1922

US, 2017, 102 minutes, Colour.
Thomas Jane, Molly Parker, Dylan Schmid, Kaitlyn Bernard, Neal Mc Donough, Brian d'Arcy James.
Directed by Zach Hilditch.

1922 is based on a Stephen King novel. For over 40 years, there has been a huge number of adaptations of Stephen King novels for screen and television.

This film begins with a drama and ultimately moves to horror.

The setting is a farm, managed by husband and father, Thomas Jane. His young son is played by Dylan Schmidt and his wife, who wants to leave the farm and go to the city, is played by Molly Parker.

The film takes on a grim tone when the farmer decides to murder his wife and makes his son complicit. His wife’s body is dumped by a roadside, leading to an investigation by the sheriff. While the son continues to work with his father, he falls in love with a neighbouring girl and they eloped. They also blame him for the murder of the mother.

The flight has the touch of the Bonnie and Clyde about it. But, the father, remaining at the farm, going into debt, trying to cope, descends further and further into madness.

The film was directed by Australian director, Zack Hilditch (These Final Hours, Rattlesnake).

1. A Stephen King story? Outside New England? The Nebraska settings, the flat plains, the crops, the beauty of the seasons and the skies? The musical score?

2. 1922, the town, the farms and houses, the vehicles? Costumes and decor?

3. The framework of Wilfred’s confession? Everything else seen in flashback?

4. Wilfred, Thomas Jane’s performance, his age, experience, marriage, the tensions with his wife, supportiing his son, wanting him to inherit? The crops, the work on the farm, his age, the property, wanting to buy his wife’s property?

5. His wife, age, experience, not wanting to be on the farm, angers, her wanting to leave, to start a dress shop? Not wanting to sell? Her relationship with her son, slapping him?

6. The decision to murder, father and son agree, getting his wife drunk, pretending to agree to moving to the town? The visual viciousness of the murder, the blood, body down the well, the increasing number of rats, the cow on the top of the well, falling in, Wilfred shooting the cow?

7. The atmosphere of the haunting, his wife’s presence, the visuals, the number of rats, the increasing? Wilfred and his guilt? Acknowledging his motivations, hatred, greed, wanting an inheritance for his son?

8. The son, his age, experience, devotion to his father, tension with his mother? The girl, together? Her sensing something different about him after the death? The fact that she was pregnant, her being sent to the home for unmarried mothers, the father explaining this to Wilfred? Harry, his wanting to escape from home, his leaving, the note, the hold-up, getting the girl, the journey of their escape, the dangers, her being shot, her death?

9. The sheriff, his visits, interrogations? The banker and his concern about the sales? Wilfred not offering him a drink? The sheriff returning, the later information, about Harry and the hold-up, the final news about his wife, identifying her by her teeth? Yet her being down the well?

10. Wilfred, physical and moral collapse, the failing farm after the benefit, the issue of the loan, the failure, his drinking, his increasing fears, the seasons, the ice and snow? The increasing number of rats, tormenting him, injuring his hand?

11. His going to the town, drinking, working in the factory?

12. The story of retribution, haunting? And Stephen King touches, especially with the horror of the rats?