3 Overlooked King Classics

Yep, Carrie's good.  And it connects.  In fact, the book is so good it's produced a play, 2 movies, a television pilot, a musical and then a musical again.

Could it be  that with so much focus on Carrie, there are some great Stephen King books that are being overlooked?  Of  course!  Here are a few great STephen King books that just havent' gotten their fair share of press:

Pet Sematary.  It may not work in as many mediums as Carrie, but it deserves at least an audio version!  It is a little hard to picture Pet Sematary the Musical.  However, there was a Pet Sematary 2.  Yes, there's a reason you probably haven't thought about it in a long time.  However, the book is dark, wonderfully written, intense and completely engrossing.

Dreamcatcher.  Frustrating at points, slow, long -- but still AWESOME! this book is quite underrated by fans.  That might be because we are more familiar with the movie version than the book.  The early portions of the novel remind me of IT in so many great way.  The novel had twists, turns that I really didn't see  coming.  Great stuff, and it was written by hand by the King of horror himself.  King originally titled this book, "Cancer" but his wife convinced him that was not a good idea.  I also love the early scenes at the cabin.  Read it -- you'll like it.

Needful Things.  I'm passionate about this book.  I think it's a strong novel; a really strong novel.  King weaves the stories of townspeople together masterfully.  What didn't work in Tommyknockers - a big cast -- worked very nicely in this novel. The character development is particularly strong in Needful Things.  From Polly's arthritis to the Alan's shadow puppets, these are people we connect with.  Not to mention, the novel has one of the freakiest scenes I've encountered.  Two women go at it with knives -- to their deaths -- in the middle of the street in broad daylight.  It's the end of Castle Rock, and a novel that totally sold me on Stephen King.

Ebert On King

The famous movie reviewer Roger Ebert died Thursday.  I first became acquainted with him when I was a kid and he offered movie commentary with Gene Siskel on Siskel and Ebert.  I would watch them on Sunday afternoon between morning church and evening church.  Strangely, the review I remember is Back to the Beach -- which both of them liked.  Seems Disney was really hesitant to let them review the film, thinking it would get bad publicity right from the start.  But it got two thumbs up.

In his review of Dreamcatcher, Ebert revealed that he is also a King reader, saying, "The movie is based on a novel by Stephen King, unread by me, apparently much altered for the screen version, especially in the appalling closing sequences. I have just finished the audiobook of King's From a Buick 8 , was a fan of his Hearts in Atlantis , and like the way his heart tugs him away from horror ingredients and into the human element in his stories."

In his review of Secret Window, Ebert offered this about King's book On Writing, "A lot of people were outraged that he was honored at the National Book Awards, as if a popular writer could not be taken seriously. But after finding that his book On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, I have gotten over my own snobbery."

Here are some of his reviews of Stephen King movies:

CARRIE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

The scariest horror stories -- the ones by M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oliver Onions -- are like this. They develop their horrors out of the people they observe. That happens here, too. Does it ever.                                        

THE DEAD ZONE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

No other King novel has been better filmed (certainly not the recent, dreadful "Cujo"), and Cronenberg, who knows how to handle terror, now also knows how to create three-dimensional, fascinating characters. (writing circa 1983)

MISERY (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

The material in "Misery" is so much Stephen King's own that it's a little surprising that a director like Rob Reiner would have been interested in making the film.  . . .What he does with "Misery" is essentially simply respectful - he "brings the story to the screen," as the saying goes.

THE MIST (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

THE GREEN MILE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

By the end, when he is asked to forgive them for sending him to the electric chair, the story has so well prepared us that the key scenes play like drama, not metaphor, and that is not an easy thing to achieve.

And I think this is a very important quote, since he links King to Dickens.  This is something I've  been doing for a while.  (Stephen King A Mordern Charles Dickens)

Stephen King, sometimes dismissed as merely a best-seller, has in his best novels some of the power of Dickens, who created worlds that enveloped us and populated them with colorful, peculiar, sharply seen characters. King in his strongest work is a storyteller likely to survive as Dickens has, despite the sniffs of the litcrit establishment.

SILVER BULLET (rogerebert.suntimes.com)  I like the opening line:

Stephen King's "Silver Bullet" is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest. It is either simply bad, or it is an inspired parody of his whole formula, in which quiet American towns are invaded by unspeakable horrors. It's a close call, but I think the movie is intentionally funny.

