Many a movie has been based on a Stephen King novel, and oddly enough, the ones lacking in supernatural elements (Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me) tend to be much better than those that rely on them (Children of the Corn, Night Flier). 1998's Apt Pupil is no exception, and while marred by its own inconsistencies, it is still quite possibly one of his most horrific motion pictures to date. King's best horror adaptations frightened by their violent and suspenseful tone (The Shining, Carrie), but his best overall movies drew their strength on real human drama, and Apt Pupil contains a deeply unsettling mixture of both worlds.

Directed by The Usual Suspects' Bryan Singer and based on the King novella of the same name, Apt Pupil tells the story of Todd Bowden, a 16-year-old high school senior whose all-American facade belies his darker interests. Played with skill and subtlety by a purposely dead-eyed Brad Renfro, Todd has a fascination with Nazi history that is only augmented by his discovery that his neighbor is actually Kurt Dussander (the always amazing Ian McKellan), a former concentration camp officer whose identity has gone undiscovered in America. Fascinated by Dussander, Todd forces him to tell detailed stories of his years in the Third Reich and essentially relive them, forcing him at one point to put on his uniform and goosestep to his command. As the relationship deepens, Dussander becomes immersed in his past monstrosities while Todd finds himself drawn deeper into this dark world.

This is intensely disturbing subject matter, and in an era where the terms "Nazi" and "holocaust" are tossed casually through conversation it's refreshing to find a director who handles the topic as skillfully and seriously as does Singer. The first half of the film is excellent, with McKellan giving a jolting performance as the deceptively reformed Dussander, and Renfro holding his own in a part most actors his age would not even begin to know how to handle. Singer's direction is creepy and threatening but never heavy-handed, portraying the horrors of the Nazi era with a quiet intensity that's hard to come by. Particularly effective is one terrifying sequence when Todd, while taking a shower in the high-school gym, suddenly hallucinates he is in the gas chamber of a concentration camp.

Unfortunately, in the second half of the film much of the tendencies towards introspection and dark psychological exploration are lost in an effort to tell the story in less than two hours. While the relationship between the Nazi and what would become his pupil is terrifying drawn out in the first half of the film, the second focuses on plot details that run surprisingly towards cliche -- plot points like mangled cats and slipped grades that were intriguing when backed up by King's rich text, but fall short when they lack the in-depth treatment a film of this particular work just cannot provide. Singer's attempt at translation is admirable and most successful, and the acting is nothing short of fantastic, but the film itself feels curiously empty at times, a feeling which does not bode well with the heavy subject matter it attempts to portray.

-- Sarah Kendzior

Apt Pupil is currently available on video.