ABC MINISERIES, AN: STEPHEN KING'S "STORM OF THE CENTURY" {PART 1 OF 3} (TV)
Summary
The first of this three-part miniseries written by Stephen King about a small town in Maine dealing with both a terrible snowstorm and a mysterious supernatural visitor.
The story begins in 1989 on Little Tall Island, a small island town off the coast of Maine. The locals are preparing for an unusually large and violent snowstorm which is slated to sweep through the town and surrounding area. A mysterious man named Andre Linoge visits the elderly Martha Clarendon in her house alone. He utters a cryptic rhyme before beating her to death with a cane. The townsfolk stock up on food and supplies, although general store employee and local constable Mike Anderson tells them not to worry about surviving the storm. He gets a call from his wife Molly, who runs a daycare, involving a situation with Pippa, the daughter of Hatch, one of Mike’s fellow employees. Mike and Hatch go to extricate Pippa from a stairwell she is stuck in, and Mike manages to get her out. Davey Hopewell, a teenager, notices Martha’s walker discarded on her front lawn and gets curious; Andre is inside in front of her television, and his pupils have become unusually large. Davey goes inside and calls for Martha, discovering her bloody corpse sprawled out on the floor. Andre taunts Davey and invites him in, but Davey runs out and shouts for help. Andre demonstrates supernatural abilities when he telekinetically moves a basketball and breaks Martha’s television set.
Davey attempts to tell the other townsfolk about what happened to Martha, but they are skeptical of his findings. Robbie Beals, the town manager, decides to have a look for himself before telling Mike about it. Mike checks with Ursula Godsoe at the town hall about their emergency shelter system in preparation for the storm. Robbie enters Martha’s home and sees her corpse as well. He approaches Andre, who seems to know intimate details about Robbie, including that he was with a prostitute on the night that his mother died. Andre threatens to send Robbie to hell, where he claims that his mother is waiting to cannibalize him. Robbie becomes frightened and runs out of the house. He contacts Mike in a panic and tells him about what has transpired, demanding that he come down to apprehend Andre. The snow starts to pick up as Mike and Hatch arrive at Martha’s house and try to calm Robbie down. They go in to the house and find Martha’s body as well; the sight of it is especially disturbing to Hatch. They find Andre and hold him at gunpoint, although he seems to be unconcerned and does not resist when Mike handcuffs him and leads him outside.
Mike’s employee Kat informs Molly about the murder and Mike’s whereabouts. She is terribly concerned and decides to go down to the general store with their son Ralphie to meet with Mike and make sure he is okay. Mike and Hatch load Andre into their truck and decide to try to contact the state police to take him off their hands. They are puzzled when they realize that they heard the television on despite it being broken beyond repair; Andre bears a set of fangs instead of teeth, unseen by either Mike or Hatch. They bring him to the constable’s office in back of the store, but the key to the back door breaks and Hatch goes around to the front, leaving Mike alone with Andre. Andre cryptically tells Mike: “give me what I want, and I’ll go away,” although he refuses to elaborate on that statement. Hatch and Robbie are unable to open the back door from the inside, forcing Mike to bring Andre around and lead him through the store. Hatch warns the shoppers of Andre’s approach and orders them to stand back. The shoppers stare as Mike brings Andre into the store, Andre points out certain individuals in the crowd and demonstrates knowledge of their secrets, including Peter Godsoe’s secret marijuana business and Kat’s secret abortion. Mike panics when Andre picks up Ralphie, although he does little other than comment on his birthmark, which he and Mike both refer to as a “fairy saddle.” Billy Soames, Kat’s boyfriend, becomes enraged and tries to attack Andre but Mike fends him off. Andre somehow causes Billy to have a nosebleed and informs Kat that Billy is cheating on her with Jenny Freeman.
Finally Mike brings Andre into the back and pats him down while Hatch holds him at gunpoint. Mike cannot locate a wallet on Andre and roughs him up, enraged that he picked up Ralphie. Mike locks Andre in a cell and Robbie enters, criticizing Mike for his methods and for excluding him from the arrest process, causing Mike to throw him out of the office. Mike decides to set up a watch to monitor Andre and sends Peter into the back with Hatch as he closes the store. Mike asks for some men to remain behind to help him with Andre; several townspeople attempt to contact the state police but get no response, as their radio antenna was dislodged in the storm. Mike bids Molly and Ralphie farewell as he heads back to Martha’s house to secure the crime scene. The storm knocks out power lines in various places, sending the entire town into a blackout. Peter, still on watch with Hatch, briefly sees Andre’s eyes glow an unearthly red. Backup generators are soon activated, granting limited electricity to the town. Mike helps put down storm windows in town and locks up his store. He draws up a schedule of shifts to watch over Andre and goes back to Martha’s house. He takes photographs of Martha’s body and of objects around the house. He discovers the words “give me what I want and I’ll go away” written in blood on the wall, but they somehow disappear before he can photograph them. He also finds Andre’s cane, but it also disappears. Suddenly Martha’s window shatters, forcing Mike to try to cover it up. He covers up Martha’s body with a sheet and leaves.
