I Know What You Need (2023) Review

I Know What You Need (2023) Review

It’s 1976, and popular college co-ed Elizabeth meets an unusual boy, Edward, who knows what she needs. But who is Edward really, and what secrets is he hiding? It’s a love story, but a Stephen King love story, so things aren’t always what they seem. Elizabeth doesn’t know what she wants, but Edward knows what she needs.

I KNOW WHAT YOU NEED is based on a short story by Stephen King that was published in his Night Shift collection. Director Julia Marchese’s forty-five-minute short is shot at the same locations mentioned in the story – the University of Maine – where King was both a student and then later a teacher.

The film is shot in an almost orangey soft focus to ape the stylings of 1976, the year in which this story is set. A big screen adaptation of King’s own CARRIE was released theatrically in that very same year, and you only have to look at that to see that the chosen styling does not match the time in which this takes place.

As with other adaptations of King’s writings I KNOW WHAT YOU NEED suffers when stripped of the details – such as character’s inner dialogues – that flesh out and breathe life into his work. When the story is laid bare, as it is here, it highlights faults that otherwise might be overlooked. The creepy nerd, at the core of this tale, is yet another of King’s many characters with psychic abilities. Unfortunately, his ‘gift’ only really seems to come into play when needed to move the story forward, otherwise it gets left on the shelf, leaving, for me, gaping holes in story structure and logic.