RonRyan85

It seems to me that Steven King has run out of ideas for his
horror novels. After "Carrie" and "The Shining" most of his
stories center around the DEVIL terrifing all of the people
in a town ,killing most of them and finally disappearing or
being stopped by someone who finds some way to stop all of his
supernatural hijinks.

The latest disappointment was "DESPERATION" that ABC showed
on their network last night. Women screamed at every snake and
spider and Ron Pearlman was good as the possessed Sheriff of the
town in Nevada that had killed almost everyone living there
so he had began to patrol the highway ,bringing in new blood
to terminate.Other actors were Tom Skerritt and Steven Webber
who were good in their roles but could not save a bad story
from being boring rather than horrific.

How does King keep getting so many stories on TV and into
movie houses? He does produce a bunch of material every year.
In the beginning he wrote horror with his home state of Maine
as the location. Still with Devilish forces working against
the good guys but being destroyed in the end by someone with
a BIBLE hidden away in their backpack or in their house.

My pick for a good movie or TV program in the mystery/horror
category would be one written by DEAN KOONTZ. He writes a lot
of good stuff. Maybe his "House of Thunder" would make a good
hour long TV program or a one and a half hour movie.


P.S. Okay it's not "Steven".....it's "Stephen" I stand
corrected. (See comments # 6 or 7.)

docbungle

Well, they did Koontz's "Intensity" which wasn't bad. The bad guy was a great actor who I've seen in a lot of things but can't seem to name for some reason.

As for King, I've enjoyed lots of books of his in the past, and a lot of them have translated well to the screen, including The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, Cujo and The Dead Zone.

Of course, he is getting old now, and as people grow, they change. He wrote most of those stories half of his lifetime ago!

Nobody stays perfect.

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a la Family Guy

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Willravel

I never liked any of Stephen King's work, but I'm sure he's a nice guy.

Mr. Spacemonkey

The only thing I've read of Stephen King's has been The Dark Tower series (haven't finished it yet) and it's awesome. I heard The Stand was supposed to be one of his best works too. Might read that one sometime too.

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Xiangsu

Stephen King is a freaking icon. I didn't get to see that special and I imagine it sucks balls. However, books sometimes just don't translate well to film. The writer can only do so much. You said you wanted to see something by Dean Koontz. Well, he wrote Phantoms, which was made into a movie and the movie sucked balls. I mean, sure Ben Affleck was the bomb in it (joke), but the movie sucked horribly. Look at the stuff Stephen King has done that was good. He has done far more good than bad.

Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Stand By Me, Hearts in Atlantis, the Green Mile, etc. to name some good things based on Stephen King stories. Oh, and none of those stories had to do with a Devil terrifying a town.

Elphaba

I liked his books prior to his getting run over by a van. I suspect that can change a person.

Mr. Spacemonkey

Strange that the ones that stand out for being so great have nothing to do with horror. All the ones you mentioned. Yet he is known for his horror stories, lol.

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Frosstbyte

King is known for being an excellent and prolific storyteller, probably one of the best of our time. I would not go so far as to claim that he is the most original or the most interesting, but he spins a fine tale. No one, including King himself, would rank him as a master of the English language or as an author who somehow truly captures the mind and heart of man in some complex and masterful fashion.

On the other hand, I challenge you to try to read 'Salem's Lot and not end up devouring the thing because you despeartely want to know what happens and don't get chills at least once or twice while you're going through it. He has written some great stuff, and it's much easier to read if you stop thinking about the mystique of the man who wrote it and just let him tell the story.

On a pissy side note, it really turns your (possibly legitimate) point into a clear troll when you don't spell your subject's name correctly.

Poppinjay

Some of his books were groundbreaking. He could have easily eliminated 75% of his ideas and be considered one of the greatest writers of all time. Unfortunately there's that 75% which will always be considered when his body of work is judged.

I'm reminded of a review of one of his mediocre short story compilations: "Now that's word processing!"

