King of Kings

SPOILERS – do not go any further if you mean to read any of Stephen King’s work.

Some media have been reporting that a sequel to Stephen King’s The Shining (1977) is hitting bookshelves around now. It is called Dr Sleep. I’m not sure whether I’ll read it as it might spoil my good memories of the original.

I actually read that back in the 1980s and found it pretty frightening. Its strength is in its characters and in King’s refusal to directly show or describe some of its most horrifying elements, but simply have his characters, and readers, slowly realise for themselves what is happening.

I’ve since read quite a few of King’s works. The standard, it must be said, is uneven. Here’s a list of some of those I’ve read, in the order I read them (as far as I can remember):

• Carrie, published in 1974, an OK novel about a repressed teenager who discovers she has telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers and uses them to devastating effect.
• Salem’s Lot, also an earlier (1975) novel than The Shining that gives a chilling account of how vampires take over a small town in New England.
• The Stand (1978), overlong and flawed, but oddly absorbing account of a devastating plague and its apocalyptic aftermath.
• The Dead Zone (1979), a mediocre novel about a man who is badly injured in a car crash and awakes from the resulting coma with a limited ability to know what people’s futures will look like.
• Firestarter (1980), another novel where a young girl has pyrokinetic powers. Not as good as Carrie.
• Cujo (1981), a stupid and boring story centered on a rabid dog!
• Different Seasons (1982), a short story collection that includes The Body and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.
• Christine (1983), a terrible novel about a car possessed by evil supernatural forces.
• Pet Sematary (also 1983), a mediocre novel that King wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman.
• Thinner (1984), another mediocre Bachman book, about a man who runs a woman over and is then cursed by a member of her family to lose weight until he dies. Though I didn’t like this one much as a whole, there is one scene that made me cringe in fear – excellent.
• Misery (1987), gripping account of a writer who is injured in a car accident, but is rescued by one of his greatest fans – a woman who turns out to be a nutcase.
• Everything’s Eventual (2002), a book of short stories. My favourite is The Road Virus Heads North.
• 11/22/63 (2011), an overlong but absorbing account of a teacher who finds he can travel back in time far enough to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Of course, it’s not as easy as that.

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As tends to be the case with successful authors, many of King’s books and stories have been made into films or television productions. Like the books themselves, these have been rather lumpy.

Some of his short stories made excellent films. The Body was filmed as Stand By Me, a lovely, evocative film, featuring Wil Wheaton, who later made the mistake of playing the ghastly Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was filmed as The Shawshank Redemption, an excellent and gratifying film – in fact, probably one of the best I’ve ever seen.

As for the novels (just the films I’ve seen):

• The Shining has been filmed twice, once for the cinema by Stanley Kubrick in 1980, and once for television in 1997. The Kubrick version attracted wide acclaim from  film critics, but I thought it was bloody ridiculous. Jack Nicholson, in the role of protagonist Jack Torrance, went way over the top and much of the background that explained what was happening was missed out, making the film’s events seem merely silly.  The television version was better, but made the fatal mistake of using some kind of animation to show the hedge animals moving. That might have worked if the animation had been any good, but it was clunky, to say the least. Oh dear, oh dear.
• There was a good, rather moving film of Carrie made in 1976. Its later relative, Firestarter, made a poor film in 1984.
• Salem’s Lot made an effective TV miniseries in 1979, though the special effects used to show the vampires have dated rather, especially if you’re watching on DVD.
• Cujo, an awful novel, made a dire film. The same comment applies to Christine.
• The film of the The Dead Zone was as mediocre as the novel. There’s since been a rather better TV series based on the idea.
• Misery was made into a great film in 1990. Kathy Bates won a deserved,  if unexpected, Best Actress Oscar for her performance as the loony fan; James Caan was also good as the injured writer.
• The Stand was made into an OK television miniseries that reflected the very real strengths and flaws of the book.
• There is also a film, Sleepwalkers, that isn’t based on a book. After a brisk start, this becomes just silly, despite the presence of the talented actress Alice Krige as one of the leads. She had a much better time as the Borg Queen in the excellent film Star Trek: First Contact.
• A TV version of 11/22/63 is reportedly in work.

There is no denying that few authors are as good at creating suspense, even fear, as Stephen King is. But there’s also no denying that, at his worst, he’s AWFUL. We’ll see how Dr Sleep turns out…