Macabre...ish Horror Review: The Stand 2020

 

 

New Stand Series, 2020/ Eps. 1

 

The story begins in Boulder, Co with a church full of fly blown corpses and a crew clearing them out.

 

Then flashes back 5 months to Frannie (Odessa Young) and her Dad in the garden and Harold (Owen Teague) peaking through a hole in the fence. He’s soon set upon by bullies. He eats pavement in his escape and they record it for instagram. He returns home to his sick and apathetic family.

 

The radio reports of the quarantine in Arnette, Tx. And we flash to Stu (James Marsden), in quarantine, he’s been there for 3 days. And then flashback from their to Campion crashing into the gas station.

Later, after Stu is moved to the CDC and the superflu wipes out out most of the personel, Stu, is let out of his quarantine by a mourning and suicidal general. Just after his doctor (Hamish Linklater) is killed by Sgt. Cobb, who know one knows from whom he’s taking orders.

 

The next day, the super flu has already killed most of the town of Ogunquit, seemingly, except Frannie and Harold. They’ve both lost their entire families. And at this point, the infrastructure, news, internet, everything but radio has shut down. There are bodies and wreckage scattered around and no one to do anything about any of it.

 

Meanwhile Frannie is dreaming of cornfields and an elderly lady named Abigail Freemantle (Whoopi Goldberg) who asks her to come to Hemingford Home.

 

Later, Frannie tries to end it all but is rescued by Harold who has a plan to get out of town and where they should go. And soon many of our characters are dreaming about fields of corn. And not just Mother Abigail but evil. Harold writes, rages and dreams of Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård) and wolves.

 

Those still alive choose to move on or end it all, on their own terms. And in Colorado, they choose to rebuild and return to some kind of normalcy.

 

This is the first part of the miniseries and it’s pretty good and moves pretty quickly. The way it’s edited, you have to pay attention or it will be confusing. I think this might be a more enjoyable watch for those who have not seen the first mini series or read the book. Having said that, I do like the layout and the pacing. The effects, what there were, were good. It’s not particularly bloody or gory but the corpuses and sickness is pretty graphic. It is modernized and doesn’t have that patented dated feel of King series’. So far...

 

•             •               •

 

 

The Stand, ep 2

 

The caravans are arriving at the Boulder Free Zone and Larry Underwood is having flashbacks about his tumultuous life before, in New York, doing shows and nursing a solid alcohol problem. All the while being accused of stealing his music by an old roommate. Plus getting the call that his Mom is in the hospital having succumb to the virus. The hallways are lined with gurneys and body bags.

 

Then Lloyd has flashbacks about holding up a convenience store with his old friend, Poke. It was a deadly afternoon and got him a one way ticket to life in prison, just before Captain Tripps spread like wildfire. Including his time in prison, as inmates succumb to the virus and he settles for eating rats and his cell mate. And his first meeting with Flagg.

 

Larry is also having vivid dreams of both Mother Abigail and Flagg and meeting Rita Blakemoor. Who was present in the book but melded into the composite character, Nadine, in the 1994 series. They had to travel the sewers after a man propositioned Rita or rather asked Larry if he could borrow her for a million dollars. His negative response triggered the rest of the ‘millionaire’s’ creep squad to a show of force.

 

Nadine talks of finding Joe on the side of the road in Pennsylvania. Which again is different from the original story, where Joe was found by Lucy in a grocery store.

 

Some of the scenes are a purposeful nod to the 1994 version. Most of the episode are character flashbacks so we know who the players are and how they came to be. Which are pretty important since some origin stories are totally different from the book and 1994 version, not to mention how they look.

 

The effects continue to be good and gruesome and frankly the presence of all that snot was starting to freak me out! They are committing to see just how much of your gorge will rise.

 

For more, we will be talking The Stand on the podcast, Macabre...ish Cults, Classics & Horror. Look for us where you listen to podcasts. Including spotify, Amazon and Apple podcast. Follow us so you do not miss out!