Product Description

Kingdom Hospital is the first television series written and produced by Stephen King, the legendary master of horror. Kingdom Hospital is not like other hospitals - it is built on the wreckage of two horrific fires. The first fire, during the civil war, burned down the gates falls mill where small children toiled away under nightmarish conditions - nearly all of the long-suffering children were trapped and died in the fire. The second fire destroyed the "old Kingdom," a creepy hospital where an evil doctor performed hideous experiments on patients. The "new Kingdom" is the site of strange, paranormal phenomena, where the unquiet dead still roam.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16580 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .75 pounds
• Running time: 608 minutes

Amazon.com
Kingdom Hospital is horror novelist Stephen King's adaptation of Danish director Lars Von Trier's cult miniseries The Kingdom, geared very much for an American audience. The story unfolds across 15 hours, telling the story of a hospital in Maine that's been built on the site of a 19th-century mill fire that killed most of its young occupants--themes that King fans will be familiar with. In the present day, Kingdom Hospital is haunted by the ghost of 10-year-old child worker Mary and, even more bizarrely, a fearsome giant anteater-like creature called Antubis. It falls to the ace doctor Hook (Andrew McCarthy), the paraplegic artist Jack Coleman (Peter Rickman), and the hypochondriac psychic Sally Druse (Diane Ladd) to enlist the help of a surreal assortment of hospital staff and patients to help Mary and save Kingdom Hospital itself from certain doom.

Fans of Stephen King will probably enjoy the blend of black comedy, spectral horror, and general weirdness, which owes a big debt to previous television series like Twin Peaks and even ER. But too often, Kingdom Hospital seems to be trying too hard to make itself into a cult series, something which King is just not a subtle enough writer to carry off. But Kingdom Hospital looks good, especially the CGI Antubis, who steals every scene in which he appears. Generally, though, the series is more of an entertaining experiment than a cult-in-the-making. --Ted Kord

Customer Reviews

Someone's dying to meet you....
First, let's clear up a misconception. "Kingdom Hospital" was created specifically as a limited series with a beginning, middle and end. Like "The Prisoner", King had envisioned it as a "true" novel for television. If ABC had chosen to renew it, King would have developed a series of different story arcs. So it wasn't cancelled so much as it concluded. Another point to clear up--King's series created in collaboration with co-writer Richard Dooling, director Craig Baxley, executive producer Mark Carliner was an attempt to graft King's unique sense of humor and horror to Lars Van Trier's original allowing it to reach an American audience better.

King's series is every bit as effective in its own way as Lars Van Trier's "The Kingdom" but one made for a very different audience. An American audience. Since Lars Van Trier was an executive producer on the series, I doubt that he would have given it his blessing if he didn't see King's version as a quirky complimentary vision to his own. A warning, though, about "Kingdom Hospital". This is a ghost story not a horror thriller. The show unfolds at a leisurely pace allowing the story to unfold gradually creating suspense vs. a rapid fire horror story. "Kingdom Hospital" has more in common with, say, "The Stand" or even "Twin Peaks" (and the original source mini-series as well) in that regard.

Anyhow, on to the DVD. Looks terrific and the CGI effects are top notch throughout most of the series. The campy over-the-top acting style of this "E.R." meets "Twin Peaks"series is crossed with King's twisted imagination. In the first episode we're introduced to most of the main characters at The Kingdom--Hook (Andrew McCarthy), Sally (Diane Ladd) the psychic who appears to be more than a few bricks shy of a full load, Jack (Peter Rickman)an artist who, due to a terrible accident, ends up at Kingdom (and is a stand-in so to speak for King in a bizarre collison between art and life). Oh and who can forget Stegman (Bruce Davison)who has an aura of...evil about him. All must help save Kingdom Hospital and a little girl who died on the same grounds the hospital is build on by the name of Mary. By the way, the number 19 shows up quite a bit in the series...linking it to King's The Dark Tower series.

The two hour pilot has an audio commentary by King, director Buxley, producer Carliner and the visual effects supervisor. There's also a number of great featurettes included on this four disc set including "Inside the Walls" which focuses on the making of the series, a discussion of the various characters,a discussion on the creation of the visual effects for the bizarre looking Antubis as well as a tour of the hospital. King also contributes a two page essay on the series in the booklet enclosed with the first two disc set. The transfer is in high definition so it looks amazingly sharp and crisp.

While the series doesn't quite live up to its potential by the conclusion, it's still a fascinating and fun ride while it lasts. It's not exactly a horror series per se more a glimpse into the haunted lives of those bound to serve in "the kingdom".

Awesome Series!
I first want to clear up a misconception here. A reviewer stated on here that after watching the first of the four disks he noticed that several scenes were cut out of the DVD as broadcast on television. I purchased my copy of Kingdom Hospital and watched the first disk and saw no such scene cuts.
Kingdom Hospital was an awesome series that did not get the credit it desevered. Watching it on DVD made the experiance twice as memorable. It was great not having to deal with commercials. The picture was also so clear that I was able to pick up on so many more things that I missed watching it on my home taped version. I enjoyed the feature on the magic behind Antubis and I enjoyed listening to the film makers commentary.
I wish I could give this series/dvd more than 5 stars!
Awesome! :)

The Remake Actually Improves Upon the Original
This Stephen King miniseries takes place in a haunted hospital in Maine, which was built on the site of a Civil War-era fire where a score of helpless children perished. It's King, so you can bet the ghosts aren't too happy with their lot in the afterlife. The chilling but comedically off-kilter teleplay (one installment was entitled "The Young and the Headless") features a strong ensemble cast and a few searingly memorable talking animal characters. One is a German Shepherd complete with a Teutonic accent named Blondie (voiced by Julian Richings), and another verbose pooch is called Charlie (Ryan Robbins). Most striking of all is an often malevolent but always judicious phantasmagorical anteater (CGI, modeled on a real giant anteater; voiced by Kett Turton) named Antubis. Antubis's long tongue finds ants hiding in some very unexpected places ("Antsolutely delicious!" he chortles, dipping into an insect-infested human brain). Based on a Danish miniseries called The Kingdom by Lars von Trier.

What a difference a DVD makes. Without the concentration-blowing commercial interruptions, and the luxury of being able to watch as much (or as little) of the 13 hour opus as one likes, Kingdom Hospital plays a lot better. That is not to say that it's a perfect miniseries. It's pretty weird, takes some getting into, and it almost lost me a few times with its weirdness. I felt some of the music choices were really inappropriate and rather irritating, and thought one scene of the doctors breaking into a song-and-dance routine was far too "Cop Rock". But if you stick with it throughout all it's quirky eccentricity, Kingdom Hospital will reward you with some terrific characters, excellent acting performances, and an intriguing storyline.

Staci Layne Wilson