Tommyknockers, the (1993)

From somewhere deep in the woods, from a time centuries post, an unearthly evil has just been released and is coming to the small New England town of Haven. The old Indian woods hold many mysteries -stories of murder and strange disappearances that the townspeople of Haven have passed from generation to generation. But when Bobbi (Marg Helgenberger) stumbles across a strange object buried behind her house, these legends become frighteningly real. As Bobbi and Gardner Jimmy Smits) become obsessed with the amazing powers this object has given off, they unwittingly long sleeping ancient evil chat again comes alive with a horrific and deadly force: a force that threatens to control all of the townspeople, pushing them forward on a mission that could destroy all of Haven. 

Director: John Power
Starring: John Ashton, Marg Helgenberger, Jimmy Smits, Allyce Beasley, Robert Carradine, Joanna Cassidy, Annie Corley, Traci Lords

Based on the novel by Stephen King, this miniseries was partly filmed in New Zealand.

Fake TV Locations -- The new Stephen King TV movie ''The Tommyknockers'' is just one of the recent projects filmed in a different location than where the story actually takes place

By Bruce Fretts  Published on May 7, 1993 Entertainment Weekly

The bucolic little village of Haven, Maine, in the TV version of The Tommyknockers isn’t anywhere near New England. Try New Zealand. The movie is set in the summer, but the airdate required filming to start last October, when leaves would be falling in Maine. So the producers traveled halfway around the world and constructed an idyllic down east summer retreat on New Zealand’s North Island.

Then it began to rain. And rain. ”It was crippling,” star Marg Helgenberger recalls. ”We shot 50 percent of this in a forest, and it would turn into a mudslide. They had to bring in all this dry dirt.”

Still, the production managed to survive. ”New Zealand is not exactly a filmmaking center,” executive producer Frank Konigsberg admits, but in terms of passing it off for Maine, he says, ”I think we got away with it.”...