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Elphaba

I suspect King was long ago categorized into a specific genre, "Horror," that didn't really encompass much of what he was trying to do. Ray Bradbury was his muse, but I believe he is categorized as science fiction. I think I would choose a name for the genre of both King and Koontz as something far different from horror or science fiction. "Other Worldly" sounds too lame, but that is essentially what their stories are about.

The Shining, some of the short stories of Hearts in Atlantis, and the Green Mile were very much "Other Worldly."

Regardless, King has been digging deep into the bottom of his trunk of
stories. "Bag of Bones" which followed the truly awful "Desperation," was a confession imo.

thespian86

I think King atleast has a voice and a base of simple story telling competancy. Stories that are truely stirring like Stand By Me, or frightening like the Shining. But other then a few select titles I am no SK advicate. Infact I really dislike his works. I think he is certainly discribed to be one of america's great pop culture influences but I've never really enjoyed his over written, uselessly extended novels that climax on the last page and give a small cop out of a resolution. Agreed, Dean Koontz has written some great horror/thrillers. Not that they are very emotionally attaching or original, like a carbon copy action flick you can easily predict every single chapter as you read... they are what they are; a quick read with some twists and turns that may or may not suprise you. I think you need to take SK with a grain of salt; he's a mass producing novelist with a pseudo-famous face and name who can pack and clear a shelf in record time. Doesn't mean he's great... he's just Stephen King? Capiche?

PMF21 (please excuse the many potential spelling mistakes and rambling. I am exhausted. I just got home from the theatre after doing Stop-and-go tech runs for the past fifteen hours)

EDIT: I met King in his hometown Bangor, Maine (which is about eight hours from my town in Canada) while I was getting a coffee. He looked tired and antsy. I introduced myself and said my mother was a huge fan and that I had enjoyed the heart of Stand By Me and that it was one of my favorite stories of all time. He asked me if i liked being terrified; which was a very plain response (I assume he asks everyone who approaches him). I answered with a smile "It's nice to meet you sir. Congrats on your success." I couldn't bare to tell him. Poor Fella.

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Reese

I've enjoyed MANY of the movies based on King's books and stories. I remember watching Cujo as a kid. When the dog is attacking the car and the kid is screaming in horror and the mom is trying to make him stop. I still can't watch that scene. It just freaks me out.

I grew up watching Stephen King movies. Needful Things, Maximum Overdrive, Pet Cemetery, Creepshow, IT.. Man I loved IT, as cheesy as it was. Then I got older and Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining, Dead Zone, etc all got better. Then there's the ones I didn't even know he wrote until I'd seen the movie 2-3 times(Shawshank, Stand by Me, even The Running Man)

Really, I'm not a fanatic..

I really didn't like Desperation, The end where Spoiler: the entity tries to bribe the guy that's about to blow him up then starts telling him he's a hack and his books sucked was the best part. I wish more of the movie had that feel to it.

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skinnymofo

i didnt think desperation was all that bad of a book.
The only problem i ever found with King's books was that the ending in the more drawn out stories were kind of lame such as the stand, dreamcatcher, desperation etc. Ive held off on buying the rest of the dark tower series in fear of spending over 150 bucks on a collection that ends shitty.
His short stories and the stories that were written inbetween the big ones seemed to be the best that he wrote like for example, the "different Seasons" collection that had stand by me and shawshank in it.
shawshank being my favorite story ever i think.

crow_daw

I've always really enjoyed King's stuff. I especially like his short stories. He's just a very good storyteller, as has been said. Haven't read Desperation though.

To be fair, I really like Koontz as well. I thought Odd Thomas was great. But Forever Odd was a big letdown for me.

But yeah, movies based on King have definitely went WAAAAY downhill.

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Kadath

You guys should try Dan Simmons' horror. Summer of Night, A Winter Haunting, Carrion Comfort, Children of the Night. Good stuff.

