Jason Reed (Jonathan Emerson) works the nightshift at the Bachman Textile Mills in Gates Falls, Maine. One night he is attacked by a creature that knocks him into the cotton gin where he is shredded to death. The rats that have infested the building enjoy a meal of Jason Reed. Believing that it is just a rat problem an exterminator, Tucker Cleveland (Brad Dourif) is called to get rid of the rats but there are too many of them. An inspector (Joe Perham) threatens to close the mill. The supervisor, Warwick (Stephen Macht) is an abusive overbearing tyrant. He bribes the inspector and tells him that he will have some of his workers clean up the basement of the mill over the upcoming July 4th weekend.
John Hall (David Andrews) is a drifter who has been a little lost since the death of his wife. He applies for a job at the mill. Warwick isn’t all that warm toward Hall, but he needs someone who can operate the shredder after Reed’s death. Hall gets the job. He is also tapped as one of the employees on the clean-up crew who are being paid double time to do the cleaning. Hall begins a relationship with another worker, Jane Wisconsky (Kelly Wolf). Warwick, although married and has a mistress, is also interested in Jane. Tensions deepen between the two men.
Warwick sends Stevenson (Minor Rootes) into the basement to string lights for the upcoming work detail. He is killed by something in the basement. In addition to Hall and Jane the clean-up crew consists of Brogan (Vic Polizos), Carmichael (Jimmy Woodard), Ippeston (Robert Alan Beuth), and Danson (Andrew Divoff). When Ippeston complains about the work he is immediately fired. Everyone else gets back to work.
After lunch Hall finds a trap door that leads to a sub-basement. Thinking that the rat problem may come from the basement, Warwick instructs Hall to go down with the water hose and blast them away. Hall agrees if Warwick goes too. Warwick decides that everyone will go. They all descend the creaky steps into hell.
“Graveyard Shift” AKA “Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift” was released in 1990 and was directed by Ralph S. Singleton. It is an American horror film and was based on the 1970 short story by Stephen King. Additional scenes were done for the television version.
Stephen King wasn’t happy with the how the film came out. I liked it, but giant monsters are one of my favorite horror themes. The title of the film refers to both the nighttime work shift as well as the mill being next to an ancient cemetery.
The giant monster in the film is sometimes referred to as a giant mill bat. Others believe it is a rat that it is a mutated rat that developed wings as part of its mutation and is the queen mother of the other rats.
The name of the mill is Bachman Mills. This is in homage to one of King’s pseudonyms, Richard Bachman. King wrote seven books under the pen name Bachman.