BELFAST—There is Maine, the real place and then there is Stephen King’s Maine, full of backwater mill towns, neighborhoods with dark secrets and sewers inhabited by psychotic clowns.

In 1984, King published Thinner, under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, about an overweight lawyer who ends up hitting a Gypsy woman with his car by accident and killing her. Because of a crooked small-town justice system, he escapes jail time, but soon after is accosted by the victim’s Gypsy, father who puts a curse on him, causing him to lose weight at an alarming rate.

According to a 1985 article in The Washington Post, King’s inspiration for the novel derived from a conversation he’d had with his physician. 

"I used to weigh 236 pounds, and I smoked heavily," King admits. "I went to see the doctor. He said: 'Listen man, your triglycerides are really high. In case you haven't noticed it, you've entered heart attack country.' Resentful that he had to quit eating so much and smoking, he began to gradually lose weight. ...I began to think about what would happen if somebody started to lose weight and couldn't stop.”

On October 25, the Colonial Theater in Belfast along with Our Town Belfast is hosting special 20th anniversary screening of Thinner with some movie props and extras in the film on hand before the show.

Along with locations in Belfast, the campy thriller was shot in Camden, Appleton, Kittery, Thomaston, Port Clyde, Augusta and Portland.

Our Town Belfast Executive Director Breanna Pinkham Bebb discussed several of the locations shot in Belfast. 

“I took some screenshots of the iconic Belfast locations in the film and assembled them in a Facebook invite.” (Due to potential copyright issues, we won’t reprint the screenshots, but you can see them on Our Town Belfast’s Facebook event page here for comparison.)

“Right here on Main Street, below our office, you can see in the 1996 film a shot of what looks like Quigley Realty and beyond that Threads and Weaver’s Bakery before they moved out of town,” Pinkham Bebb said. “Today, the white border around the sign is still the same but it is now Realty of Maine and beyond that are the signs for City Drawers and Man on Main.”

The shot of actor Robert John Burke who plays the lawyer, Billy Halleck, can be seen in a phone booth on Main Street, which Pinkham Bebb estimates might have been right where the lamp post is.

“If there any young people watching the movie, they’ll probably look at the phone booth and say ‘What is that thing?’” laughed Pinkham Bebb.

“There are some other scenes that were filmed in Rollie’s Bar and Grill, but I believed for the exterior, they shot footage of the Consumer Fuel Building, the red brick building at the intersection of Maine and Front Street,” she said. “So, that will be kind of fun for people to figure out what’s happening there.”

“The Belfast Landing is another place that they filmed the movie, which is kind of hilarious, because it was meant to be Old Orchard Beach. But they put a bunch of carnival equipment down there to simulate that.”

Extras and anyone involved in the filming of Thinner 20-plus years ago are especially encouraged to attend. PenBay Pilot reached out to the community to ask if any extras from the film had any stories to share and Midcoast resident Fred Carey had this to share:

“One of the members of the film crew showed up at my company Steel-Pro in Rockland and asked if I could dull and age the hunting knife to be used in the movie,Thinner and remove the manufacturing name I said sure and hit it with a grinder and then a sandblaster and passed it back to him. He said, ‘What do I owe you?’ I said "’Nothing; when you’re done filming can I have the knife back?’ A couple of weeks later they showed back at the shop and gave me the knife and I have it to this day.”

Carey never saw the movie, so he doesn’t know when the knife was actually used in a scene, but perhaps a savvy viewer will.

The screening will be held October 25 at the Colonial Theatre. In true Halloween spirit, there will be a prize awarded for the best Stephen King character (from any book or film – not just Thinner) costume. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the film to begin at 7 p.m.  The screening will allow some time for the extras in the film to share a few minutes of reminiscing with the audience. For more information, event details, and to RSVP, visit: their Facebook event page

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com