The Woman in the Room (1984) User Reviews

From the works of Stephen King. A film by Frank Darabont.

[Captain_Couth · 6/10 · 7 August 2005]

The Woman in the Room (1983) was a decent debut for future male weepy film maker Frank Darabont. The future king of chick-flicks-for-guys makes total use of a shoe string budget and directed a surprisingly watchable film. Unlike the other film that was included on the tape, this one follows the original story (found in the short story collection Night Shift).

A man is being feeling conflicted over a decision he feels that he must do. His mother is dying of a fatal illness. Everyday he visits he and watches her waste away. The doctors can't do anything for her except kill her pain. But the mother doesn't want to live like this anymore and asks him to help her. Can the good son make his mother's final request come true? What is her final wish? To find out you'll just have to watch THE WOMAN IN THE ROOM!

Like I said in the beginning. A nice adaptation that was made on a minuscule budget. Not a masterpiece but a nice short.

Recommended for Stephen King film fans.

Frank Darabont debut

[Bored_Dragon · 7/10 · 2 September 2018]

The directing debut of Frank Darabont, a man who signs cult adaptations of Steven King, "The Shawshank Redemption " and "The Green Mile", is also an adaptation of King's story. "The Woman in the Room" (1983) is a thirty-minute psychological drama about a lawyer whose mother is dying in pain and his emotional and moral dilemma of whether to release her from her agony. The film was done almost without a budget, with only three actors in two rooms, and it's based almost entirely on facial expressions and the building of the atmosphere. It is interesting that the actress who plays mother also appears in "The Green Mile", and the supporting actor also has roles in both, "The Green Mile" and "The Shawshank Redemption". King stated that this is the best short film made on one of his stories.

7,5/10

Pretty good watch for 30 minutes

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 8 February 2016]

"The Woman in the Room" is a half-hour American film from the early 1980s. It was the first effort as director and writer by 3-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont. Darabont's biggest successes, including the #1 in the IMDb top250, are all adaptations from Stephen King's novels, so it should not come as a surprise that this is also how he started his successful career when he made this film here in his early 20s.

There is one horror dream sequence, but apart from that it is a very human film in my opinion. Plus, the sequence worked surprisingly well with the rest of the story. It is all about dying, compassion and making the right decisions. The title character is an old woman dying from cancer and we witness throughout the entire film how her son, a successful lawyer, deals with this complicated situation. The script is good, the actors play their parts well and everything else is pretty fine too. No surprise Darabont cast some of the actors for his later, more famous works too. The only minor problem I had with his film here is that it seemed a bit unrealistic how the lawyer would so openly mention his personal problems to the death row inmate. Anyway, this was certainly not enough negativity to not let me recommend this movie to you. I enjoyed the watch and I hope you will too. Thumbs up.

Impressive Start for Darabont

[Michael_Elliott · 23 October 2012]

The Woman in the Room (1983)

*** (out of 4)

Frank Darabont made his directorial debut adapting the Stephen King short story. The film deals with a son (Michael Cornelison) who is growing tired of seeing his mother (Dee Croxton) slowly dying from cancer so he weights the option of killing her. THE WOMAN IN THE ROOM is a pretty impressive film even with the few flaws that it does have. I was quite impressed that Darabont, considering this was his first film, was able to hold the viewers attention for so long and especially since this is mainly a dialogue driven film. I think one of the highlights is a sequence where he's defending a man who is probably going to be put to death for murders that he committed. The two's discussion on what it's like killing someone was very effective. There's one horror element during a dream sequence that is very effective and quite memorable on its own. Another major plus is that the performances are all very good. I was really impressed with Cornelison being able to hold your attention and make you feel sorry for what he's going through. Brian Libby is also good as the prisoner. Darabont also wrote the screenplay here and he certainly mixes the right elements of drama, horror and just downright moral opinion.

An alright short story

[redrum6-6 · 4/10 · 10 May 1999]

I bought this film in a 2'nd hand store about 2 years ago and i have only watched it once since then. it is a low tamed collage film that feels very hollow. it is only 30 mins long. it is alright to watch when you have nothing better to do. but i don't agree with the cover when stephen king says that this is the best movie made from my stuff... this story comes from stephen kings book night shift and it is about a man who has to make a choice with his mother who is dying slowly he can help her die or he can watch her die which is killing him???? this comes with two more stories the bogey man and a bouns story. the bogey man is stephen kings as well and is a lot better. all in all it is worth watching once if you are a stephen king fan. (5/10)

A very good film for fans of King and film buffs

[slealos · 10/10 · 18 April 2001]

Stephen King calls this the best film based on his works. It is easy to see what he likes about it.

Frank Darabont directed this short film at the age of 24. At about 30 minutes in length, it tells the story of a man who is watching his mother slowly die in great pain. He must make the decision of whether to allow her suffering to continue or to help release her from her pain forever.

The story was a tough one for King to write, and was loosly based on his own mother's death. The acting by Michael Cornelison is fairly good and the performance by Dee Croxton, who relies on simple facial movement, is also done well.

