Storm of the Century (1999)

 

 

The two things I remember most about Storm of the Century (this was a three-night TV miniseries) is that when it first aired on TV it was when we folks here in my neck of the woods was actually getting a heavy blizzard.  The first night this aired it was the preparation day of the blizzard.  You know the milk, bread, and eggs day.  Day two of SotC was the day of our actual blizzard.  It started snowing, just light flurries, around noon on the Monday after Valentine’s Day.  The real show didn’t begin until well after dark.  By the time it was all done it had snowed (including the flurries before and after the main storm) for close to thirty hours dumping almost two feet of snow on Casa de Cheeks.  It felt weird to be living through our own storm while watching Storm of the Century.  Luckily after the storm I was dealing with was over SotC took a couple nights break, which was weird but I appreciated it as it took us all nearly two days to completely dig out.  So after airing Sunday and Monday nights the third part aired on February 18^th, just in time for me to be suffering from the after effects of two days of shoveling snow as well as the beginnings of a really good case of the flu. 

 

 

Now that I’ve completely bored you with Life With Cheeks, the 1999 winter edition, I can talk about the actual Storm of the Century.  Written by Stephen King but not based on any source material as he wrote it originally as a screenplay.  You can buy it in book form but it’s a screenplay you’ll buy.  As with most miniseries, Storm features an ensemble cast.  Tim Daly plays Mike Anderson who sometimes works as a grocery store manager but is also the constable on Little Tall Island.  Little Tall, as the locals call it is a small island off the coast of Maine.  As is the case for most of that area, it is mainly a fishing village.  Everybody knows everybody so when a dangerous stranger comes to town everyone quickly knows he is there.  The stranger, Andre Linoge (Colm Feore), arrives in town and makes himself at home in poor old Martha Clarendon’s house.  After killing her, of course.  The town manager Robbie Beals (Jeffrey DeMunn) investigates the crime scene and finds Linoge still there.  Linoge knows a lot of things about Robbie’s past, and not the good things either.

 

It is shown that Linoge knows many of the townspeople’s dirty little secrets.  He can also control some of them with his mind causing a murder as well as a few suicides while he is sitting in a jail cell.  The jail cell proves to be just a minor nuisance as Linoge easily escapes and disappears into the storm.  Linoge keeps repeating the same thing “Give me what I want and I’ll go away.”.  He says it a few times but he also writes it on the wall at Martha’s house in Martha’s blood for Mike to find when he is investigating her death.  The only problem is Linoge wants something that is a heavy price to pay.  But it is a price they will pay to get him to leave the little village.  There’s references to the lost colony of Roanoke and “Croatoan”.  Who or what is Linoge and just what does he want?  All that and more will be answered if you are to watch Storm of the Century.  The fact that this was on ABC and is now considered a Disney film blows my mind.  But hey, Disney once signed the Insane Clown Posse to a contract, so what do I know. 

 

 

Also starring is Debrah Farentino as Mike’s wife Molly, Casey Siemaszko as Mike’s deputy “Hatch”.  Doing the directing here is Craig R. Baxley who has directed a few Stephen King miniseries including Rose Red and Kingdom Hospital.  As a big Stephen King fan I have to say even the poorly done adaptions are watchable to me.  This is definitely a good one to watch especially if you are sitting at home, in the middle of a blizzard, while sipping on some hot chocolate.  Now, I said at the beginning of this post that there were two things I remember about SotC and I explained one of them.  The other thing I remember is that this was a favorite of my friends Cerpts mother Sandy who passed away a year ago today.  I was thinking about her while I was watching this.  Thinking about her and missing her.  This one is for her.  Three and a half little teapots, short and stout, out of five for this sentimental favorite.