Worthy little SF/horror film - quite faithful to the Stephen King novella (which I remember quite liking when I was a much younger man); and a fascinating injection into the current body politic. If you enter horror films with an attentive eye for subtext, seeing how they speak to the state of society, this will give you lots to ponder, even with a relatively simple plot (the Rio Bravo scenario, I think it sometimes gets dubbed - group of people trapped in a space with bad things outside: think Night of the Living Dead, Assault on Precinct 13, etc). As I've said elsewhere, there was a moment in the film where nearly the whole audience cheered; I haven't felt so proud of - or entertained by - an audience reaction in a long time. Critics are going to stay away from enthusing too vocally about this one (68% on Rotten Tomatoes when I first copied the link, tho' I notice it's gone up a notch since). This means nothing - the film is too lowbrow for any but the most confident critics to get behind it, even if they obviously kind of liked it; I mean, there are monsters in it, the kind with tentacles and claws and so wings! Pay no heed: genre fans or people who just flat out like movies will be amply rewarded by this film (even if the CGI effects are kind of fake and cheesy); and it may even have a few ideas worthy of serious contemplation in it. I had a lot of fun, anyhow. Official site here.
Oh: even if your kid likes horror movies, this may not be the best one to take children to. I could see it leading to very odd conversations.
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