Movies – Tony's Horror Corner

The “Shining Series” #1: The Wasps

Discussing Stanley Kubrick ignoring the wasps from Stephen King’s “The Shining.”

Hey everyone! I’m still around and I’m ready to start posting regularly again. Long overdue, if you ask me. So, now that I’m back, I want to discuss some things I’ve been thinking about a lot. If you follow my Instagram, you have already seen some variation of what I am about to say. I am starting a new section of posts called my “Shining Series,” where I discuss the differences between Stephen King’s novel and Stanley Kubrick’s film.

I read “The Shining” for the first time in February 2014 while recovering from surgery (that’s a story for a different time). It was my second King novel ever and I of course loved it. It was incredible to be transported to Colorado and lose myself in the halls of The Overlook with the Torrances. I had already seen Kubrick’s iconic movie and I enjoyed it, but after reading the book, I gave the film a second viewing… I was not thrilled. Kubrick’s “Shining,” while being a great horror film, is an awful adaptation of King’s novel.

I reread “The Shining” in July 2019 and I was blown away. I don’t know if it was the 5-year separation, or maybe I was just looking at it more closely, but it was like reading a completely different book. I noticed things I didn’t even know were part of the story before and it really opened my eyes to just how big the gap between King’s novel and Kubrick’s movie really is. Kubrick’s movie is a classic and shouldn’t be ignored, but it isn’t the story King wrote and that’s what frustrates me.

For the first post in my “Shining Series,” I will discuss how Kubrick completely ignored and eliminated the wasps. The nest, the wasps themselves, and the scene where Jack Torrance discovers them were all extremely important to the story arc and Kubrick didn’t include them. King wouldn’t mention the word “wasp,” or variations of it, 70+ times (this isn’t an exaggeration) throughout the novel if they weren’t important.

Jack is re-shingling the roof of The Overlook when he discovers the wasp nest. One stings him, sending Jack into a flurry of curses (expectedly). The sting, while physically uncomfortable, spurs Jack to reflect on himself, his current situation, and his future. He realizes the wasps are very much like him:

“looking down into the nest, it seemed to him that it could serve as both a workable symbol for what he had been through (and what he had dragged his hostages to fortune through) and an omen for a better future.”

The wasp sting jolted him out of a focused and peaceful afternoon where he was working and thinking about the play he was writing. In this sense, the sting is like his alcoholism; distracting and a deterrent. The sting also represents a “punishment” for being creative. This “punishment” was doled out by the hotel itself. It was just beginning to seep into his mind and any thoughts of leaving the hotel, being successful with anything not related to the hotel, was impeding on the Overlook’s ability to influence Jack. On the other hand, the wasp’s temperament matches Jack’s almost identically. Quick to anger, quick to an attack.

As the quote shows, Jack knows the wasps symbolize himself and he believes them to be a good omen. For a little bit, they are. He successfully (or so he believes) kills them with a bug bomb he found in the Overlook equipment shed. With the wasps dead, Jack delivers the nest to Danny as a gift. When he bug-bombs them and finishes his work on the roof, his thoughts turn to his recovery:

“I’m getting better.”

The wasp sting, and their nest, incite Jack to think about his past, which is vital to the readers in understanding his nature (Something we don’t see in the film). Jack grew up in a household with an abusive alcoholic father. He sees himself turning into his dad and wants to change. The nest reminds him of this. He sees it as the turning point for the better, but the wasps represent the opposite.

The discovery of the nest is the point where everything starts to go downhill. Jack’s quick anger is soon on display with his reaction to one of Danny’s “episodes” and escalates when the wasps sting the young Torrance boy. This causes immediate shame and anger within Jack, but also resentment toward his wife, Wendy, who had expressed her worry about the nest before the wasps awoke.

I have a couple more things to say, on a general scale about the book, and then I’ll let you go. Thank you if you’ve stuck around this long:

One of the biggest themes within The Shining is repetition and the relationship between father and son. The repetitive nature of the novel is very much represented by the wasps’ ability to repeatedly sting, which is symbolic of The Overlook’s ability to “sting” its influence into Jack over and over until he finally breaks.

When Jack was a boy, he received a wasp nest from his father, much like he did with Danny. This only adds to the father-son theme and ideas of duality present throughout the novel. Kubrick never once mentions Jack’s or anyone’s past… which is shameful. We are who we are because of our past, so why ignore it?

