Tom Holland directs Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna and Lucinda Jenney in this strange little curse movie where an overweight lawyer wrongs a caravan of gypsies with emaciating consequences.

This doesn’t really work as a horror feature. There’s not really enough shocks and peril apart from one discombobulating trip to the carnival. What Thinner does have though is a fair few genuinely left-of-field subplots… mafiosos, marital paranoia, deadly pies! And these are quirky enough to make you feel like you haven’t wasted your evening. Unlike most Stephen King projects it ends better than it starts. Burke makes a bland central character feel credible and the two female supports are smokin’ hot. Holland is a bit too much of a meat and potatoes filmmaker to truly lean into his projects’ strengths (see also Fright Night, Child’s Play) but they all prove undemanding VHS fodder.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Dark Half (1993)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/