Book-To-Movie: ‘The Lawnmower Man’

Credit: Pixabay

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

In past Book-To-Movies, we’ve reviewed several movie adaptations of books and short stories by famous science fiction and horror authors. All those films have stuck to the plot of the original work to at least some recognizable degree. But this week’s Book-To-Movie will be the first to review a film that does a poor job of staying faithful to the original plot. The film is 1992’s “The Lawnmower Man” which is based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name. Even so, the movie is a really good one. So then what’s the problem? The problem is that it’s hardly an adaptation and so more its own story simply with the title of King’s short work slapped onto it. 

‘The Lawnmower Man’: The Short Story

Stephen King’s “The Lawnmower Man” originally appeared in “Cavalier” magazine in 1975 and was then collected into his book of short fiction, “Night Shift” the following year. The story’s protagonist is a middle-aged husband and dad by the name of Harold Parkette who hires a gardening service to mow his lawn. The person from the service who shows up at his house is a friendly but bad-mannered, slob of a heavy-set man who is simply referred to as the “Lawnmower Man”. However, the Lawnmower Man is not as friendly as he seems and not even as human as he looks. He even goes as far as claiming to be an employee of the god Pan. That said, the story involves elements of the occult, human sacrifice and a lawnmower that moves on its own attacking animals and people. 

Credit: Pixabay

I had few problems with this story. One of those few were reoccurring instances of Harold listening to or watching baseball broadcasts and drinking beer. They didn’t seem to do that much for the rest of the story. But that problem is very minor. For the large part, the story is really good with plenty of suspense and supernatural terror that builds up well to the climax. 

‘The Lawnmower Man’: The Movie

The so-called movie adaptation of “The Lawnmower Man” was released in theatres in 1992 and directed by Brent Leonard. The movie, unlike King’s short story, has nothing to do with an occultic gardener. Instead, it focuses on a mentally impaired gardener who, after being used by a scientist for virtual reality experimentation, gains near-god-like intelligence. With this kind of intelligence he threatens to take over the world by connecting his now telepathic mind with all the mainframe computers on the planet. So this film has no supernatural demonic figures like Stephen King’s short story and so is much more science fiction horror than supernatural horror. However, there is plenty of suspense and terror, and there are also plenty of monsters that come from the VR world such as a giant severed head and a giant insect that attacks people. The scenes taking place in the VR world were animated really good for the time that the movie was made in. These sequences with their fluidic abstract figures and landscapes give the viewer a real psychedelic trip without the drugs. 

The problem with this movie is that it’s not the adaptation of King’s story that the title says it is. In fact, the title had been even more misleading when it initially contained King’s name and so was marketed as “Stephen King’s The Lawnmower Man”. Because of this, King sued the production company, New Line Cinema, due to the movie diverting so far off from his story and so did not want his name associated with the production of the film. Not even the main characters, as well-developed and likeable as they are, hold the same names as those in the short story. About the only thing this movie reflects of King’s work, beside the title, is a scene with a killer lawnmower. Yet, the movie is a good and terrifying exploration into the possibilities of VR.   

As much as Brent Leonard’s “The Lawnmower Man” is unfaithful to Stephen King’s short story of the same name, as its own story it’s a really good movie. But that’s just it, it was its own movie with its own plot and so you can’t really compare it with King’s short story. And so the movie is mistitled. Aside from the movie, King’s story is written well involving supernatural terror in a least likely circumstance and setting. That’s what King is so good at: putting terrifying situations in both dark and light settings in which the latter makes the horror that much more ironic. 

Have you read Stephen King’s “The Lawnmower Man” or seen the movie? Do you think the movie is deserving of the title it bears? Feel free to leave your answers and any other comments in the box below. 

Until next time . . .