Apt Pupil is based on the novella Apt Pupil from Stephen King’s excellent novella collection Different Seasons. When I first read Apt Pupil, it scared the shit out of me. While I wasn’t scared by the movie, the fact that I was low on sleep from play practices probably contributed to how much the novella scared me.

A high school student researches information about Nazis and stumbles across the picture of a Nazi in charge of some of the gassing methods used in the concentration camps in the Holocaust. A while later, he recognizes the Nazi as an old man (Ian McKellen) that lives in his neighborhood. Blackmailing Ian McKellen, he forces him to tell all his stories from World War 2 while conjuring up the Nazi’s dormant evil nature.

Even though it has been a few years since I have read the novella, I think Apt Pupil is pretty faithful to its source material. Ian McKellen is great as the Nazi and David Schwimmer is surprisingly decent as the school counselor. Apt Pupil moves along at a good pace, but is also pretty disturbing, specifically during the scene where the student gives Ian McKellen a Nazi costume and orders him to march. The ending is different from the novella, but still remains cool in its mysterious way. If you like horror movies that deal with mind games more than scary killers, you’ll like this one.

I give Apt Pupil *** out of ****.