Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tu Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davies, Joshua Odjick, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 108 mins

The Long Walk is an adaptation of the 1979 Stephen King novel (under his pseudonym Richard Bachman) and is set in a future United States under a totalitarian military regime where fifty men compete in an annually televised competition, meant to inspire viewers. There’s a man representing each state and they must walk at a speed of at least three miles per hour – if they fall below and receive three warnings, they’re shot on the spot, with the winner being the final survivor.

Francis Lawrence directs – and you couldn’t ask for a more fitting name at the helm, given he’s directed all of The Hunger Games films (bar the first), where people must also fight to the death. Cooper Hoffman plays Raymond ‘Ray’ Garraty, and the film opens as we see his mother Ginnie (Judy Greer) begging him to back out, but he’s insistent on participating (for reasons we find out later on) and he starts to get to know the other players, forming a close bond Peter ‘Pete’ McVries (David Jonsson).

The Long Walk is an excellent adaptation and Lawrence deftly sustains a chilling and grim tone, but balanced with a humanity in the well-developed characters. The film really makes the most of its simple premise and there’s a sustained sense of dread throughout – if a character wants to tie a shoelace or stop to relieve themselves, they’re naturally going to be doing that at less than three miles an hour. Naturally, the characters move through emotional states as the walk progresses and it’s exciting to see what were adversaries become friends, and vice versa. The film does a great job in forcing you to think that any relationships formed are doomed, given the inevitable’s going to happen. It’s also testament to how strong a story this is when most of the film is just a tracking shot of some characters walking along a road – Lawrence doesn’t use many flashbacks.

Cooper Hoffman makes for an excellent lead, especially once he reveals his motivations and David Jonsson gives a soulful performance as Pete, a character with plenty of meat on the bone too. Charlie Plummer is another standout, who typically plays meek and quiet characters in films such as All The Money In The World and Lean On Pete, but here he plays against type. An almost unrecognisable Mark Hamill is deliciously evil here as The Major, who’s clearly relishing the role as a horrible villain that symbolises everything that’s wrong with society.

Unlike The Hunger Games films where the commentary behind the games is just as compelling as the contest, Lawrence trims the fat from The Long Walk and makes it lean and mean instead. The film doesn’t waste any time in getting started and never wanders into eye-rolling schmaltz, which is an easy trap for a film like this to run into. What’s more, there’s an excellent score by Jeremiah Fraites, who crafts several memorable themes and the film’s well shot by Lawrence’s regular cinematographer Jo Willems, who conveys the expanse and monotonous of the never-ending roads the characters must travel on.

The Long Walk is an excellent Stephen King adaptation in a strong year of them, considering we’ve also had The Monkey, The Life of Chuck and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man remake will be releasing shortly. Lawrence directs this with real flair and the sombre tone and well-rounded characters meant I was fully invested throughout. The Long Walk might be too grim for some, but that’s to its benefit – it makes for powerful viewing.