 DREAMCATCHER (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

"Dreamcatcher" begins as the intriguing story of friends who share a telepathic gift, and ends as a monster movie of stunning awfulness. What went wrong? How could director Lawrence Kasdan and writer William Goldman be responsible for a film that goes so awesomely wrong?

SECRET WINDOW (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

CAT'S EYE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

 The crazy unreality of the situation has a "Twilight Zone" sort of appeal, and indeed "Cat's Eye" is a superior Twilight-style anthology of three stories that are held together by the adventures of the cat. It's a small, scrappy tabby that survives not only electric shock (actually only special effects, so don't call the ASPCA), but also city traffic, falls from high buildings, one-way tickets to the pound, and a duel to the death with a gremlin who lives behind a little girl's bedroom wall.

APT PUPIL (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

Rarely does a movie make you feel so warm and so uneasy at the same time, as Stephen King's story evokes the mystery of adolescence, when everything seems to be happening for the very first time.

NEEDFUL THINGS (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

"Needful Things" is yet another one of those films based on a Stephen King story that inspires you to wonder why his stories don't make better films. (INDEED!)

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

The word "redemption" is in the title for a reason. The movie is based on a story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King, which is quite unlike most of King's work. The horror here is not of the supernatural kind, but of the sort that flows from the realization than 10, 20, 30 years of a man's life have unreeled in the same unchanging daily prison routine.

BAG OF BONES (www.suntimes.com/entertainment)

‘Stephen King’s Bag of Bones” is a bag of something, and it ain’t bones. Based on King’s 1998 thriller (which I trust is better than the two-part miniseries starting Sunday on A&E), “Bag of Bones” boils down to a hokey horror story that relies on cheap tricks — nightmares! sudden bursts of loud music! animal in the attic! — to deliver most of its chills. Worse yet, some of the characters are so cartoonish, they’re more “Scooby-Doo” than Cujo.  (OUCH!!!)

CHILDREN OF THE CORN (rogerebert.suntimes.com)  -- this one is great!

By the end of “Children of the Corn,” the only thing moving behind the rows is the audience, fleeing to the exits. (well said, sir)

The Box At The Bottom Of The Closet

shhhh. . . quiet. . . my wife can't hear us talking about this.  See, we were discussing how full our bedroom closet is.  I might have said that none of the junk in the closet was mine, because I don't have a need to keep everything.   (EVERYTHING!)

So, when I came home from work yesterday,  there was a large  box sitting on the bed.  My beloved informed me it was MY  box.  Strange, I don't seem to remember owning a box.

"So what do you think was inside your box?" My wife asked.
I dunno.  Books?
"Well, you do have a box f duplicate Stephen King books.   But this box is full of Stephen King books on tape."
"CDs?"
"TAPES.  So you want me to throw them away,  or ebay them?"

I  didn't think much of it until I started going through the box.  Strange how things can cause of to  be sentimental, right?  I LOVE these tapes!  I've listened to them over and over and over!

So, here is what was in the box:

• 2 books on CD.  (HA!)  
• The Drawing of the Three, read by Stephen King.  My favorite of the Dark Tower covers is this one.  I almost bought this set on ebay recently, but didn't because I reasoned it would just end up at the bottom of a box somewhere.  
• Secret Window, Secret Garden, from Four Past Midnight.  I bought this in High School, then found myself incredibly "sick" the next day -- requiring I miss school and listen to my book while I played video games.   It was a tough life.  I didn't like the ending at all.  I was intrigued by the idea of two writers writing exactly the same book. But it seemed to easy for him to just be having a mental breakup.  Besides, wasn't that the Dark Half?  Also,  I couldn't figure out where the Window and Garden were?!  So there was no secret garden, no real duplicate book -- just a crazy writer.  But, it was a good day off school.
• The three volume edition of Needful Things on tape.  I got this for my 18th birthday.  (I think 18.)  Each time someone would give me birthday money, I'd go  to the store and buy the next volume. I absolutely fell in love with that book!  Loved King's reading, loved the story and even loved the boxes they came in.  I lined the boxes up neatly on my bookshelf, thinking how cool they looked.
• Dolores Claiborne.  Once again, this is a great book!  And, once  I've read many times. In particular, I remember listening to it on a rainy day at my Grandma's house when I was in college.  I was alone in the house, and there was serious storming going on.  I took the tape recorder from room to room with me to keep me company.  (That house was scary in thunder storms.  So, naturally -- the thing to do was listen to a Stephen King book.  So wise.)
• The Shining.  I listened to this a few years ago, right before tapes went bye-bye.  
• Some books I never finished.  From A Buick 8, which I still can't get through.  And Dreamcatcher, which my wife and I listened to together for a long time -- until it jumped characters and became about a Men In Black military general who's insane.  

