The miniseries received negative reviews. Tony Scott in Variety described it as "hokey whoop-de-doo" and criticised the writing and the special effects, though he praised the acting. The Toledo Blade praised the "riveting visualization of the novel", calling it "one of the better adaptations of a King novel".Toledo Blade - May 9, 1993 In 2014, it was ranked by The New York Observer as the third worst Stephen King miniseries. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Tommyknockers holds an approval rating of 30% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 4.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Unlikeable characters, a bloated narrative, and drab scripting make The Tommyknockers a hard watch for even the most die-hard of Stephen King fans." Also, the miniseries has not received any praise from King himself,Stephen King: 5 Adaptations He Likes (& 5 He Doesn't) – Screenrant going so far as to say that "he doesn't care for 1993's The Tommyknockers at all." Ironically, in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, King even called his own novel "an awful book".
