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Stephen King

blessmycottonsocks said:
King has a certain reputation for recycling his (and other people's) ideas.
His recent novella "Elevation" is a near-reworking of "Thinner" for example.
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In the Quentin Tarantino discussion video I was listening to on YouTube today, it was suggested that King liked some horror character so much he made his own version, Pennywise the clown. :chuckle:
 
escargot said:
In the Quentin Tarantino discussion video I was listening to on YouTube today, it was suggested that King liked some horror character so much he made his own version, Pennywise the clown. :chuckle:
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If you mean Wes Craven's Freddy Kreuger, nah, King started IT four years before A Nightmare on Elm Street began production. Must have been something in the air for horror fiction in the early 80s. Oh, and don't trust Quentin Tarantino!
 
GNC said:
If you mean Wes Craven's Freddy Kreuger, nah, King started IT four years before A Nightmare on Elm Street began production. Must have been something in the air for horror fiction in the early 80s. Oh, and don't trust Quentin Tarantino!
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I dunno what it was as I take little interest in horror. Heh, I didn't even catch whether or not it was Tarantino speaking. :chuckle:
 
All I know is that the “ It “ movies 2017 and 2019 made together over one billion dollars.

There is an opinion on the internet that his wife who is a prolific writer herself, really wrote Stephen King’s books and not Stephen King.
 
charliebrown said:
There is an opinion on the internet that his wife who is a prolific writer herself, really wrote Stephen King’s books and not Stephen King.
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Why would they say that?
 
To stir? Who knows. It's a bit like the Shakespeare theories/conspiracies. Not that they're very similar writers. :hahazebs:
 
Supposedly Stephen King has never hide from his fans his “ dark hell “ from drugs and alcohol and is supposedly clean now.

King allegedly made a strange statement that there were times he could not even remember writing his books in particular the book Cujo which won the British Fantasy Award.

He claims Cujo is a fog to him.
 
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charliebrown said:
Supposedly Stephen King has never hide from his fans his “ dark hell “ from drugs and alcohol and is supposedly clean now.

King allegedly made a strange statement that there were times he could not even remember writing his books in particular the book Cujo which won the British Fantasy Award.

He claims Cujo is a fog to him.
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No "allegedly" about it, he was making a fortune, had an excessively high work rate and fuelled that by taking booze and cocaine in the 1980s. He really doesn't remember writing Cujo. If you read The Tommknockers and Misery, they're obviously the work of someone trying to kick a serious habit. He says Alcoholics Anonymous helped him enormously and he's been clean for decades now. Still has the huge work rate, mind you, not bad for a man in his 70s.

Also, he doesn't really remember directing Maximum Overdrive. There's an 80s cocaine movie if ever there was one.
 
Firestarter (2022): Good SF/Horror remake of the Stephen King classic. Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is increasingly unable to control her pyrokinesis powers, an incident at school leads to her producing a fireball explosion. In a mid-opening credits scene we are shown her SSP gifted parents being experimented on in a government institution. The family must now go on the run again but this time they are being pursued by Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), a government operative who also has ESP powers. Some great scenes of battling meta-humans, using psychokinesis, mind control and pyrokinesis, as people are thrown around, controlled. organs destroyed and bodies burst into fire. This remake has been influenced by the X-Men and other Mutant films and TV shows which have appeared since the 1984 version of Firestarter. It doesn't seem to be to everyone's taste but I enjoyed the tension, chase and battle elements. directed by Keith Thomas, from a screenplay by Scott Teems. 7/10.

In cinemas.
 
Excuse me if this has already been posted, but have you seen Stephen King's house in Bangor, Maine?
A real scary looking gothic masterpiece!

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According to wikipedia, Stephen King in his early career living in a trailer and working as a English teacher out of frustration threw the beginnings of the book Carrie into the trash.

His wife Tabitha pull out the manuscript and told him to finish it.
 
charliebrown said:
According to wikipedia, Stephen King in his early career living in a trailer and working as a English teacher out of frustration threw the beginnings of the book Carrie into the trash.

His wife Tabitha pull out the manuscript and told him to finish it.
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And I love that his wife's name is 'Tabitha', a good witchy name, so fitting.
Every time I watch 'The Shining', I think what a genius he is.
 
