Graveyard Shift (1990 film)

Theatrical Release Poster for the film release

Graveyard Shift is a movie directed by Ralph S. Singleton, written by John Esposito and based on the short story by Stephen King from 1972. The movie was released in 1990.

There are many differences between the story and the movie adaptation. First, the main antagonist in the story is a cow-sized broodmother rat, while in the movie, it is a giant bat. In the story, Hall is killed by the rats as he tries to escape the sub-basement. In the movie, he survives after catching the giant bat in the picker machine which tears it to shreds. The exterminator, played by Brad Dourif, did not appear in the short story. In the story, the character of Wisconsky is a middle-aged man who Hall is somewhat friends with. In the movie, the character is a young woman, with the first name Jane, who becomes Hall's girlfriend.

The movie was filmed in the village of Harmony, Maine at Bartlettyarns Inc., the oldest woolen yarn mill in the United States (est. 1821). The historic Bartlett mill was renamed "Bachman" for the movie. The interior shots of the antique mill machinery, and the riverside cemetery, were in Harmony. Other scenes (restaurant interior, and giant wool picking machine) were at locations in Bangor, Maine, at an abandoned waterworks and armory. A few other mill scenes were staged near the Eastland woolen mill in Corinna, Maine, which subsequently became a Super Fund site.