So what will I do with the box of tapes?  I actually don't know.  Probably haul them down to the shed.  But then my wife will find them and tell me I can't say ALL the stuff down there is hers.  But it is.  Because the Christmas stuff counts at hers.

Dreamcatcher Script Writer Headed For Star Wars

Lawrence Kasdan has been brought on board to write an installment of the upcoming Star Wars trilogy.

contactmusic.com notes,

"Kasdan is a Lucasfilm and Star Wars veteran having co-wrote 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and the 1983 movie Return of the Jedi. He recently co-wrote the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark, considered the finest movie from Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies. However, his latest feature film writing credit is the poorly received Stephen King adaptation Dreamcatcher, starring Morgan Freeman." 

Mark Maurer at nj.com offers, "Lawrence Kasdan was trusted with co-writing two "Star Wars" sequels in the 1980s — why not do it again?"

I have no concerns -- just don't pull a Dreamcatcher on us!  I liked that novel.  The movie. . .

Challanger Explosion & S.K. Universe

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

-- Ronald Reagan.

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25 years ago today my friend Ryan -- who was usually full of nutty stories -- arrived late to school. "You won't believe what happened today," he said. Well, when he told me he was watching TV and that the space shuttle just blew up, he was right -- I didn't believe him!

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Hard to think that was 25 years ago. If feels like yesterday.

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King mentions the Challenger explosion in Rose Madder. The novel is about battered women. Anna Stevenson explains to Rose that when the Challenger exploded, there was a woman who experienced intense guilt because she had written letters encouraging manned space flights. Her point is simply that battered women are able to feel personal guilt about things that have nothing to do with them.

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The disaster is cited again in Dreamcatcher, as a metaphor. "To say that Beavers marriage didn't work would be like saying that the launch of challenger space shuttle went a little bit wrong."

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Stirring Truth Into Fiction

King's ability to reference and draw from our common story as Americans is part of what makes him such a great story teller. His novels wind through our bigger history, citing things and events that deeply touch us. Our memories are jarred at some of these events, and King doesn't overplay his hand at this point. But like a master, King uses our shared past to add depth and familiarity to his stories. King's world becomes a little more real when his characters remember events I too remember.

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By the way, 1986 is also the year Stand By Me came out in theaters. Nothing to do with challenger, except that they shared the same year.

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Twisted Memories:

Now I want to point out something strange. I have read two writers already today who mention how memory of the challenger disaster is distorted. They remember things happening that day that didn't actually happen until later. Time is messed up in their head in relation to that event. Know what -- it's that way for me, too. I remember being 9 or 10. But I was 12. that's crazy! I remember seeing it all from a child's point of view; but I remember being 12 and being confident I was no longer thinking like a child. I found myself thinking, "I couldn't have been that old!" Anyone else out there finding mysterious mental vertigo when it comes to the challenger disaster?

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For more on memory distortion related to the Challenger Disaster and Stephen King, see this article published a couple of years ago titled "Twisted Memories." http://iwanticewater.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/twisted-memories/

Sleepwalkers

One of the movies I bought in my recent frenzy of purchases from the perishing Hollywood Video was Sleepwalkers.

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"Star Wars Christmas Special" Kinda Bad!

Now, I saw this with my dad when it came out in 1992; the year I graduated High School. I hated it. I thought maybe I had misjudged. Maybe time has softened my opinion of this film. Maybe it was really a great film, and I was just missing it. Nope. How do I say this... kindly... (can't be said kindly)... This movie rises to the great heights of films like Superman 4, Even numbered Star Trek movies, and the famous Star Wars Christmas Special (youtube it, gang. You'll be happy you did).

