A Criminal Minds Star Headlined This Underrated Stephen King Film That’s Coming to Prime Video

An underrated Stephen King adaptation starring a Criminal Minds fan-favorite is headed to a new streaming home this weekend.

Per Prime Video, director Tom Holland’s 1996 feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1984 novel Thinner is headed to the streaming platform as its new home beginning December 1. This marks yet another adaptation of one of King’s many iconic works available for Prime Video subscribers, including Maximum Overdrive, Children of the Corn, and Carrie.

Written by Tom Holland and Michael McDowell, Thinner stars Robert John Burke as Billy Halleck, a well off attorney who has just marked a major win for his firm after successfully defending Mafia boss Richie “The Hammer” Ginelli, portrayed by Criminal Minds star Joe Mantegna. When a night out goes horribly wrong and Billy mows down an elderly woman with his car only to be acquitted of any charges, the father of the woman he killed places a curse on him. This results in the habitual eater losing weight at a drastic weight no matter how much he consumes, while his own attorney and the judge involved in his case are driven to take their own lives by more immediately disfiguring curses of their own.

Thinner Has a Cult Following Despite Bad Reviews Upon Release

Thinner received mainly negative reviews from critics upon its release, with audiences largely responding the same. The film currently holds an exceedingly low score of only 19% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, averaged from 27 critical reviews, whereas the fan-submitted rating of 31% is far more generous after being averaged across over 10,000 user reviews. Despite the generally negative response to the film, Thinner still brought in over $15 million at the domestic box office during its original theatrical run, making it a successful feature based on its budget of only $8 million.

Fans of King’s work have plenty to look forward to, as multiple projects have been announced based on his stories and novels. Among the most hotly-anticipated of these is The Long Walk, which is being adapted for the silver screen by director Francis Lawrence. The film is set to star Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Gerrett Wareing, Charlie Plummer, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill, and will be focused on the eponymous Long Walk, a form of entertainment in a not-so-far-off dystopian future in which young men are forced to walk non-stop down U.S. Route 1 under the constant threat of death. While those who fall behind are gunned down without mercy, the one and only winner of the event is promised a large cash prize on top of whatever single request they want fulfilled for the rest of their lifetime.