I’m a middling Stephen King fan. I became a fan after reading ‘Salem’s Lot and I stopped being a big fan after reading Cujo. I was so angry with the ending of Cujo I didn’t read anything by Stephen King for five years. Now, I occasionally read Stephen King “short” story collections–even though the stories are sometimes 100 pages long! No more 1,000 page Stephen King novels for me!
I am a big fan of King’s non-fiction: On Writing and Danse Macabre. And recently, I picked up a paperback I didn’t know existed: Stephen King Goes to the Movies (2009). As you know, the movies based on Stephen King’s work vary in quality. This book allows Stephen King to weigh in on how his work got translated to the Big Screen.
If you’re a Stephen King fan, you’ll find a lot to like in Stephen King Goes to the Movies as King reveals insights you’re probably not aware of in the production of these movies. Do you have a favorite Stephen King movie or TV series? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1408 — 1
The Mangler — 57
Hearts in Atlantis (“Low men in yellow coats”) — 89
The Shawshank redemption (“Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption“) –435
Children of the Corn — 581
My 10 Favorite Adaptations — 627
Probably Stand By Me. A lot of crap has been churned out under the King banner.
Jeff, I’m with you on STAND BY ME. But I suspect the Big Money was made on the TV and movie versions of IT.
Both a/v and King’s own work. Rewarded laziness in his worst work (among what I’ve read, the Gunslinger stories and “The Cat from Hell”,,,).
I agree that his non-fiction writing is better than his fiction and he’ll occasionally have some good insights along with some bafflingly dumb ones. Beyond a few short stories his appeal escapes me because I find his prose clumsy to the point of unreadability. He really should have had a good editor mentor him early in his career.
Byron, I noticed a change in Stephen King’s writing and his TV interviews after his near-death accident in 1999. “The extent of those lower-leg injuries necessitated two deep incisions – they’re called medial and lateral fasciatomies – to release the pressure caused by the exploded tibia and also to allow blood to flow back into the lower leg. Without the fasciatomies (or if the fasciatomies had been delayed), it probably would have been necessary to amputate the leg. My right knee itself was split almost directly down the middle; the technical term for the injury is ‘comminuted intra-articular tibial fracture’. I also suffered an acetabular cup fracture of the right hip – a serious derailment, in other words – and an open femoral intertrochanteric fracture in the same area. My spine was chipped in eight places. Four ribs were broken. My right collarbone held, but the flesh above it was stripped raw. The laceration in my scalp took 20 or 30 stitches.” Something like that would change one’s Life…
Hard for that to not refocus one.
I haven’t read much of King’s work, and I’m not a fan of him personally!
Bob, Stephen King has sold 400 million copies of his books. I admire that!
“The Children of the Corn”–one of his better early short fictions–was famously botched as a film. No one has apparently tried with “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut”…the misery of “The Cat from Hell” has also tended to dissuade me from reading his short fiction, even as SALEM’S LOT dissuaded me from his ever-fatter novels after the Not Bad CARRIE. I guess CARRIE with Sissy Spacek has been my favorite a/v adaptation. His non-fiction, I’ll consider…particularly if short. As King once noted, lazy writing can be termed as “Lin Carter forever!”–pity it’s also King too often.
Todd, you’re right about the connection of King’s writing and Lin Carter’s writing… But King is way more successful!
King was less precious and worked in a less niche form…Carter was emulating the pulpier end of s&s, most of the time, with a little E. R. Eddison tossed in…not quite the contemporary demotic approach that King took, grossouts and all.
Most of the better King work I’ve read was published in the DAW Books YEAR’S BEST HORROR STORIES annuals ,Gerald Page and Karl Edward Wagner’s volumes..Terry Carr would make a (grudging?) habit of including lesser King stories in his fantasy BOTY, as well. One of the better King stories among the YBHS choices, “Children of the Corn”, became another miserable film, then (IIRC) a miserable no-budget franchise.