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Directed by Mick Garris, Sleepwalkers cameo's Stephen King as a cemetery keeper and Clive Barker as a forensic tech. Once again, everyone in this film (like in Maximum Overdrive and Children of the Corn) has an IQ high enough to work fo BP. King appears with a toothpick sticking from his mouth; remember the Beav from Dreamcatcher, Mr King?

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This isn't "so bad it's good" type of work. This is the kind of stuff CIA uses on would be terrorist to make them talk. "Please, don't show me that again! I'll talk!"

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Creepshows author Stephen Jones quotes King as saying, "By the early 1990's I'd written several films based on my own published works. Some, like creepshow, were pretty good; others, like Silver Bullet, were...well...not so good. I decided to take what I'd learned and write an original screenplay, and I had a bloody good time doing it." p.76

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I don't know about you, but I liked Silver Bullet a lot more than Sleepwalkers. Some information seems to be missing -- like what in the world is going on! Mother and son are shape-shifting vampires, and apparently very in love. Mama Vampire is hungry, and sonny needs to find her a virgin bloodshake. Maybe they're not related, they might be lovers simply disguising themselves as mother/son. Ick, I don't want to think about it.

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HITCHCOCK Never Made A Vampire Film!

Another Hitchcock influence: Jones also notes in Creepshows that Mark Hamill (that would be Luke Skywalker in the real world) appears in the opening sequence, which is set in California's Bodega Bay. This, Jones notes, is a nod to Alfred Hitchcocks 1963 The Birds. But why a vampire movie would need to make a nod to the birds is a little beyond me. Like, maybe it's a warning from the beginning of the movie, "Run, faithful movie goers -- this one is for the birds!"

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Cat Lovers Movie

Sleepwalkers and cats don't seem to get along. Of course, not getting along with a cat a part of a normal persons life.

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Staci Wilson gives this so very exciting trivia tidbit: According to Sleepwalkers director Mick Garris, the lead cat who played Clovis was so relaxed on the set, he can be heard purring on several of the final takes. As a dog person, I'm all a flutter! I haven't been so excited since I listened to that Lights Out Everybody episode by Arch Oboler called: "Cat People." http://www.staciwilson.com/animalmovies/sleepwalkers.html

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What Others Are Saying:

So, I thought maybe I was wrong still. Maybe my bad experience with this film is just mine alone. I headed out into the murky world of Internet to find out what others think:

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One for Garris: According to always reliable wikipedia, the movie won the 1992 Fantafestival Award for Best Actress (Krige), Best Direction (Garris), Best Film (Garris) and Best Screenplay (King). Humm, I think this Fantafestival might also be calling baseball pitches these days -- http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/37479309/ns/sports-baseball/

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Two for Garris: On the S.K. message board, Anna writes, "When will you publish Sleepwalkers? I love this movie..."

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Three for Garris: Blogger Crackle loved this film. She says, "it will be hard to put into words the sheer brilliance of this movie.." but then she tries. Too bad. Mostly she notes themes such as incest, virginity and cats. I hate cats. Of course, I must admit that I stopped reading when she said, "Now for our last two themes, cats and incest (both subjects named in my recent divorce)." Okay, too much information! http://blog.crackle.com/2009/08/07/sleepwalkers-stephen-king-teaches-us-about-vampire-cats/

Movie reviewers.

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Fine, I get it. So fans love this movie. So I'll move on to the movie reviewers. After all, movie reviewers get paid to hate movies.

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Stephen Holden at NY Times wrote a basically straightforward summery of the movie, not commenting on its value. But, Andrew Bain responded to the Times, writing "Sleepwalkers has comedy value, there's no doubt about it. A friend and I acutally had to pause the film during several scenes in the film, just because we couldn't hear over our own laughter. In one such scene a girl jumps into a police car when she is attacked by the vampire-cat-aliens (no, I am not making this up) and screams for help down the radio. A policewoman on the line screams back 'Andy,' (the name of the recently deceased policeman) 'Get with the program! Bye!'.I truely hope that some of you will watch this film just so you can appreciate how terrible it is." So there. That's ONE for me. And it's a big one, since it's a person responding to someone who is important. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE0DC123CF932A25757C0A964958260

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Variety said, "Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is an idiotic horror potboiler." http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794958.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

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NOMINATED: MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

I just realized something; it doesn't matter what they think. You are welcome to like this film -- be wrong, it won't hurt me a bit. I choose not to like this movie. So there. And, to rub it in, I respectfully nominate this movie to Mystery Science Theater 3,000. No, I won't take it back. Don't even ask. It's already nominated!

