Instead, A Good Marriage loses steam shockingly fast and badly meanders to the point where I nearly lost interest in the film entirely. This all sounds like a solid premise for a vicious psychological combat between Darcy and Bob. Even scarier to think about, how can she protect their three children from dear old Bob? Knowing that he’s the savage Beadie killer, Darcy’s mental stability begins to break down as she wonders how she could possibly confront him. Bob leaves for a business trip and as she’s cleaning, Darcy discovers a hidden stash of evidence damning her virtuous husband. Afterwards, he mails their identification to the police with a note. He brutally tortures the women before killing them. They live a peaceful existence in a quaint New England town (of course), but the area is soon rocked when a serial killer dubbed “Beadie” murders his 12th female victim.īeadie’s M.O. Bob is a successful accountant while Darcy manages their coin collecting and trading business from home. Anthony LaPaglia and Joan Allen star as Bob and Darcy, the two halves of the titular marriage. How could she not know? Almost three decades, 10 victims, and his wife had no clue? Makes for one helluva jumping off point for a King story.Īfter an engaging and eerily shot opening sequence, A Good Marriage starts rolling out the cliches and long stretches of tedium. This seemingly normal guy was a pillar of the community and was happily married to his wife for nearly 30 years when it was revealed he was a brutal serial killer. King was inspired to write A Good Marriage (which appears in the 2010 collection “Full Dark, No Stars”) by the BTK Killer, Dennis Radner.

A Good Marriage is not only the worst adaptation of King’s work, it’s easily one of the dullest. Even when he writes the damn screenplay himself, the films hardly ever instill the same feelings that reading the stories can give you (I’d say Pet Sematary is the most successful).

The films based on his work rarely manage to capture the sense of suburban dread his writing manages to invoke so effectively.

Like many of the adaptations of the horror master’s work, A Good Marriage, adapted by Stephen King from his novella and directed by Peter Askin, suffers from transition pains.

A good marriage by stephen king