Stephen King
Stand By Me
The Dead Zone
When I think about the greatest horror minds of our time, and of our parent’s time, Stephen King undoubtedly sticks out in my mind. He’s written 63 novels, 120 short stories, and 20 novellas, as well as some pretty cringe tweets, but his influence on the genre of horror and beyond is undeniable. As a fan of his writing, I can attest to King’s ability to set a tangible, typically terrifying scene. Like a twisted Jonathan Steinbeck, King writes stories that are vividly descriptive and often rooted in nostalgia, which make them all the more realistic and even personal at times. Of all of the books and short stories I’ve read, Stephen King’s work remains to be some of the most unique and unnerving. When these stories are adapted for the screen, however, not everything translates. In my experience, Stephen King movies only hit or miss, with no lukewarm middle ground in between. The specificity of King’s stories don’t always lend themselves well to film, but with a tale like IT, the new films proved that advanced special effects as well as more time to tell the story are necessary. Stories like Pet Sematary are most frightening when read, not watched, as I’d imagine is the case with The Mist. Something like The Shining, with its slow-burning panic and solidified iconic status, makes the story challenging to reproduce into a sequel (in print or on screen) but Doctor Sleep was unexpectedly chilling and incredible. Carrie, while deeply disturbing is also somewhat satisfying to see unfold on screen. Christine is fun and rightfully campy, while still being marketably scary. The Outsider was suspenseful and gripping, making for excellent tv, whereas Castle Rock was a little too all over the place. The fierce tension and devious diction of a Stephen King story can be lost once it becomes visible, but when it’s done right, it can be viscerally captivating. There were an overwhelming amount of movies to choose from this week, but I ended up going with two films that showcase the wide spectrum with which King can write—while different in tone, both films transport us to a town called Castle Rock. Stand By Me, based on Stephen King’s novella The Body, serves as the blueprint for stories of young boys being adventurous in the summertime. People were always shocked and appalled when I’d tell them I’d never seen Stand By Me, as if half of the stories in the American film canon weren’t created in this film’s shadow. And now that I’ve seen Stand By Me, I feel as though watching the Family Guy episode would’ve sufficed. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Stand By Me, I very much appreciate its influence upon so many other stories, but that’s the issue: Stand By Me was the first of its kind, and I should’ve watched it first—preferably as a young child. You can hear Stephen King’s distinct voice in this film, in the hilarious and heartbreaking ways he portrays children, and in the general mystification of the human condition. I probably would’ve preferred to have read some parts of this story rather than watching them, particularly the pie-eating contest, but I did enjoy the sense of innocence and wonderment that shone through each member of this incredible cast. While some elements of this film could be categorized as cliches, the tone of this movie is sincere and its message is earnest. And, as a writer, I love the narcissism of a story where the main character is a writer. Now that I’ve crossed this film off of my list, I understand the hype and the love afforded to this movie, I just wish I had seen it at the height of my own rambunctious youth. To shift gears and fears completely, we followed up Stand By Me with the 1983 psychological thriller The Dead Zone. The Dead Zone was puzzling for many reasons, most of which being that Christopher Walken isn’t playing a tough guy. The concept of this movie has the potential to be terrifying, but even with David Cronenberg’s direction and Christopher Walken’s steely voice reading people’s pasts and futures, I wasn’t particularly terrified. There’s so much story to get through in The Dead Zone, that it’s hour and forty three minute runtime didn’t allow for—and it struggled to portray the passage of time throughout various chapters in the main character’s life. I’m not afraid of a slow-moving film, I’m not afraid of a highly-conceptual film, but this movie was both slow-moving and tough to flesh-out, concept-wise. This, combined with Christopher Walken’s presence which, to me, is borderline comedic, made for a very strange viewing experience. This film may in fact be the first Stephen King adaptation that I do feel lukewarm about, because there’s certainly not enough reasons to hate this film, but I couldn’t find many reasons to love it, either. It’s the most meh movie adapted from a Stephen King story, in my opinion, with its convoluted storytelling and unclear message, but it might be worth a watch if you’re looking for a little more cowbell in your life.