Don't watch the film if you are looking for King horror, for there is none (except one nightmare sequence). Darabont, in his directing debut, shows why he became such a force in the film world. His style here is very good, and forshadows his extraordinary King adaptions, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

An interesting side note, is that Croxton later appears in The Green Mile. Brian Libby, who plays a prisoner in Woman, also reappears in both Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile.

If you are a fan of King's short stories or a film scholar who wants to see how a short film can be done right, check this out.

The Woman in the Room (1983)

[cdennismoore · 8/10 · 8 June 2013]

In 1983, a 24-year-old future awesome filmmaker named Frank Darabont got it into his head that he should adapt a Stephen King short story to film. And that's exactly what he did. After writing a letter to King securing his permission (Wikipedia says this was the birth of the "dollar babies", but another dollar baby, "The Boogeyman" came out a year earlier, so I don't know), Darabont set about making his film debut with one of the less assuming stories in King's then-small bibliography.

"The Woman in the Room" (originally published in King's 1978 collection NIGHT SHIFT as a 14 page story) is about John and his mother. The mother is in the hospital, dying from abdominal cancer, and John is the dutiful son who visits regularly. As the film opens, John is searching the medicine cabinet for painkillers, which he takes to his mother at the hospital, we presume with the intention of euthanizing her. Instead, he gives her aspirin.

Later, John, a lawyer, has a meeting with a client who might end up on death row for murder. During the course of their discussion, John asks the prisoner--played wonderfully by Brian Libby, who would go on to become a fixture in Darabont films (Floyd in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and the Biker in THE MIST)--what it felt like when he killed someone. The prisoner replies he didn't feel anything. During and after the war (remember, this was 1983), he got so good at killing, it was just a job to him. Except one time, he recalls. A buddy was badly injured in Vietnam, then given a cordotomy. The prisoner says his buddy saved his life once, and he didn't like seeing him like that. So he killed him. Out of respect.

Given this speech, and then suffering a particularly horrifying nightmare that shows John what's in store for his beloved mother, the lawyer finally gains the confidence to help his mother one last time in the only manner he can.

THE WOMAN IN THE ROOM is a very short film, about 30 minutes, and even that might be stretching the events of the short story. I've read the story a few times, but it's been at least a decade, so I can't vouch for how closely the film sticks to the source material, but I've read that King considers this his favorite of all the dollar babies. That, of course, could be because of the connection King feels to the story, considering he's said in interviews that, when his own mother was sick, he wished he'd had the nerve to do what John does, if only to end his mother's suffering.

As for the movie itself, given a little better quality film stock, you'd never know this was shot by a 24-year-old amateur. Right from the start, Darabont's expertise with a camera is evident. His staging, his movement, the performances he gets from his actors. In fact, my only problem with this movie was in trying to convince myself that Dee Croxton (mother) was 60 years old as she claims. Her make-up job as terminally ill was pretty good, but the old age stuff wasn't working for me. Michael Cornelison (John) was 31 in this movie, and I'd bet money Croxton was around the same age. They looked more like brother and sister. But that's a very small detail that doesn't do enough to ruin my suspension of disbelief because everything else about this one is just about perfect.

Early indicators of Darabont's knack for turning Stephen King stories into "heartfelt dramas" are present here, but with that nightmare sequence, it's obvious on which side of the horror line his real allegiance lies. Of all the King stories I've read, this is probably the last one I would peg for being a really good movie, but I think the quality of the finished product is just another testament to how talented Frank Darabont is as a filmmaker.

This movie is available in two parts to view on you tube.

King on Film: Carrie (1976): http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu- 1003625/content_91443072644 Salem's Lot (1979): http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu- 1040466/content_620198661764 The Shining (1981): http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu- 1018844/content_621040144004 The Boogeyman (1982): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112558/reviews-9 Creepshow (1982): http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu- 1004915/content_161489063556

Serious and true to life story by Stephen King

[andreygrachev · 9/10 · 1 May 2009]

The film is not very popular among King's screenings. The author said that it is based on his personal experience that took place with his mother. So the tragedy of cancer illness is that the death comes slowly and there is much pain inside the patient. The main character decided to release his mother's constant cancer pain by giving her poison in order she stopped suffering. Later on the horror of murder follows him in his nightmares. He is haunted by his dead mother spirit . Well, not for entertainment at all. Serious and hard to see life story. Another necro realism masterpiece. I would not recommend this for people with strong imaginative nature, as it gives serious thoughts , not those modern day computer effects and funny Gothic monsters.

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Frank Darabont's very first film and his very first Stephen King adaptation

[Elvis-Del-Valle · 8/10 · 4 June 2023]

With this medium-length film, Frank Darabont already demonstrated that he was capable of making good adaptations of the works of Stephen King. This medium-length film has a good script and character development. The original story is short and brief and although some things were omitted here, Frank was able to expand the story a little more to give Johnny's psychological profile more depth. From applying that he is a lawyer who talks with a death row inmate, to the nightmare he has, he does a lot to show the mental crisis that Johnny is going through. Also, that makes the medium-length film somewhat Stephen King-esque, as the original story is a dramatic story that describes Johnny's emotional state through some of his memories. The Woman In The Room is an acceptable adaptation and one that served to lead Frank Darabont to bring some of the best Stephen King adaptations. My final rating for this medium-length film is 8/10.