Graveyard Shift (1990) (Japan/USA)

aka Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

A textile mill located near a graveyard and infested with rats is run by a completely corrupt and slimy monster of a man by the name of Warwick (played by Stephen Macht, who is having a blast and giving the audience one deliciously overdramatic, despicable villain) gets a new employee in the form of a drifter named Danson (John Hall, a far cry from his memorable role as Sheriff Tillman Napier in Justified). He’s hired on as a machine operator for the mill’s graveyard shift. A sanitary agent forces Warwick to clear out a garbage-strewn cellar that looks more like a death trap and to get his overextended and insane exterminator to take care of the rat problem (Bard Douriff, making the most of his minimal screen time) but, of course, Warwick and his boss (the unseen Bachman) have demands to cut back on costs. Now, vermin-spread diseases are no joke and it’s a dangerous job working in the hell hole Warwick has allowed to factory to become but the small group of employees are about to come face to face with a threat unseen by humans. There’s something big dwelling underground and with a regular buffet in the graveyard, it’s developed a taste for human flesh. That’s really bad news for the fresh batch of entrees that have garnered its attention because Warwick is forcing them to clean up the cellar over a long weekend. This cleanup leads to the discovery of a long-hidden trap door which leads directly to a cavernous death trap… them’s the breaks. The always welcome Andrew Divoff is an unwelcoming millworker and looking, dare I say, hawt. The nearly uninhabitable set design of the mill is fucking gorgeous in its awfulness and establishes everything needed for the viewer to be suitably ill at ease from the get go. If ever a place would be infested with rats, it’s this crap-shack. Also, who doesn’t love a giant bat-rat gobbling down on poor, hard working schlubs? Add a bar I would frequent, a very cute Kelly Wolf as a millworker who has caught the unwanted gaze of her boss, a flooded graveyard, human skeletons as weapons and a memorable cast of folks not used to the lead position. A really, really good time has unfortunately remained one of the more under appreciated Stephen King adaptations.