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Do you want to watch a few good horror movies on Tubi? Please add this movie to your short list. Stephen King’s Riding The Bullet”, written and directed by Mick Garris, that I watched on Tubi not long ago, is a 2004 movie that may have flown under the radar of many.
Especially because the name is similar to the name another movie based on Stephen’s work: Silver Bullet, the 1985 movie adaptation of the novel Cycle of The Werewolf. I thought this one was going to be about werewolves, like Silver Bullet”, but it isn’t.
Without saying anything else to prevent spoiling it for you, I say this is a movie about a demonic revenant.
This is another movie based in previous literary work, so we know that story is going to feature an average or higher quality. It’s based on the homonymous novella by King that was the first mass-market ebook, in the year 2000.
It’s a horror road movie and borrows a lot from the drama genre. The story is top-notch. It’s a very karmic and astral story and the more you know about those two subjects, the more you’ll enjoy this movie.
Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) must travel from Orono to Lewiston in Maine. It’s a 112.3 miles distance so he hitchhikes and hikes. During the night a lot of stuff happens. This is a horror movie based on a story, and both are very original on their own, still, it reminded me of another movie, After Hours (1985), and in some way, Stephen King’s Riding The Bullet gave me the sensation of being the countryside, horror version of Scorsese’s Hours.
Another movie that Riding the Bullet made me remember is another one based on Stephen’s work Sometimes They Come Back, which is a 1991 TV movie.
I loved the grimaces of Barbara Hershey and overall her role as Alan’s mother, Jean Parker. Also, the atmosphere that David Arquette’s acting creates when the character he plays, George Staub gives a raid to Alan, is way above in creep factor to the previous creepy car sequence with a farmer (Cliff Robertson), even though the farmer one is already scary.
One of the Best Horror Movies on Tubi?
This movie was my kind of movie. It’s up there with my other favorites since I watched it because it’s pure Stephen King. What’s more, I make a point of not reading anymore SK and just watching everything audiovisual in which he had a part.
Riding the Bullet has everything you would expect from a Stephen King story. It’s a period piece (1969) and it makes heavy use of Maine locations. It has the kind of creepy sights I long to see in an American horror movie, especially one coming from Stephen King.
I’m a hardcore fan of all the movies based on Stephen King’s writings. This one flew below my radar, maybe because I’m not a fan of King in general, especially not a fan of his writings.
This movie has a kind of moving moral dilemma going on it. The lead character has serious cases of both intrusive thoughts and schizophrenic internal voices. These mental disorders try to lead him astray mentally and spiritually, and ultimately physically.
Still, beyond what’s barely real and in his head, he has a handful of real experiences that are as gruesome as they’re disconcerting and ultimately scary. The tests Alan has to go through, and how he has to deal with his inner and outer demons makes this movie also a coming of age story.
This movie is kind of quiet, very lonely, and just above average in duration, but still, I would call it an epic horror road movie. It’s very fun to watch for a horror fan. It has a lot of different settings due to the constant travel of the protagonist. If you would like to watch a prototypical horror hero’s journey movie, watch this movie.
As a side note, I didn’t stop to measure each scene to see if it fits the hero journey syntagma. Still, it feels just like that, even if the stages of said journey are subverted haphazardly.
If you like sensory overload, noise, and a lot of characters and extras this movie may not be for you. Even if you searched for best horror movies on Tubi and this review came up.
© Bholenath Valsan 2021 — RIDING THE BULLET Best Horror Movies on Tubi
