• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.
I posted this on another thread but it might be fitting here: I thought IT chapter two was terrible.
 
I posted this on another thread but it might be fitting here: I thought IT chapter two was terrible.

scaryclown.gif
 
Gawd, I hope not, apart from Tim Curry the TV version was a real dud for me. I did love IT Chapter One, though, and I suppose I'll watch Chapter Two, but my enthusiasm is waning after hearing the reviews.
 
In The Tall Grass: Based on a novella written by Stephen King and Joe Hill. The tale of a field of long grass which entices people in, trapping them in time loops and time slips. Next to the field is an abandoned church with cars parked around it. The grass itself may be sentient or it might just be manipulated by the Black Rock which is within the field. This ancient rock has has ancient pictographs carved on it. The stone can control the humans trapped within the endless meadow if they touch it. A real sense of existential terror is generated by director Vincenzo Natali who also wrote the screenplay. The film does perhaps overstay it's welcome and would benefit from a 15 minute cut in the 101 minute running time. Still, it is an entertaining horror film in the best King tradition. 7/10. On Netflix.
 
Last edited:
In The Tall Grass: Based on a novella written by Stephen King and Joe Hill. The tale of a field of long grass which entices people in, trapping them in time loops and time slips. Next to the field is an abandoned church with cars parked around it. The grass itself may be sentient or it might just be manipulated by the Black Rock which is within the field. This ancient rock has has ancient pictographs carved on it. The stone can control the humans trapped within the endless meadow if they touch it. A real sense of existential terror is generated by director Vincenzo Natali who also wrote the screenplay. The film does perhaps overstay it's welcome and would benefit from a 15 minute cut in the 101 minute running time. Still, it is an entertaining horror film in the best King tradition. 7/10. On Netflix.

Watched it last month.
Started out as fairly intriguing but, like many SK ideas, it's a very slim premise stretched out far too long.
 
Another remake as The Dark Half will be remade by Alex Ross Perry:
Dark Half news

They're wondering at the link whether this will be another collaboration with Elisabeth Moss. I suppose their Queen of Earth could be quite Dark-Half-ish. I'm one of the few who didn't mind the very faithful (too faithful?) Romero version.

They also wonder if Rose Madder might not be a better fit for Perry, which is a good point - plus it has the bonus of not being adapted before.
 
Pet Sematry: Just watched the 1989 version again, doesn't have as much of a Folk Horror feel as the 2019 film but holds up well. Church the cat is more frightening and the student with his brains hanging out is more convincing as a messenger/guide. Rachel's sister is less terrifying in this version but given her illness the restraint is probably just as well. Differs significantly from the 2019 production in narrative development and outcome. Director Mary Lambert delivered a pretty good shocker. 8/10.
 
Pet Sematry: Just watched the 1989 version again, doesn't have as much of a Folk Horror feel as the 2019 film but holds up well. Church the cat is more frightening and the student with his brains hanging out is more convincing as a messenger/guide. Rachel's sister is less terrifying in this version but given her illness the restraint is probably just as well. Differs significantly from the 2019 production in narrative development and outcome. Director Mary Lambert delivered a pretty good shocker. 8/10.

Agreed. We watched a bit of that last night but as usual I couldn't get past shouting at the telly when the family turn up at the new house - 'Don't stay there!' 'The road's too dangerous, you have children and a CAT!' 'At least build a FENCE!'
 
Pet Sematry II (1992): On Syfy. Some truly horrific scenes, electrocution, throat torn out by a dog, if you like rabbits you'll be nauseated. A dog is buried in the old Indian Cemetery, returns and is feral, attacking people, crashing through windows. Then the man it kills is also buried in the old cemetery and comes back, not normal but is able to function, fools those who want to be fooled. In spite of the horror this sequel doesn't have the same sense of foreboding and incipient threat the original had and the acting is generally below par. Directed by Mary Lambert, written by Richard Outten, this is just about watchable. 5.5/10.
 
Just finished his novel "Elevation" on the train home last night.
Like much of his material, it's a scanty premise for a short story which, whilst well-written as always and initially compelling, leaves the reader feeling short-changed at the end.
 
Pet Sematry: Just watched the 1989 version again, doesn't have as much of a Folk Horror feel as the 2019 film but holds up well. Church the cat is more frightening and the student with his brains hanging out is more convincing as a messenger/guide. Rachel's sister is less terrifying in this version but given her illness the restraint is probably just as well. Differs significantly from the 2019 production in narrative development and outcome. Director Mary Lambert delivered a pretty good shocker. 8/10.

King can be a genius sometimes. In the book, someone tries but narrowly fails to save someone's life and instead sees them die. The would-be rescuer relives the terrible incident in dreams and flashbacks. This is classic PTSD, which King describes perfectly without naming.

(A character in Salem's Lot also has signs of PTSD after losing his wife in a motorcycle accident. He keeps picturing her boot lying in the road afterwards.)

Years ago I worked with a woman who, when we got chatting, spontaneously told me she'd once seen someone die in the same circumstances. (This was after I'd read the book but we weren't discussing it.)
The victim was a toddler, of a similar age to victim in the book. The woman had only seen what was going to happen at the last minute, and couldn't save him. She was still getting the dreams and flashbacks after I think about 2/3 years.

I told her, 'That's PTSD. You MUST see your doctor. You're not going mad, it's a natural reaction, but you can't go on like this. Get some help.'

