Stephen King thread
 

I felt like starting a thread about this author because I would like to give some thoughts on his upcoming novel, Joyland, to be distributed by Hard Case Crime.

From what I have read, a certain someone who had read the book ahead of publication stated that the book had made him cry. Usually, when you know how moved you are by a certain book or movie, you know that that movie or book will be a success. I also like the fact that he is combining a whodunnit, a story of growing up, a tragedy, and a ghost story all in one. I am very looking forward to the release of this novel, and I will make sure that I am one of the first buyers. Dr. Sleep is another definite buy for me.

Please don’t spam me.

I expected to have another comment by now. Hmm...

Looks like you met your own expectations.

A lot of his new stuff is pretty meh, but the classics remain just that. Let's face it, he ALWAYS has a new book coming out. I recall them joking about that in the 90's, but he's just spewing it out constantly now. I'm really not surprised I've heard nothing about this book.

I'm sure you can tell by the DVD pictures, that I'm a fan(I own almost every adaptation, even though they generally aren't very good). I just don't read a lot anymore and I long ago gave up trying to read at the pace he's writing.

I've been seriously meaning to check out his "Dark Tower" series for years now, after I read part of "Book IV: Wizard and Glass". It was so wacky. Now I find out that he wrote a Book 4.5 to Dark Tower, called "The Wind Through The Keyhole".

After I finish my reread of Harry Potter (and the super-fan sequel books I recently discovered, called "James Potter"), I'm hitting up my library for the Dark Tower series.

Actually, I really liked 11/22/63. It took me 8 months to finish it, and it was pretty compelling. Also, there are some good Stephen King adaptations and there are some shit ones.

Good ones:
Stand By Me
Misery
‘Salem’s Lot
Bag of Bones
The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
The Shining
Children of the Corn
Silver Bullet
Carrie
Cujo
The Dead Zone
Pet Sematary
Christine
Firestarter
The Running Man (Bachman book)
The Stand
1408
The Tommyknockers
Secret Window

Shit ones:
Maximum Overdrive
Creepshow
All of the sequels to Children of the Corn
Sometimes They Come Back and all of it’s sequels
It
Quicksilver Highway
The Langoliers
The Mangler
Sleepwalkers
The Lawnmower Man
The Mist
Dreamcatcher
Hearts in Atlantis
Riding The Bullet
Dolan’s Cadillac

The Lawnmower Man wasn't an adaptation, King sued over it and won(his name was removed from the movie).

Want something controversial? I liked The Shining miniseries better than the Kubrick movie. Why? because I read the book first and Kubrick changed A LOT. I preferred the miniseries that stuck closer to the book.

Quote by King on Kubrick’s adaptation:

Parts of the film are chilling, charged with a relentlessly claustrophobic terror, but others fall flat. Not that religion has to be involved in horror, but a visceral skeptic such as Kubrick just couldn't grasp the sheer inhuman evil of The Overlook Hotel. So he looked, instead, for evil in the characters and made the film into a domestic tragedy with only vaguely supernatural overtones. That was the basic flaw: because he couldn't believe, he couldn't make the film believable to others. What's basically wrong with Kubrick's version of The Shining is that it's a film by a man who thinks too much and feels too little; and that's why, for all its virtuoso effects, it never gets you by the throat and hangs on the way real horror should.

This just about sums it up.

The Shining was good from an artistic standpoint, but from a storytelling standpoint it was terrible.

Oh it was great at that. Very memorable with it's visuals, design, and cinematography. I just felt disappointed with the story that was told.

Gary Busey got his ass handed to him by a werewolf.

I have issues with a movie where the black guy dies first....near the end of the movie.

In the novel he doesn't die.

The ending was better though. When I watched the movie the first time, I sat there stunned for a minute, thinking "really"?

http://i.picpar.com/b6e11ebe3bfea5a6...befadbc97.jpeg

It's not scary, it's unintentionally funny.

Exactly, how do you take that face seriously?
I bet that's what got him on Batman.

wAT? it's just a picture of Jack Nicholson Chilling.

I'd make a comment that would get me in trouble, but you're not putting me in da coolah.

OK, since we're talking about the film: could someone explain what the fuck the ending was all about? To this day I never understood it. So Jack was in the hotel years before or something? Wha?

Waitwaitwait...there's a 4.5 book to the Dark Tower series? Aw dang it I was almost done. (almost being Wolves of the Calla but still). Did you know he wrote a mini-story as well? It's called "The Little Sisters of Eluria" and was a pretty good read. I know for a fact it's in his "Everything's Eventual" book (which is a collection of shorts for the most part). Thanks for the heads up with the 4.5 book, I'm gonna try and find that one!