“The Reach,” hailing from 1981 (and initially titled “Do the Dead Sing?”), is often called Stephen King’s finest-ever story. The winner of the 1982 World Fantasy Award, it was singled out for praise by Joyce Carol Oates and used by author Douglas E. Winter (in the book STEPHEN KING: THE ART OF DARKNESS) as a template for the entirety of King’s pre-1986 output.
THE REACH SHORT FILM (2024) Trailer
This means writer-director Luca Caserta, who adapted the story for film in 2024 (following a little seen 2018 adaptation by writer-director Landon Kestlinger), had a lot to live up to. One of the last films made for King’s Dollar Baby program before it was disbanded in December 2023, the 28 minute Italian language REACH has won several film festival awards, and the blessing of King himself, who called it “a lovely piece of work.” That assessment, I feel, was entirely accurate.
The story’s setting was transposed from coastal Maine to an island in Veneto, Italy, and a crucial aspect of the narrative was altered (more on that in a bit), but this is otherwise a highly faithful adaptation. It features Stella Flanders (Jana Balkan), an elderly woman who’s never left the island. Among the memories that assail her is a 1975 recollection of the water between the island and the mainland—the reach—freezing, during which her now-deceased husband Bill traversed it with a friend while Stella stayed behind (because, she claims, “it was washday”).
It seems a freezing over of the reach is occurring again in an especially cold February. During this time, the cancer-ridden Stella is periodically visited by Bill’s ghost (Vincenzo Tosetto), who beckons her across the frozen reach with the promise that “you won’t need no snowshoes.” Inevitably he’s joined by several other deceased relatives and acquaintances, all voicing the same plea.
In the King text Stella embarks upon the traversing of the reach, but the final scenes of this film are more intimate and contained (due, I’m guessing, to budgetary issues). Caserta does nonetheless manage to hit all the story’s beats (as the reach crossing in both story and film exists on a largely symbolic plane), and provides a wrap-up that’s both poignant and chilling.
The film is a standout in the Dollar Baby pantheon: it’s professionally made, with a lived-in feel and an unforced emotional core. It’s very easy, it seems, to succumb to mawkishness when adapting King stories (as evidenced by STAND BY ME and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, to name but a couple examples), but the sadness and ominous nostalgia that suffuse THE REACH feel genuine and fully earned.
As Stella, Jana Balkan provides the film with an enormously empathetic anchor. It helps that, as delineated by King and Caserta, the character is a fully rounded one whose issues with aging and the fear of death are universal. The effect is completed by the inclusion of “Moonlight Motel” by Bruce Springsteen (who tends to be quite stingy about allowing his songs to be played in films), which provides the end credits with a pleasant, and tonally appropriate (it being a song about longing and old age), accompaniment.
Moonlight Motel by Bruce Springsteen
Vital Statistics
THE REACH
Nuove Officine Cinematografiche
Director/Screenplay/Editing: Luca Caserta
(Based on a story by Stephen King)
Cinematography: Lorenzo Pezzano
Cast: Jana Balkan, Vincenzo Tosetto, Paolo Rozzi, Elisabetta de Gasperi, Nunzia Messina, Sabrina Carletti, Leonardo Grandi, Damiano Danese, Gemma Portinari, Michele Carrera, Enrica Ghiglione, Loredana Sembenini, Gaia Carmagnani, Stefano Soprana