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picture: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/stephen-king/images/72839/title/sleepwalkers

Pencils And Sparrows

I've been reading the Dark Half, and have only two off the wall observations.

• George Stark writes with pencils. Reminds me of King's furious writing of Dreamcatcher, which he did by hand; yes, it was a pen, but still. And, I just remembered -- Charles Dicken's wrote all his work by hand. Maybe his "drood" was actually George Stark, huh! Ask Dan Simmons about that.
• When it comes to Under the Dome the sparrows are no longer flying. They're all dead! Smacked into that big invisible dome.

Aren't you glad you checked in. That's what happens when you listen to Under the Dome while reading The Dark Half.

Dreamatcher

Dreamcatcher was written after Stephen King's accident in which he was bedrdden for an extended period of time. He wrote the book by hand! That's impressive. He's said that writing by hand got him closer to the language, the words, than he'd been in a long time.

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Dreamcatcher starts out very strong. The characters are great! But the middle begins to sag but it picks ups stream again the book races toward the end. Maybe a better way to say it is that for such a good beginning, the rest of the novel is uneven. It certainly -- certainly! -- has great moments (SSDA). The beginning is strong enough to carry the rest of the book and forgive the faults found as the novel moves on. And the end is strong enough to cause one to forget what didn't work. Bluntly: I liked it and would consider it one of my top 10 favorites.

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My wife and I first tried reading Dreamcatcher on audio. we were listening to it in the car, but got so hooked that we pulled out a tape recorder (yes, tapes!) and listened in the house. But we lost interest as the story moved to a military battle. The idea of four guys in a cabin was interesting, but as the novel opened up, it was hard to connect with the new characters. Most recently I read it again on audio, from the local library. Funny thing, they don't give you as many audio renewals as they would for a book. . . but I never read an audio book as quickly. I had to keep returning to the library begging for mercy "please let me finish this, I only have four more hours to go. . ."

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The novel reminds me of IT and Stand by Me. King addresses this in the special features of the movie. Not only is it a Derry novel, like IT, but it is the story of children who suffer something tramatic and must then face their childhood monsters as adults. Also, the way the children stand up for Duddits reminds me of the children in IT standing up for Ben.

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I've seen reviews that compare Dreamcatcher to Tommyknockers -- it is not! The book "moves" better than Tommyknockers, is paced nicely and the characters are simply better. Dreamcatcher is a much more focused novel. The only real similarity is that both are Science Fiction. Bret M. Funk wrote, "And as a whole, the story lacked King's usual power, leaving me satisfied, but not necessarily wanting more." http://www.sffworld.com/book/1275.html I think the book is much stronger than that.

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On King's website, one fan wrote: "Extraterrestrial invasion feels so cliche by now" But that's what's exciting when King takes on an issue. He uses cliche's we know well, but brings them home. In fact in this case the cliche is right in our bathroom! it's not V or Earth v. Flying Saucers. . . it feels like it could be any of us. Same thing that happened with Salem's Lot. Imagine someone saying, "Vampires are so cliche." Yes, they are! But King brought them to modern America. Same with Zombies, clowns, flu strains and good old fashioned ghost! King's ability is to bring the cliche into our world. We don't have to imagine castles in Europe in Salem's Lot's case, it's right here! That's why I think the books strongest points are when it's dealing with the guys in the cabin (and subsequent chase as they head to Duds).

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One note on the movie: Jason Lee's portrayal of the Beaver was nothing like what I had imagined in the book! I pictured a big bumbeling guy, and in Lee we got something of a nerdy character.

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Bookcovers: http://www.stephenkingshop.com/covers/Dreamcatcher.htm
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Movie link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285531/

Stephen King's 10 Best Novels

The Essential Stephen King sought to rank the novels and work of Stephen King. Of course, since it wasn't MY list, he got it wrong. (Come on, who doesn't put the Stand at the top of the list? Seriously!)

10. Salem's Lot
9. Cell
8. The Mist (Skeleton Crew)
7. Dolores Claiborne (I loved the connection to Geralds Game)
6. Dreamcatcher
5. Wolves Of The Calla
4. The Shining
3. Needful Things
2. IT
1. The Stand