As for the original subject, yes, King tends to turn out a lot of material that is merely average. Most prolific authors tend to hit the same high points over and over -- Koontz is a prime example. Look at all the "alien terrorizes family" or "psycho terrorizes a single person" stuff he's done of late. Your freshest work is always going to be the stuff you did early on, before you slipped into a groove. That's why I'm happy Simmons has switched over to SF.

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Booray

John C. McGinley, aka Dr. Perry Cox on "Scrubs" and as one of the Bobs in Office Space (in addition to some other great roles in Platoon and numerous other movies)


Intensity was a great TV movie, up until the end, and then it kinda fell apart.

As far as "Desperation" goes, I really liked the book but the TV movie kind of fell flat as the "monster" aspect of the movie increased. It seems like adaptations of King's works often turn out that way for me. The book will be enjoyable all the way through, including the second half where the monster aspect (or whatever you wanna call it) takes over, but when they translate it to the screen, the second half falls flat.

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Booray

I'm sorry to hear you say that because I really liked Odd Thomas too and I've been planning on reading Forever Odd sometime soon (after I finish up reading the last two books of King's Dark Tower).

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spongy

you can get paperback versions of The Dark Tower at least through book 5.
Keep going.. they are astounding, and i am rereading the series right now.

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Val_1

For me, Stephen King's work started to get unenjoyable right after Needful Things. Up until that point, he was great. I loved his stuff. After that point, his writing seemed forced to me and I stopped reading him. Though, I just had this discussion with a new friend, and she had exactly the opposite view. She prefers King's post-Needful Things era.

I Do need to finish the Dark Tower series, though. I can't not-finish a series. I don't like hard cover books, so I'm waiting for them to come out in paperback. I've read 1 through 4. I didn't like the fourth installment much at all. I hope the rest of the series is better. I'm sure they are. I've picked up the fifth and sixth books and they are sitting on my night stand now. I plan on digging into them latter today.

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RonRyan85

Thanks for the tip. I never heard of him. I have a confession
about my original post. Although I thought King's TV programs
and lots of his movies did not excite me , I have always liked
"Carrie" and "The Shining" and several of his novels that made
it to Hollywood. I sometimes post a subject I am interested in
JUST to read all of the reactions I see posted. I agree that
many of his work's start out good but when he uses the evil one
the basic force plus a weak/lame ending .....that's when I say
he has run out of story telling ideas and wish him a happy
retirement.

1010011010

Read the entire collected works of any of the historically "great" writers. Dickens, Twain, Poe, Shakespeare, etc. They didn't write great books because they were great writers. They wrote great books because they wrote a lot and, by the law of averages, some of it was good. Most of their stuff is utter crap... but most people don't read all that crap so their cultural image is overly polished. In 150 years, Stephen Kind will probably be viewed much the same way.

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RonRyan85

Yes...John C. McGinley was great in "Intensity" and I was
surprised when I first saw he was in SCRUBS. I would like to
see him in a "Jack Bauer" (24) role as a good guy OR in another
story as a weird-o that does a bunch of bad stuff and gets a
just ending in the last scene. He's pretty good on "Scrubs"
but he is better used as a real nasty guy in a serious show.

shakran

I think you'll like 4 better after you read the rest of the books. 4 pissed me off too when I read it because I didn't give a crap about the back story - I just wanted to see what happened next But you'll see that 4 is an important link in the story.

Lady Sage

I do believe I heard once (yeah I know) believe none of what you hear and half of what ya see right?

His good/evil was a metaphor for his alcohol addiction and or his own personal demons.

warrrreagl

Me, too, Spongy. I'm back around again to the last 200 pages of VII. I also re-read Insomia and Hearts in Atlantis in between.

I've encountered only a few people who genuinely do not like King. It seems the rest feel that they are supposed to not like him, for some reason, which SMACKS of a Crimson King conspiracy.

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pan6467

That would have probably been from my lips dearest.

As a reader I never much liked reading King, I find him to wordy. Some people like 3 pages of description of a single room before the author even tells you why the character entered the room. I happen to like my books with detail but make it more heavy on the dialogue and action.

