanother ensemble horror adaptation that followed the residents of Haven, Maine, after a discovered spaceship granted them supernatural levels of intelligence. He And Tommyknockers were both large novels featuring a large number of charactersbut they are paltry compared to the scope of The stand.

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This all sounds depressingly familiar.

Mick Garris was brought to lead The standhaving previously worked on a King project when he directed the 1992 film Sleepwalkers. Even with an expanded format of a miniseries to work with, properly trimming the massive story while appeasing the network censors would be a balancing act. Live by the motto “If you want to do something good, do it yourself” King wrote the teleplay for The standensuring that the intent of the story would survive as it transitioned to a wider audience. Even with a solid script in hand, Garris was attempting a colossal production by television standards, which, by his estimates, involved filming in six different states over 100 days with 126 speaking parts.

“The Stand” is a fun throwback to a bygone era of horror

Nadine watches someone off camera in The Stand.

Compared to the updated 9-part version of The stand which premiered in 2020, aspects such as special effects cannot be compared, but for its time the 1994 version was an impressive series. There is charm in watching a graphically disturbing story within network television settings.and the series perfectly captures the look and feel of 90s horror. Without having the luxury of expensive visual effects, the aim of the beloved horror miniseries becomes the characters, which only serves to keep the story closer to the novel instead of descending into a gore fest. The 1994 version, regardless of its age, remains a faithful adaptation that fans of King’s work will enjoy.

Succeeding in bringing what seemed like an unadaptable novel to the screen – and to television, no less – is an impressive feat. The passion that was put into its creation and the respect for the material manifests itself in the final product of The stand. It’s easy to see why, in an era where King’s stories are enjoying a renaissance, fans are impatient to experience the apocalypse imagined by the master storyteller. Whether it’s finding a copy of the Blu-Ray re-release of the miniseries or stream it on Prime Videoviewers new and old can enjoy a definitive version of King’s epic story.