One Improvement the Movie Makes Over the Short Story
While this is only a mediocre thriller at best, it visits one of Stephen King's favorite plot points (religious fanatics, in this case all children) and gives it a good, scary treatment.
In point of fact, there is one aspect in which this film is much superior to King's short story. Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are a young couple in love; in King's version, they were a married couple attempting to stop their marriage from falling apart, and failing dismally. In fact, as King first envisioned them, Burt and Vicky were so unbearably irritating that by the time they encountered the fanatical children I was all for the kids burning them both alive at the stake.
There's a rule in these things that is almost unbreakable: if you are going to have protagonists that will be victimized, and you want the audience to feel for them, you'd better make them likable. Make them annoying and no one will give a damn what happens to them.
Oh God. There's nothing more inconvenient than an old queen with a head cold!