Overrated

Admirable film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

An interesting ghost story about Jim Norman and his older brother Wayne. Both of the young boys were touted by a group of older boys, greasers if you will. These greasers ended up stabbing Wayne in a train track tunnel one day, a train came and during the madness all were killed except Jim and one of the greasers - both got away safely. Years later Jim ended up married with a young boy of his own and became a school teacher. They moved back to Jim's hometown where his older brother and the greasers were killed. Now the the vengeful greaser ghosts are wanting Jim dead - they will stop at nothing.Not a bad film. These are a gang of evil vengeful spirits, just as nasty and no good as they were when they were alive. They can manifest themselves, materialize, into solid matter. They seem to be seen by others only when they want to be seen and they seem to have the ability to chose who sees them.6/10

Returning to his home-town, a teacher and his family find that the traumatic incident involving his big brother while he was growing up has caused the greaser-gang also included in the event to come back and torment them forcing a final showdown to right the wrong.This one here wasn't all that bad even though it does have some issues. One of the film's biggest positives is the fact that this one really manages to get the fear of being involved in a traumatic incident from the past in a small-town. The fact that the initial accident itself feels like the kind of accident that really could happen in such a location, with the greaser gang tormenting them and then getting caught up in the train coming through the tunnel does come off like a rather enjoyable setup for later, and with the way this holds up the different incidents later on that trigger the incidents later on. From the dropped set of car-keys to the shoes and the kids coming one-by-one into the classroom, the set-up from these incidents plays a great part in how this one manages to come off when it starts to reveal what their actual purpose is for returning. Those are quite fun as the different variations of them appearing as students in his classroom while taunting him in the town, the ways in which they manage to fool everyone in class as well as the town who constantly think he's having mental breakdowns based on his past history which comes into play quite nicely and overall manages to give this one a great build-up for the story to play out in the later half. With the group out and tormenting him and his family with some rather impressive stalking scenes of the family at the house and the later scene in the church where they get taken away leading into the final confrontation in the tunnel once again as this makes for a rather thrilling and engaging finish that plays out the fateful accident that came through in the rest of the film. With these action-packed scenes that come together into giving this a lot to like alongside the few fine make-up effects on the ghouls who look quite creepy and chilling, there's enough to like here that really manages to hold off the few minor flaws present. The film's biggest issue is the fact that we're not given a reason to care about why the greaser club is seeking revenge, as the film makes the point of them coming back for him killing them only they deserved their fate so it's really troubling to get into the story. The gang is a total joke that simply act like tough-guy greasers but are just so over-the-top in their silly threats that it makes for a pretty hard time to find fear in them for the whole film as they're return doesn't make any sense. The other big issue here does manage to carry on about that with there not being any real reason stated about why they come back to begin with as there's just nothing explained about why they come back to life here at that point in time. By simply showing up saying they want revenge but never explaining how they manage to do so when they clearly never deserved to do so in the first place makes them so simply non-threatening that as a whole the film really stumbles with the main villains. That it also gets a little too schmaltzy with the fantasy-driven finale that looks quite goofy and silly against the more realistic elements, these here do hold it down somewhat.Rated R: Language and Violence.

As a general rule of thumb, the book or short story of which a movie is based on is almost always better than the film. Either that or in a small number of cases, the movie is just as good as the source. Very rarely do you have a movie adaptation that surpasses the original material. 1991's TV adaptation of Stephen King's "Sometimes They Come Back" is one such rarity. Now before I go on, let me just say that I love Stephen King and his style of writing, that combination of imagination, suspense, character development, and morbid humor that has become his trademark. But as this film shows, even the great Stephen King can sometimes be outdone on film. The story begins by introducing Jim Norman (played by Tim Matheson), a high school literature teacher forced to return to his hometown due to financial reasons. But the return forces Jim to relieve his darkest memory, that of his older brother being murdered by three hoods in a dark train tunnel. The hoods are killed by a passing train-partly due to Jim's actions-and since then, Jim has tried to move on with his life. But as fate would have it, certain dark souls aren't done with him and it's not long before several students go missing in his class and are each replaced by teenagers who look strangely like the hoods from Jim's past. From there, it's a fight for survival as Jim must protect his family and over come his past demons. Despite the fact that this is a TV movie, it has the feeling of being one made for the theater with its creepy atmosphere, competent acting, and good story themes. Tim Matheson does an excellent job transitioning from comedy to drama and getting lost in the character. The villains here are scary, riding around town in a supped up 50's hotrod with flames flying out the exhaust and are played to the hilt by the three actors, especially by Nicholas Sadler, who plays the leader of the pack, Vinnie Vincent. The makeup that's used for when the villains transform (you'll see) is quite spooky for being 1990's television work. But more than any of that, "Sometimes They Come Back" is able to incorporate the central theme that good will always triumph over evil and the ending may very well move some to tears. The original King story was a bit darker in its ending and how Jim deals with the three hoods who've come back and I don't think it had the same emotional feeling that this movie did. Perhaps if I had read the story before seeing this movie, I might have thought differently about it. Then again, maybe not. Either way, there's no question that "Sometimes" is a well made but sadly underrated Stephen King adaptation that deserves to be more well known than it is. You might be able to get a copy of the DVD from Amazon if they still have any. If not, don't fret because the whole movie is available on you tube. So, if you're in the mood for some spooky fun combined with a great story, "Sometimes They Come Back" is a great way to spend some time. P.S. If you find yourself teaching a class and a new student tells you he transferred from Milford, run away as fast you can to your nearest church!

This movie was so unpleasant that I in fact had stinking, nervous sweat running down my body towards the end! This is because it made me recall some horror figures from my own school-days, and also some unpleasant memories from when I worked as a subsidiary teacher at a high-school in Austria much later....YES, the horror figures from your childhood and youth come back to haunt you... but not as ghosts of course. That is not necessary, either. They come back in the form of new kids, who are just the same kind as the old. And I also believe that if you were frightened of them when you were the same age, you will never make a good teacher. Because when you recognize the type, your fear will come back... and the thugs will notice it. And behave exactly the same to you, as those horror kids did 20 or 30 years back in time. It is an unpleasant kind of game, and once you are at all aware of it, you have lost your innocence forever and you cannot pretend that you do not understand what is going on.That is the sense morale of this movie, I think. It is very scary, and if you yourself have unfinished business from your youth, I would advise you not to watch it. You are better without that renewal of memories and fear!