| Thinner | |
|---|---|
Promotional film poster |
|
| Directed by | Tom Holland |
| Produced by | Mitchell Galin Richard P. Rubinstein |
| Screenplay by | Michael McDowell Tom Holland |
| Based on | Novel: Stephen King |
| Starring | Robert John Burke Joe Mantegna Lucinda Jenney Bethany Joy Lenz Michael Constantine Kari Wührer |
| Music by | Daniel Licht |
| Cinematography | Kees Van Oostrum |
| Editing by | Marc Laub |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (US theatrical) Lions Gate Entertainment (current US video distributor) |
| Release date(s) | October 25, 1996 (USA) |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $15,315,484 (domestic)[1] |
Thinner is a 1996 horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Michael McDowell with the screenplay by Tom Holland. The film is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.
Contents |
Billy Halleck is an arrogant, obese upper-class lawyer living in suburban Maine. One day, while driving, he accidentally runs over an old Gypsy woman with his car when his wife distracts him by performing oral sex on him. The Gypsy woman's father, 106-year old Tadzu Lempke ("Taduz Lemke" in the book), curses Billy by touching his face and saying the word, "Thinner". The curse causes Billy to lose weight rapidly, regardless of how much he eats. The old man also curses two of Billy's close friends who helped him avoid punishment for the Gypsy woman's death. Later, one of them starts turning into a lizard; the other becomes mutated with oversized pimples and commits suicide.
Because only Lempke can remove the curse, Billy must persuade the ancient Gypsy to lift the curse. He flees his family when they disbelieve the curse and insist he seek psychiatric help. Lempke is unmoved and has his daughter shoot Halleck with a slingshot. As his family grows frantic, he enlists the help of a friend, an underworld crime boss by the name of Richie "The Hammer" Ginelli. Richie pays someone to track down the gypsies for him. Richie kills off the camp dogs with poison, and leaves a note saying "WHITE MAN FROM TOWN SAYS TAKE IT OFF." The gypsies find the man who tracked them down and kill him, and vandalize Billy's car. Richie turns up the heat and kills one gypsy at the camp, then poses as an FBI agent to lure Lempke's granddaughter away from the group. Billy stops Richie from killing her. Ritchie threatens the girl with acid and gives her a message for her grandfather: meet them at the lighthouse.
Lempke arrives at the meeting, convinced that only by lifting the curse can he prevent further attacks on his people. He explains to Halleck that he cannot remove the curse, but it can be transferred to another victim. This is to be done by mixing Halleck's blood into a pie which must them be consumed by an unsuspecting person, causing painful but rapid death. Lempke urges Billy to end the curse and commit suicide with dignity by eating the pie. However, Billy believes that his wife has been cheating on him during his ordeal, so he leaves the pie out for her to eat. The next morning he wakes up to find her disfigured corpse next to him in bed. Initially gleeful to be free of the curse and of his disloyal wife, he finds to his horror that his daughter has also eaten a slice. His guilt compels him to "die with dignity" and eat a piece as well. Before he can do so, a local doctor (whom he suspects as his wife's lover) arrives at the door. The doctor immediately suspects something is wrong and attempts to leave. However, Billy invites the man in to share the pie with him.
The film was panned by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes Tomatoes gave the film a score of 18% based on 17 reviews, with an average score of 3.8 out of 10.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||