stephen king c/d?

So who's been watching Midnight Mass?

I’m 4 episodes in. Feels so much like a King adaptation that I came here looking for discussion. It’s schlocky, low-cal, and overwrought, like pretty much everything King has written. Also like King, it’s oddly effective even as you roll your eyes at the B-movie monsters in rubber suits. All that wordy heart-to-heart stuff in the middle of a small town possessed by a Nameless Evil.

Unlike King (but, alas, very like most King movies), it doesn’t succeed in sucking you into the horror. Riley & Erin feel like they’re living alongside, not within, the scary part. King at his best can make the most mundane everyday stuff seem fraught with dread.

I actually kinda feel like I’d like this better if it was just a miniseries about these ordinary people in this dying community and the 2 youngish ones coming back to come to terms with their tragic backstories and the place that spawned them — leaving all the boogeyman stuff out of it.

Have thought that about king tv adaptations for a while!

The Outsider was excellent as a mystery with a hint of supernatural and somewhat humdrum in plot (still excellently cast, played, shot tbh) once we had found out what the cause was (wont spoiler just in case but its as lazily predictably done as anything king has written in his career, they practically look it up in a library and say "wow thats absolutely implausible but it could be this" and it is and thats that)

Fourth Dark Tower book is a bit of a drag, could do without King describing a teenager masturbating ever again.

Just wait until you read the next three. You’ll look back fondly on this oneS

I am 100% out after this one, if I don’t abandon ship early.

Fourth Dark Tower book is a bit of a drag, could do without King describing a teenager masturbating ever again.

My only direct IT experience is the detour in the Kennedy book.

The existence of… that scene is impossible for me to comprehend.

could do without King describing any sex act ever again

Fair. The demon sex scene in the third book was even worse in its own way.

The teenage masturbation content of It is great (also horrific and homophobic, what’s great about that novel is also what’s terrible about it)

xp that scene is the worst imo

Isn't "Steven King" just a collective at this point?

James Patterson is a load of writers hooked up to those matrix pods, king’s books seem consistently the product of the same weirdo

FFS "Stephen"

yeah, there have been SK imitators over the years but no one could quite bring the crazy like he does

aside from wtf sex stuff, on a purely supernatural/horror level he’s still one of the best at creating tension & getting a reader to suspend disbelief - something about the familiarity of his characters & their lives, he’s v good at putting the reader in a time/place & giving plenty of room for you to get to know characters. incredibly patient with his pacing imo

xp that scene is the worst imo

In case it isn’t clear I am referring there to the “demon sex scene” from the third dark tower book and not the infamous scene from the end of It, which I would not vote for in such a poll

The folksiness of the voice just makes everything 30% more ick. It’s a shtick but it always works. It’s like the fun schoolteacher who you can never tell if they’re cool or creepy. I think a lot of his “oh Stephen” moments are probably more deliberate than we think

on a purely supernatural/horror level he’s still one of the best at creating tension & getting a reader to suspend disbelief - something about the familiarity of his characters & their lives, he’s v good at putting the reader in a time/place

This is very striking when you read a bad Stephen King impression. I read Nick Cutter's 'The Troop' late last year and it's a pure 'kids in quasi-supernatural danger' King thriller and it was just absolutely terrible without any of King's charm.

I've read IT three times, and I still went "wait, what masturb... oh..." I think I've just blocked that scene.

It's also why I can reread books and rewatch movies. I forget things.

There are also two scenes being talked about here which may confuse: the teenage masturbation scene is the bully characters in the junkyard, the other scene is at the end and involves the *preteen* characters

Pretty much everything in Detta Walker's voice rivals the sex scene but that one's on a whole new level.

Theres a dark tower prequel short story about a vampire nun tugging roland off in a tent y/n?

As per last post, at this stage king is probably better writing boomer nostalgia via punk rock horror but leaving:

i. monsters
ii. characters with disability
iii. characters with weight issues
iv. poor characters
v. child sex

out of it entirely

Uh what does that leave

Non white characters I beg

Jesus yes sorry

Just fellas walking in the woods, can be post apocalyptic if he likes, thats all

y'all wanna see a deracinated body?

i want him to do a full boomer feverdream with wall to wall springsteen, dylan & creedence songs & old cars & washed up musicians & jaded ex-hookers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYjZB0K5sI

whoa

!

legendary flop if you're unfamiliar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_(musical)

Early in the 21st century, playwright Erik Jackson attempted to secure the rights to stage another production of the musical, but his request was denied. Jackson eventually earned the consent of Stephen King to mount a new, officially sanctioned, non-musical production of Carrie, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2006 with drag queen Sherry Vine in the lead role.

Similarly, other unofficial spoofs have been staged over the years, most notably Scarrie! The Musical, Carrie White the Musical and Carrie's Facts of Life, which was a hybrid of Carrie and the American sitcom The Facts of Life.

In 2018, a high school production of the musical is the focus of "Chapter Thirty-One: A Night to Remember" episode of Riverdale. The Riverdale cast album of the musical was produced via WaterTower Music.

Carrie's Facts of Life, which was a hybrid of Carrie and the American sitcom The Facts of Life

I'd workshop that title a little more, but that sounds brilliantly funny.

https://i.imgur.com/ynUGYez.png

I've read that book three times and I still forget some of that shit.

lol

It's also why I can reread books and rewatch movies. I forget things.

― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Thursday, January 20, 2022 2:33 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't usually post pictures of myself, but today is an exception. pic.twitter.com/IvuiH3QVZv

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 28, 2022

If those are actually SK’s bookshelves then i guess believe he actually likes all those books he writes blurbs for.

Shit, that's just his "to blurb" shelf for March.

Is there anything in the recent run that actually sticks the landing as well as 11-22-63 did? I kinda feel like picking something up. The Institute had some raves - anyone read it?

Yeah, I dug it. It definitely felt like a pastiche of his greatest hits, tho

^^^^

I enjoyed The Institute, but yeah

i still need to read Revival

My wife says the holly gibney related books are all good (esp the outsider) and co-signs on The Institute

The Outsider is pretty good but it definitely doesn't stick the landing