Apt Pupil
(1998)
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Based on the novella by Stephen King, director Bryan Singer's follow-up to THE USUAL SUSPECTS is a harrowing psychological thriller about the relationship that forms between a boy and the neighbor he discovers is a Nazi war criminal. After a brief lesson in history class, star pupil Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) becomes obsessed with Hitler and his followers. Through extensive research, he discovers that the infamous Kurt Dussender (Sir Ian McKellen) has been hiding out, living a normal life in his own neighborhood. But instead of reporting Dussender to the authorities, Todd decides to use him to gain further knowledge...everything that the history books won't tell him. But who ends up using whom, and what happens when a susceptible young mind encounters true evil, leads to a surprising, taught, and unsettling suspense film. |
This drama outlines the terrible consequences of a gifted Californian teenager's obsession with the Holocaust and his strange relationship with a Nazi war criminal living in secret in his home town. It's the third film to use Stephen King's 1982 anthology Different Seasons as a source and the tale is almost the equal of its predecessors, Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption. King's chiller deals with the horror of human nature and melancholic dread, and Bryan Singer's adaptation keeps close to the author's original intentions, using smart visual fluency to suggest the appalling and shocking nature of the core story. Ian McKellen gives a stupendous performance as the former SS death-camp officer and the film provides unsettling, blood-curdling viewing that occasionally crosses the bad taste barrier.
Halliwell's Film Guide
An effective drama about the corruption caused by contact with evil, though it descends into horror-movie clichés towards the end.