I’ve read enough of Stephen King to know that his narrative talent sometimes allows him to break the golden rule of restricting fantasy and horror tales to one fantastic premise apiece. Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan is no slouch as a storyteller either, but in this adaptation of King’s novel, he and cowriter William Goldman managed to lose me almost completely. Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, and Timothy Olyphant play four men who gained telepathic powers from a supposedly disabled pal when they were boys and now have to battle a group of alien body snatchers in snowbound Maine. For most of the running time I was confused, as well as mildly nauseated by the gross-out details of a tale that tends to be more slimy than scary. As the complications proliferated (apparently a second alien race has been fighting the first one, and for years Morgan Freeman, a noncomedic military man in black, has been chasing down both groups), I started to shift my focus toward waiting for this elaborate mishmash to end. And believe me, it took a while. With Tom Sizemore, Donnie Wahlberg, and Rosemary Dunsmore. 145 min. (JR)