As massive spectacles from studios like Marvel and Lucasfilm have quickly transitioned from billions to boondonggles, mid-budget films have been experiencing something of a resurgence this year, especially those of the horror persuasion. When compared to their relatively humble budgets, films like Sinners and Weapons earned serious bank, not to mention critical acclaim... although not from everyone (see the links).

Well, strap on your Nikes and stretch your hammies. Let's talk about The Long Walk.

Like a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer, director Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) extracts everything there is from its relatively unknown cast and a script that's 99% walking and talking. Much like big-budget visual extravaganzas can often lean on their grand spectacle to smokescreen over a weak story, so too can single-location films like 2017's The Dinner, with Richard Gere and Steve Coogan, bog down audiences with overwritten dialogue and stagey theatrics. However, with The Long Walk, if you'll pardon the pun, Lawrence manages to keep the action moving forward with sometimes clever and sometimes... let's call them "interesting" choices, despite the film's constant flow of high-minded (if philosophically shaky) dialogue.

Unlike true chamber thrillers, which restrict a film's action to a single, often claustrophobic space (re Cube),  Lawrence and crew benefit from an ever-changing landscape and outdoor conditions that allow him to add some flavor to each scene. This allows the ever-present and largely faceless military escort to act as the perimeter of anxious confinement needed to invoke the same sense of containment as the film's more traditional brethren, while also keeping the visuals from stagnating.

No enclosed-space movie can survive much past the opening credits without compelling, or at least charismatic, characters for the audience to care about. This is especially true for a horror/thriller which have little chance of impressing the audience with profound musings or complex dialogue. Without these key players, such a film quickly devolves into a cheap and meaningless orgy of splatter and gore. Although none of The Long Walk's cast is able to upscale the resolution of the film's forgettable dialogue, the core group does manage to believably bond with one another, and it's that fraternity more than anything else that audiences will connect with. In spite of some serious cinematic weaknesses, they will find themselves caring about each core player's outcome, which is made all the more intense by the ever-increasing certainty that only one will survive.

Otherwise, this Stephen King adaptation is fairly pedantic. The dialogue, while natural in its cadence, doesn't come close to resonating like in The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile. Likewise, the horror elements are limited in both assortment and scope, relying heavily on the slight variations in the why of their execution rather than creative flair. That's not a criticism. If anything, it's a nice departure from much of modern horror's overreliance on shocking grotesquery.

However, The Long Walk does suffer from a massive misstep in Mark Hamill. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 73-year-old, who is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, told the outlet that he "...didn't want to be Tom Cruise," meaning that it was never his goal to be a highly successful and ubiquitous star of the silver screen. Riiiiiiiigggghhhhtttt.

Well, for those still questioning whether or not that lofty (and nonexistent) goal was ever an option for the California native, whatever it was that Hamill was doing in place of acting in The Long Walk makes it clear that he should get down on his knees and thank God every day that he's been able to find as much work as he has.

In each of his few blessedly brief scenes, Hamill plays a live-action cartoon of a child's interpretation of a Saturday morning drill sergeant, which is driven home all the more by his ridiculously gruff and gravelly voice and cringe-inducing attempt at affecting a commanding presence. The character itself is meant to be an anthropomorphized metaphor rather than a fully realized antagonist, but one can't help but think that an actor who could project even a drop of authority and gravitas wouldn't have been better suited to the role than Hamill's frumpy G.I. Joe.

The Long Walk is never going to be remembered alongside single-location greats like 12 Angry Men, but flawed though it may be, it's relatively entertaining. When you consider the dearth of options available right now, if you're out and have a hankering to see a movie in a theater, you won't feel as though you've wasted your time or money. On the other hand, The Long Walk will probably be streaming in a couple of weeks, and it's not a movie that must be seen on a big screen to get the full experience.

Also, Stephen King.