High speed winds wreak havoc throughout town, damaging the harbor and bringing down traffic lights. Peter becomes transfixed by Andre and starts writing “give me what I want and I’ll go away” over and over again on a sheet of paper. As the storm worsens, more townsfolk gather at the town hall to sleep in the shelter. Robbie and several others speculate over the revelation of Peter’s secret marijuana business and how Andre could have known about the townsfolk’s innermost secrets. Ursula gets Robbie to help out with the influx of townsfolk. Molly and Ralphie enter the town hall as well. Hatch steps out for a moment and Andre mumbles some indistinct words, which somehow causes his cane to appear and its wolf's head to snarl. Lloyd, a firefighter, paints Andre’s cryptic phrase onto the side of his truck as Peter is somehow compelled by Andre to grab a rope from storage and hang himself. Lloyd also commits suicide by plunging a fire axe into his forehead. Peter’s fishery is completely destroyed by increasingly violent waves. Hatch discovers Peter’s body hanging from the ceiling. Robbie hears about the destruction of the fishery and orders Ursula to blow the whistle to signal everyone to come to the town hall. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: February 14, 1999 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:27:02
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:56653
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1999
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Stephen King … Executive Producer, Writer
- Mark Carliner … Executive Producer
- Thomas H. Brodek … Producer
- Bruce Dunn … Associate Producer
- Robert F. Phillips … Line Producer
- Craig R. Baxley … Director
- Gary Chang … Music by
- Tim Daly … Cast, Mike Anderson
- Colm Feore … Cast, Andre Linoge
- Debrah Farentino … Cast, Molly Anderson
- Casey Siemaszko … Cast, Alton "Hatch" Hatcher
- Jeffrey DeMunn … Cast, Robbie Beals
- Julianne Nicholson … Cast, Katrina "Kat" Withers
- Dyllan Christopher … Cast, Ralph Emerick "Ralphie" Anderson
- Becky Ann Baker … Cast, Ursula Godsoe
- Spencer Breslin … Cast, Donny Beals
- Myra Carter … Cast, Cora Stanhope
- Nada Despotovich … Cast, Sandra Beals
- Kathleen Chalfant … Cast, Joanna Stanhope
- Jeremy Jordan … Cast, Bill Soames
- Ron Perkins … Cast, Peter Godsoe
- Steve Rankin … Cast, Jack Carver
- Adam Zolotin … Cast, Davey Hopewell
- Torri Higginson … Cast, Angela Carter
- Adam LeFevre … Cast, Ferd Andrews
- Denis Forest … Cast, Kirk Freeman
- Peter MacNeill … Cast, Sonny Brautigan
- Beth Dixon … Cast, Tess Marchant
- Soo Garay … Cast, Melinda Hatcher
- Christopher Marren … Cast, Henry Bright
- Leif Anderson … Cast, Johnny Harriman
- Marcia Laskowski … Cast, Linda St. Pierre
- John Innes … Cast, Reverend Riggins
- Jack Jessop … Cast, George Kirby
- Rita Tuckett … Cast, Martha Clarendon
- Nancy Beatty … Cast, Octavia Godsoe
- Richard Blackburn … Cast, Andy Robichaux
- Gaylyn Britton … Cast, Mary Hopewell
- David Ferry … Cast, Lloyd Wishman
- Tyler Bannerman … Cast, Frank Bright
- Skye McCole Bartusiak … Cast, Pippa Hatcher
- Harley English-Dixon … Cast, Heidi St. Pierre
- Stephen Joffe … Cast, Buster Carver
- Sam Morton … Cast, Harry Robichaux
- Cayda Rubin … Cast, Sally Godsoe
- Kristin Baxley … Cast, Annie Huston
- Michael Copeman … Cast, Upton Bell
- Shawn Doyle … Cast, Lucien Founder
- Norma Edwards … Cast, Betty Soames
- Victor Ertmanis … Cast, Alex Haber
- Richard Fitzpatrick … Cast, Jonas Stanhope
- Joan Gregson … Cast, Della Bissonette
- Jennifer Griffin … Cast, Carla Bright
- Lynne Griffin … Cast, Mrs. Kingsbury
- Nicky Guadagni … Cast, Jenna Freeman
- David Hughes … Cast, Burt Soames
- Helen Hughes … Cast, Roberta Coign
- Joel Keller … Cast, Cal Freese
- Hardee T. Lineham … Cast, Bill Toomey
- Arlene Mazerolle … Cast, Jill Robichaux
- Gerard Parkes … Cast, Orville Boucher
- Michael Rhoades … Cast, Stan Hopewell