I am going to suffer through a lot of Stephen King this year. My roommate has a lot of tapes of films based on his work. It just happens. My experience with them is that most of them are terrible, and no small part of that has to be in part because of his writing, which either translates poorly to the screen or is full of plot holes, bad characterization, and weak settings. Or both. Even films like The Shining have some major problems with plot and character, and films like this one are just a complete mess. I know this was written in another decade, another time, but even back in the day, if a student threatened a teacher…

Everything burns.

Now, this one is difficult to review. Often when reminiscing about films from your childhood, you are more inclined to give those mediocre films a special pass because of nostalgia goggles blocking the harsh truths from your eyes.

Sometimes They Come Back is not a very good film. Most other films from your childhood were just simply that; an old film you used to like. But I had a special relationship with Sometimes They Come Back that I didn't really share with other films.

I live about 5-10 minutes away from where it was filmed.

But hey lots of people live where films were made, so that wasn't all. My dad and my older brothers loved this movie.…

The first to come back is teacher Jim Norman, who moves his family to the town where he grew up - and where he watched his older brother Wayne get killed - after losing his job in Chicago due to his short temper. But it turns out to be a bad idea, because one of his new students is the spitting image of one of the greasers who murdered Wayne all those years ago. It's just a wild theory of mine, but I suspect that Stephen King was himself picked on by Brylcreem-haired, leather jacketed bullies who drove cars with flames painted up the side, because this is one of many, many, many King adaptations to feature that same, overplayed…

The previously reviewed “Cat’s Eye” contained three stories. But that wasn’t originally the plan. Initially, “Cat’s Eye” was to include a fourth segment, “Sometimes They Come Back,” based on another story from “Night Shift.” However, producer Dino De Laurentiis decided the tale had more potential. “Sometimes They Come Back” was developed as a stand alone project. The adaptation would premiere on television, on CBS, in 1991.

Aside from the obvious Stephen King connection, there’s another reason I’m talking about the movie. It’s the fourth feature film of Tom McLoughlin, who previously made likable horror riffs like “One Dark Night” and “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.” “Sometimes They Come Back,” sad to say, does not live up to that…

The first to come back is teacher Jim Norman, who moves his family to the town where he grew up - and where he watched his older brother Wayne get killed - after losing his job in Chicago due to his short temper. But it turns out to be a bad idea, because one of his new students is the spitting image of one of the greasers who murdered Wayne all those years ago. It's just a wild theory of mine, but I suspect that Stephen King was himself picked on by Brylcreem-haired, leather jacketed bullies who drove cars with flames painted up the side, because this is one of many, many, many King adaptations to feature that same, overplayed…