HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2021/RATAPALOOZA NIGHT EIGHT: Graveyard Shift (a.k.a. Stephen King's Graveyard Shift, 1990)

No mining hats in this movie...

Today our sponsor is another of my beloved Patreons--and part of the Better In The Dark Brain Trust along with me, Derrick and Kelen--Kelly Logue!  Kelly is presently writing the New Olympians novels and stories, and has his own channel on Odysee where you can hear audiobooks of his tales.  Kelly is sponsoring Second Class Citizen, which provides legal aid for veterans.

(And remember that when you become a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you get to host a day for every Halloween Horrorfest and get access to extras and podcast; just follow the link at the end of this entry.)

Kelly has chosen for me Graveyard Shift, a film I actually saw in the theaters on Halloween night of 1990, a few months after I moved into my old apartment in Ridgewood.  For some reason I didn't feel like coming home right after work, and ended up watching this at a theater where I had also seen Return of The Jedi and Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.  I can't recall the actual name of the theater, but it presently is The Paramount Theater music space.  By the time I got home that night, I forgot pretty much everything except Kelly Wolfe could never find the lower half of her shirt, Stephen Macht looked like Fred Ward and the film was a consistent, sickly shade of green.

So what did I think revisiting it thirty years later?  Before I proceed, let's visit The Ratapalooza Checklist!

1) IS CANADA SUBBING FOR AMERICA?  Surprisingly, this film was shot on location in Harmony, Maine with the oldest yarn mill standing in for the 'Bachman Mills.'  So...No.

2) DOES SOMEONE OFFSCREEN THROWS A RAT AT SOMEONE TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE IT'S ATTACKING HIM?  No.

3) ARE THERE CUTE RAT PUPPETS?:  There is a rat puppet, but it sure ain't cute.  No.

4) IS THERE A SPEECH ABOUT HOW BAD-ASS RATS ARE?: Brad Dourif does have a speech in act one about how the Viet Cong tortured American soldiers with rats...so kinda?

5) IS A CAT VICTIMIZED BY RATS?: Nope, but a dog meets its grisly end offscreen.

....and a new box on the checklist!...

6) IS THERE AN EXTERMINATOR CHARACTER, AND IS HE COMIC RELIEF?  Brad Dourif's Vietnam veteran Tucker...and his role does include moments of 'comic relief.'

Drifter John Hall (David Andrews) gets a job working the cotton picker at Bachman Mills during the graveyard shift of 11 to 7.  The mill's tyrannical boss Warwick (Stephen Macht with a New England accent that makes the 'Pepperidge Farm' guy embarrassed), in an effort to punish Hall for breaking up his abuse of his office manager/sex toy, arranges for him to work a cleanup crew to bring the basement up to code.  Unknown to any of them, including Warwick, something is downstairs causing personnel to die...and we're not talking about the legions of rats that harass the cotton picker operators.  John's going to need his slingshot skills (and supply of Diet Pepsi cans) to get out of this alive!

There's a good reason why I forgot almost everything about this film.  It's relentlessly mediocre.  While I give producers William J. Dunn and Ralph S. Singleton (who also directed this nugget o' nothing) credit for actually shooting on location, this is a shabby, awful looking movie.  It doesn't have that consistent vomit-green tint I remember, but it is overcast, and drab and overall ugly; the title sequence, in particular, looks highly unappealing.  The cast is pretty much forgettable with the exception of Dourif (who knows he's in a piece of shit and is determined to have fun), Macht (who is so over-the-top it's painful), Wolfe (because, you know, nice midriff) and Andrew Divoff (who I kept wishing would reveal himself to be the Wishmaster and turn everyone into Rat Kibble).  The script is one of those where the majority of the characters bleed into each other and are rarely named, so I began thinking of them as 'Black Guy' and 'Fat Guy.'  The climax featured a really phony looking matte that is meant to be awe-inspiring, but only serves to remind us how low budget this in.  The creature looks very...puppety...and is just there to eat people.  Most importantly, there is a real lack of geography in the film throughout, which muddies what I think is a major plot point that would explain why RatBatMonsta wasn't noticed until the story begins.

I am hoping Divoff didn't wish for a crap rat puppet....

This was another movie where I wondered if it was meant satirically...given how the cars are vintage throughout, I got the impression that writer Joe Esposito and Singleton were treating it as a 50's Giant Monster Throwback.  Even taking it as tongue-in-cheek, this film falls flat.  It's so dull as to be unremarkable.  I'm positive if this was made five years later, it would've ended up direct to video.  It's not offensively bad or misguided, it's boring and being boring and generic is the worst kind of bad.  I cannot recommend this.

Tomorrow Ratapalooza is taking a break, and our sponsor is my friend, OG original Scream Queenz his own self Patrick K. Walsh!  Patrick will be presenting me with the 2020 slasher featuring a bartender and a drag queen, Death Drop Gorgeous!  Patrick is representing Backpacks For The Street.

There are presently eleven open slots for this year's festival, and if you'd like to be included, there are four ways to get your share of the spotlight:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Queens Community House Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Campaign.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

It is not necessary to choose a rat-based horror film.  However, if you do, I will forward you a special Ratapalooza banner you can display on your website.