Emmy says:
As a movie Apt Pupil is good, as an adaptation of a book I have read I’m woefully disappointed. The two main characters are nowhere near as disturbing as King wrote them. An entire aspect is missing from Todd, which changed the downfall at the start of act 3 to something I don’t like. The acting and directing were good, just not what I had expected. 7/10.
Jeff says:
It’s always interesting seeing how King’s shorter stories get adapted. Even for a novella, a lot was left out or truncated to make room in this 111 minute film. While I understand the reasons for changing the ending, the impact is lost from the original story. Even for a 10 year old film, I stand by our goal to avoid spoilers – so I won’t say what should have been left out to make room for what was in the book – but there were scenes and imagery added that could have been left out. Still, the creeping horror of what people are capable of is there, and that was done well even if some of the secondary characters seemed rather flat and/or pointless. 7/10.