Riding the Bullet (DVD)

It seems as humans we get in trouble during puberty, either by doing things we really shouldn’t have, or by not doing things we should have. Either way, we are doomed to be haunted.

Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) didn’t ride the bullet after making his mom (Barbara Hershey) wait in line for this amusement park ride for hours. And that error of judgment, even though he saw at the time that he was barely stepping out of the grasp of the grim reaper by leaving, returned to torment him the fateful Halloween night he spent hitch-hiking to visit his Mother in the hospital after a stroke.

Halloween night is not the time for a young man who has already defied the specter of death on at least two occasions (although on one of these, the reaper was smoking pot, so was likely considerably more mellow than usual) to travel down a road past a graveyard. And Alan is foolish enough to wander in and take a look at the tombstones. He also didn’t show his higher education in his decision to swear at a couple of rednecks in a pickup. His Philos should have been more active at these times, but therein lies the plot.

Mick Garris’s screenplay adaptation of Stephen King’s 30-page novel doesn’t quite make it into the same class as “Sleepwalkers” and “The Stand”, but it’s still a must-see for those of us who are faithful King fans.