After more than two weeks of festival hopping—from Venice to Toronto—I’m finally ready to crash in my own bed. That’s 50+ movies down, with only a handful of walkouts, and I’ll be recapping the best of what I’ve seen very soon. Having been away, I still need to catch up on a few missed films, including Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing” and Francis Lawrence’s “The Long Walk,” which hits theaters this Friday.
Reviews for “The Long Walk” are impressive—expectations were low, but critics are calling it a brutal and riveting Stephen King adaptation. When the review embargo first lifted, major outlets and national papers hadn’t weighed in yet; coverage came primarily from sites like IGN, Collider, Slashfilm, and ScreenRant.
The wider pool of critics are starting to weigh in, and the consensus, although less fawning, is still positive; 74 Metascore (based on 13 reviews) and 96% on·Rotten Tomatoes (based on 86 reviews).
Hell, there’s even a ‘Long Walk’ “treadmill challenge,” a promotional screening gimmick that mirrors the story’s intense endurance theme. Audience members have been invited to walk on treadmills while watching the film, simulating the grueling, high-stakes walk central to the plot. Given the film’s 2-hour runtime, that’s around 5 miles of walking.
Based on King’s 1979 novel, the first he ever wrote, though it was later published under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, “The Long Walk” follows 50 teenage boys forced into a state-run endurance march where anyone who drops below 3 mph is executed on the spot. They walk until only one remains.
Cooper Hoffman (”Licorice Pizza”) and David Jonsson (”Alien: Romulus”) lead the cast as two of the Walkers, with Mark Hamill playing the officer overseeing the contest. JT Mollner, fresh off the indie buzz of last year’s “Strange Darling,” penned the screenplay for “The Long Walk.” He’s a King superfan, knows the material inside and out.
Lawrence’s filmography has been resulted in a solid, if unspectacular, studio career over the past 18 years. “Constantine,” “I Am Legend,” “Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Red Sparrow” — all respectable efforts. Hardly masterpieces, but he’s proven himself a steady hand, and there are plenty of far weaker directors working at the major studio level.
“The Long Walk,” which has been in development hell for decades, will finally be released in theaters on September 12 via Lionsgate.