One of King's major themes is the longterm mental effects of physical and emotional harm done to children. Writers can be prophets.
 
Last edited:
King can be a genius sometimes. In the book, someone tries but narrowly fails to save someone's life and instead sees them die. The would-be rescuer relives the terrible incident in dreams and flashbacks. This is classic PTSD, which King describes perfectly without naming.

(A character in Salem's Lot also has signs of PTSD after losing his wife in a motorcycle accident. He keeps picturing her boot lying in the road afterwards.)

Years ago I worked with a woman who, when we got chatting, spontaneously told me she'd once seen someone die in the same circumstances. (This was after I'd read the book but we weren't discussing it.)
The victim was a toddler, of a similar age to victim in the book. The woman had only seen what was going to happen at the last minute, and couldn't save him. She was still getting the dreams and flashbacks after I think about 2/3 years.

I told her, 'That's PTSD. You MUST see your doctor. You're not going mad, it's a natural reaction, but you can't go on like this. Get some help.'

One of King's major themes is the longterm mental effects of physical and emotional harm done to children. Writers can be prophets.
King in "Danse Macabre" tells the tale that when he was young he saw a friend killed in an accident.
 
(A character in Salem's Lot also has signs of PTSD after losing his wife in a motorcycle accident. He keeps picturing her boot lying in the road afterwards.)

l’m 99.9% sure that he reuses that idea in Pet Sematary, where he recalls his dead kid’s shoe lying in the carriageway, full of blood.

maximus otter
 
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.
 
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.

PTSD is a GIFT of a plot device. It fits all a writer's scary/psychological needs.
 
I seem to remember King has no memory of seeing his friend dying, though he worked out he must have and he was shaken afterwards, so a more perfect PTSD cannot be imagined.
 
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.

He rationalised this (in his intro to Children of the Corn variation You Know They Got a Hell of a Band) that if you go to see The Rolling Stones, you want them to play the hits.
 
Since I don't have access to The Outsider TV show, I've just read the book. Opinion seems to be divided among those who are SK fans and prepared for the revelation halfway through, and those who were expecting a standard police procedural and, er, were not prepared. But I'm a fan and found it highly suspenseful, not one of his best, but Holly Gibney is one of the best characters he's invented in the past ten years, so it was very satisfying to read about her again.
 
An interview with Stephen King.

“I can’t understand,” Stephen King said, “why you want to talk to me at a time like this.”

Well, for one thing, the prolific mega-best-selling author has a new book out, the novella collection “If It Bleeds.” But to be a little more poetic about it: Here was an opportunity to see how an author who so compellingly depicted a rampaging pandemic — in his apocalyptic novel “The Stand” — and who understands so profoundly what scares us, was seeing the world these days. And as it happens, on the grim late afternoon on which we first spoke, when rain lashed against my windows and their shutters rattled in the wind, even the weather seemed to call for a conversation with the 72-year-old. So, to go back to his query: Why did I want to talk with Stephen King? Because right now, as he himself put it to me, “it’s strange out there.”

Seven years ago, The New York Times Magazine ran a profile of you and your family. The writer describes a game you guys play, where one of you comes up with a scenario for a story in which the protagonist is in trouble and then everyone else has to write a suspenseful ending on the spot. Yeah, that was Joe’s idea.1My son Joe loves [expletive] like that.

Think we could give it a shot? Yeah, sure. You’ve probably got something already cocked and locked.

OK, here’s the scenario: It takes place now, during the pandemic. A germophobe is afraid to leave his house, but he has run out of food. His phone is broken, and he can’t order anything online, because FreshDirect and all the other food-delivery services never have an empty slot. You take it from there. What happens next? OK, so here’s this guy, right? He’s afraid to go out. I mean, he’s really afraid to go out, because the virus is everywhere. This guy is washing his hands compulsively. He keeps imagining these germs crawling all over his hands and up his arms, and he’s thinking: Well, the house is pretty good. I Lysol-ed everything and I’m wearing my gloves, but I’m so, so hungry. What am I going to do for food? Then he looks around, and he says to his dog: ‘‘Fido. Come here, Fido.’’ ...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/27/magazine/stephen-king-interview.html
 
Watched Carrie again last night. Holds up well, especially Piper Laurie as the crazes mother, even an otherwise mundane scene like her chopping vegetables and then continuing to chop the board can be really disturbing. I still feel that the car with the bullies being forced to crash and ignite was done too quickly, still good though. The hand! That arm emerging from the grave! Maybe the hairstlyes were the most terrifying thing in the film!
 
Hearts In Atlantis: One of those whimsical Stephen King stories where a character is starkly reminded of his youth by a death. In this case the youthful experiences are bittersweet: first love, standing up to a bully, losing the first love by having to move. Also a tale of a psychic on the run from shady figures. All happening in late 1960 on the cusp of the Kennedy era. A moving film, fantasy and coming of age rather than horror. Directed by Scott Hicks from a screenplay by William Goldman. 8/10. On Netflix.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252501/
 
Mr King doesn't do podcasts as a rule, but he's done this one, The Kingcast from Fangoria:
Link

Apparently he had heard a few episodes and liked them, so granted them an interview. They tried to ask him about stuff he doesn't usually get asked about, and do pretty well. It's worth it for the discussion of Revival, one of his best latter day books. There's also stuff about The Dark Tower's ending, so there are a couple of major spoilers. And he reveals what the book he's just finished writing is!
 
Back
Top