Thinner is the story of a man inflicted with a gypsy curse that causes him to uncontrollably lose weight. It is based on the novella of the same name included in The Bachman Books, a collection of four short novels written by King under the pen name Richard Bachman.

The movie starts with a gypsy caravan arriving in a small Maine town. The audience immediately feels the clash of cultures between the white, well-established townspeople and the transient gypsies. On the one hand, it is obvious that the arrival of the gypsies provides excitement and change to the everyday routine of the townspeople, as evidenced by a scene when the movie’s protagonist, Billy Halleck, and the town judge are leering from a courthouse window at a young gypsy woman. At the same time, the town seeks to drive the gypsies out on some trumped-up zoning laws, and views them as carriers of disease and as possessing questionable moral values (there is an interesting commentary here on small town life, as the viewer gets the sense that any group of outsiders would be similarly ostracized). To perhaps highlight the “grey areas” of the town’s moral hypocrisy, the movie begins with Halleck, an obese attorney, defending a known mobster. Halleck wins the case, and the loyalty of his client.

Problems arise when a slightly intoxicated Halleck and his wife start fooling around in the car while driving home from the law firm’s victory dinner. Halleck accidentally hits and kills an old gypsy woman on the street. For appearances, the matter is investigated but a cover up between Halleck, the town sheriff , and the town judge keep Halleck from serving any time. On the way out of the courthouse, an old gypsy touches Halleck’s cheek and utters one word: “Thinner.” From that moment on, no matter how much he eats, Halleck begins to lose weight (the remainder of the movie involves Halleck and his charming, but violent, friend from the mob trying to coerce the gypsies to remove Halleck’s curse).

Thinner is an interesting movie because it successfully inverses values and norms to keep the viewer off balance. For example, the life of the townspeople is portrayed as sterile and rigid, compared with the overt sexuality and freedoms enjoyed by the nomadic gypsies. In another reversal, the local “upstanding” townspeople are seen committing immoral acts as opposed to the “lower class” outsiders. There is a criminal who is loyal to his word. Finally, at the end of the movie, there is the concept of a “death cake,” a food that drains life force as opposed to providing nourishment. This is the polar opposite of the supernaturally enhanced manna described in the bible that allowed the Israelites to survive their exodus in the desert.

Unlike many of King’s protagonists, Billy Halleck is not moral or rational in the end. He is warned by the old gypsy to save what is left of his soul by taking his own life. The gypsy’s ominous warning is powerful: “Die clean, white man from town! Die clean!” Instead, Billy chooses revenge with tragic consequences. The usage of an antihero is most likely reflective of the period of King’s life in which Thinner was written (the teenager in the short novel Rage, also included in The Bachman Books, chooses an equally dark path).

In an America that is growing more obsessed with weight loss, Thinner provides a stark warning of the downside of crash diets, bulimia, and popping pills to stay thin.