Truly Dreadful Film

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This classic tale of misguided faith and tradition is done a horrible injustice in this made for TV adaptation. It utilizes little of the original suspense found in the story surrounding the question of "what is the lottery" and does little to further the themes of tradition and faith. Rather, the TV adaptation plods around a pre-story and end with the worst "gotcha" contrivance of an ending possible. I'm sure if Jackson was around today to see this sham of a film, she'd feel as if she'd won the lottery and was being stoned by the script and its direction. What particularly upsets me about this very poor adaptation is that it alters so much of the story as to make it less about the town and much more about a budding romance and a boy from the big city. Perhpas the only redeeming feature of the film is some OK character acting by some rather well-known Hollywood character actors. Other than some good performances (which are buried at times by the lame script), this film lacks the substance of the Jackson piece.

I saw the original movie (circa 1973). At the time, it was a mandatory English class assignment to watch and write a report on it. That version, to me was even worse than the one with Dan Cortese. But again, I was only 12 years old. What a movie for a child!!!! As an adult now, I only have an occassional disturbing dream about it. When I saw the Dan Cortese version, my curiosity got the best of me and I only wanted to compare my emotions/feelings to the original and the remake. Even though I will never watch this movie again, the writing and acting was as good as only the script would allow. For people who like disturbing, twisted and at times very spooky movies....this one is for you!!! But don't say that you weren't warned!!!!!!!

Shirley Jackson was one of the most talented writers of the 20th century and her story "The Lottery" continues to be one of the most discussed short stories in modern literature. You would think that a film (or in this case, a television) adaptation would pay a little more attention to detail and try to remain at least a little loyal to the original story. Instead, we get this. The only similarity between this and the story is the fact that someone is stoned to death. Beyond that, it seems as though the screenwriters never even glanced at the short story while writing this. Even when looked at on its own, paying no attention to the story, this movie is bad. It is over-the-top and insulting to the viewer. The context and setting are all wrong, making the plot completely unbelievable. As for the acting, I don't think it's fair to call what is portrayed in the movie "acting". Do yourself a favor and read the story. With this and the recent second film adaptation of her novel "The Haunting Of Hill House", the memory of Shirley Jackson does not deserve to be degraded any further.

This spooky, intelligent television horror movie moves at a good steady pace, building towards its nightmarish climax, with a perfectly achieved sinister small town atmosphere. A clearer explanation of why the townsfolk do what they do would help, but the acting and writing keep you interested throughout. It's a classy excursion into horror from the writer that gave us "The Haunting".