As for the stories King tells..... they are decent and creative. People who claim a writer tends to retell stories and uses the same type of wording and pacing need to realize that writers are human and write the best way they can and yes it maybe repetitive...... But for critics of ANY author I defy YOU to write a bestseller and follow it up with more, each completely different. I have a feeling 99.99% of King's critics couldn't even complete 10 chapters let alone 1 publishable, sellable book.

Giving King credit where credit is due..... I may not like his style but I am in awe of how that mind of his can kick out as many stories and the length of them. And while some are formulaic.... he can and has been able to write very diverse things..... he is a master.... if he could just be less wordy....

of course look who's talking

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Ample

I read the first three DarkTower books. Wastelands didn’t impress me much, so I stopped there. I did read the whole Richard Bachman series of books. Long Walk is by far my favorite King book.

I have seen most of the movies that he has put up on the big screen, and liked just about everyone of them. His made for TV movies however blow, I have only seen a few of them, but they all suck. Seem so cheesy.

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warrrreagl

One of the most basic problems in translating a book into a movie arises from the opposing philosphies surrounding the introduction of characters. Basically, in a novel, characters may be introduced at the whim of the writer (the God in the Machine) and may be withheld until practically the end of the story. In film, all characters are expected to be introduced near the beginning - it's just basic film philosophy.

And that's the problem with a lot of Stephen King stories. Many of his plotlines are dependent on characters that are introduced late and movies just aren't made that way.

We have a literary book club here on the campus where I teach. When I first joined the faculty, I was enthusiastically invited to join. But then they asked me my favorite author. When I replied, "Stephen King," they kind of sneered and said, "Oh. Him." I never got invited back.

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Derwood

I think there are no good movie adaptations of his horror stories, and that includes "The Shining" (which I find to be slow and self indulgent). His horror stories are so psychological that you can't possibly translate what a character is thinking/feeling to the big (or small) screen.

The great adaptations are his non-horror stories. The Shawshank Redemption is considered by many to be one of the best movies ever, plus Stand By Me and The Green Mile were both successful as well.

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Lady Sage

Sounds to me like how I feel about Anne Rice. King was wordiest in that blasted dark tower series of which I could never make it through the first blasted book bleh.

*Nikki*

You absolutely have to read King's newest novel "Cell". I read it in 24 hours and could not put it down.

I was ready for a let down, but this book was the complete opposite. Amazing.

billege

There's no possible way to judge King's written works by the movie adaptations. Almost all of the movie/TV show adapts suck ass, and I'm a huge fan of Stephen King. I own damn near everything he's written, and have re-read volumes of his work. There's no way a bunch of shitty TV versions of his books are the way you should be judging the author.

In fact, it's an ironic post to start with that you're juding a book, not by its cover, but by its TV version. Not even close enough to be apples to oranges.

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Derwood

it was pretty good but I thought the ending was a cop out

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Lady Sage

The ending of cell left ya hangin... a kinda draw your own conclusion kinda deal which is just Kings style.

Derwood

I just didn't think the book had a very big climax to it. The beginning, however, was fantastic

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Martian

I'm a casual fan of King's work. I don't generally watch the movie adaptations (I'm of the opinion that movie adaptations of other media rarely work, be the original format novel or video game or what have you - some of the recent comic book adaptations are the exception and mostly due to folks like Sam Raimi, who have a real passion for the source material). In any event, I find King's work to be good light reading - entertaining, if not exactly deep or thought-provoking. I put him in the same vein as Crichton or Clancy in that respect.

I'm not a literary snob in any sense. I don't require the books I read to have some deeper meaning or be artful in some sense; if it's a good story I read it. Stephen King writes literary pop and he's good at what he does. I don't see why there has to be any more or less to it than that.

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warrrreagl

Nail, head. Perfect. My wife describes it as "formula fiction." Like John Gresham.

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