Mr. Harrigan's Phone: Based on King's novella this is one of his more whimsical tales, albeit with occasional strong elements of horror and the inevitable school bully. The usual New England locations are referenced. Nine year old Craig (Colin O'Brien) becomes a reader for retired businessman John Hattigan (Donald Sutherland), over the next 5 years they go through the classics and even become friends in spite of Harrigan being a bit of curmudgeon. Craig (Jaeden Martell) starts high school and attracts the attention of a bully. Craig is deeply affected when Mr Harrigan dies and he finds the body. The bullying incidents are rather savage and at least one is disturbing. The horror scenes when they dp occur are largely off stage and it is more their psychological effects which hit home. A power reaches from beyond the grave to cause fatal accidents and suicides., maybe, Are texts also coming from the afterlife or is it just a prank. Not a great King adaptation but it is a good one, reminded me a bit of Hearts in Atlantis, and certainly worth watching. Written and Directed by John Lee Hancock. On Netflix. 7/10.
 
charliebrown said:
All I know is that the “ It “ movies 2017 and 2019 made together over one billion dollars.

There is an opinion on the internet that his wife who is a prolific writer herself, really wrote Stephen King’s books and not Stephen King.
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I read Tabitha King's Small World many years ago. She has a distinct writing style as does her husband, so I would never believe this. She is his "first reader" as SK mentions often, and helps with continuity etc.

The person who I can see SK's writing style influence is in his son Joe. But he too has his own style.
 
I asked this recently on the 'Mandela Effect' thread, but I'll ask on here as it's been driving me mad;

I read a short story many years ago that involves an American guy selling his house to a man who he recognises to be a Viet Cong officer who tortured him when he was a prisoner of war. When the officer leaves the house after viewing it, the owner then sees a small door that he hasn't noticed before. It turns out that it leads down to a cellar that is hell and he sends the officer down there on his next visit to view the property.
I'd have sworn it was in King's short story collection 'Night Shift' but apparently not.
Any ideas?
 
Floyd1 said:
I asked this recently on the 'Mandela Effect' thread, but I'll ask on here as it's been driving me mad;

I read a short story many years ago that involves an American guy selling his house to a man who he recognises to be a Viet Cong officer who tortured him when he was a prisoner of war. When the officer leaves the house after viewing it, the owner then sees a small door that he hasn't noticed before. It turns out that it leads down to a cellar that is hell and he sends the officer down there on his next visit to view the property.
I'd have sworn it was in King's short story collection 'Night Shift' but apparently not.
Any ideas?
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I've not read any short story with that plot.
 
T
Floyd1 said:
I asked this recently on the 'Mandela Effect' thread, but I'll ask on here as it's been driving me mad;

I read a short story many years ago that involves an American guy selling his house to a man who he recognises to be a Viet Cong officer who tortured him when he was a prisoner of war. When the officer leaves the house after viewing it, the owner then sees a small door that he hasn't noticed before. It turns out that it leads down to a cellar that is hell and he sends the officer down there on his next visit to view the property.
I'd have sworn it was in King's short story collection 'Night Shift' but apparently not.
Any idea?
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Floyd1 said:
I asked this recently on the 'Mandela Effect' thread, but I'll ask on here as it's been driving me mad;

I read a short story many years ago that involves an American guy selling his house to a man who he recognises to be a Viet Cong officer who tortured him when he was a prisoner of war. When the officer leaves the house after viewing it, the owner then sees a small door that he hasn't noticed before. It turns out that it leads down to a cellar that is hell and he sends the officer down there on his next visit to view the property.
I'd have sworn it was in King's short story collection 'Night Shift' but apparently not.
Any ideas?
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The only thing vaguely similar would be the film 'In a Glass Cage' ... an ex Nazi is in an iron lung in his chateau, his wife puts out an advert for a full time carer for the old man, a younger man is hired then the story unravels to reveal that the old man abused the young man during the war years and the young man has returned for revenge.
 
Swifty said:
T



The only thing vaguely similar would be the film 'In a Glass Cage' ... an ex Nazi is in an iron lung in his chateau, his wife puts out an advert for a full time carer for the old man, a younger man is hired then the story unravels to reveal that the old man abused the young man during the war years and the young man has returned for revenge.
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Right. No, this was definitely an house in USA and the potential buyer was an ex Viet Cong officer- a real nasty piece of work. I always thought it was by King because when he decribed the walk down the 'cellar' stairs through the door in the wall that only appeared after the Vietnamese guy had left, it really was scary.
 
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