Anyway, Sorry for the extremely long post, it was just something I noticed a lot during my reread and it really irks me that Kubrick totally ignored it. Am I overthinking it? Maybe. But, I believe the wasps held some significance to King and they definitely play their part in the story.

Stay tuned for more posts! The next “Shining Series” post will dive deeper into Jack Torrance and how Kubrick totally ignored any arc for the character. I will post a review of my reread of Stephen King’s novel “Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to “The Shining.” I was also fortunate enough to see an early screening of Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of “Doctor Sleep,” and a review for the film will be posted as well.

Richard Chizmar: The Man Behind Cemetery Dance

I had the chance to interview Richard Chizmar, his son Billy, and one of his friends and colleagues, Tom Monteleone. It was an amazing experience and extremely informative. Check out the full feature story below.

Sitting in his tenth-grade English class at Edgewood High School, Richard Chizmar’s teacher starts the day by reading a recently released short story to the anxious students. Chizmar’s attention is grabbed immediately. The story is “The Monkey” by Stephen King.

“Listening to my teacher read ‘The Monkey,’ it really cemented storytelling for me, and it was part of my identity,” Chizmar said. “That’s when I knew, that this is what I wanted to do.”

Born in 1965, growing up in Edgewood, Maryland, Chizmar said he was always surrounded by books and loved the library. From a young age, he wrote and told stories, mostly of the horror variety, to his friends and his parents. He said his friends found it cool and his mother would even pay him ten cents or a quarter for each story.

Chizmar graduated from Edgewood High School in 1983 and went to the University of Maryland Baltimore County to play lacrosse. In his first years at the university, he didn’t write as much as he used to; time was difficult to come by with lacrosse and classes. In 1986, Chizmar was injured playing lacrosse. During his rehabilitation, Stephen King’s famous novel IT was released, and he read the whole thing.

“It was a slap in the face,” Chizmar said. “Reading IT made me realize this (writing) is what you are supposed to be doing.”

After rehab, Chizmar quit the lacrosse team and took his love for sports to the school’s newspaper. He wrote for the sports page and eventually became the sports editor. To further pursue his journalism degree, Chizmar transferred to the University of Maryland College Park. While at UMD, Chizmar began writing fiction again and submitting his stories to magazines.

“There was a bigger market back then, a sprawling network of smaller magazines,” Chizmar said. “If you had 20 stories, you could send them all out and they would all get purchased.”

The only problem with the huge network of magazines, Chizmar said, was the quality. To combat this, Chizmar started his own magazine: Cemetery Dance in December of 1988.

“I had a long winding road through college,” Chizmar said chuckling. “Once I finished at UMD (June 1989), I focused solely on Cemetery Dance. I wrote for the magazine and was poor for 10 years.”

Tom Monteleone, a writer for Cemetery Dance magazine for the past 25 years, has known Chizmar since the beginning.

“He started a small press and turned it into an empire,” Monteleone said. “Starting a magazine is a crazy thing, 90 percent of the time you’re doomed for failure. Rich on the other hand, has a determination and a will to succeed. When he makes up his mind, he doesn’t stop. He’s driven, he has visions, dreams and plans.”

Monteleone writes a column for the magazine entitled “The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association.” In it he talks about weird experiences and life as a writer. Monteleone describes Chizmar as a “dynamo” and a “really fascinating guy.”

“I admire his incredible energy,” Monteleone said. “He has an ability to will things into existence and he gets shit done. He built CD from nothing and has managed to attract a massive clientele to what is a niche market industry. I am proud to call him my friend.”

Chizmar’s whole idea behind Cemetery Dance was to publish a high-quality horror themed magazine that packaged well-known authors with lesser-known aspiring writers. Each issue, he would send out to big-name authors and writers to put the name out there and in the hopes of getting support or submissions. One of these big-names was Stephen King.

“I would send him copies regularly saying, ‘I’d love to work with you, check out my magazine,’ stuff like that,” Chizmar said. “Then in 1990, he replied with a very nice promotional blurb for CD and obviously I was excited.”

In 1991, King sent Chizmar a copy of his newest short story “Chattery Teeth” wanting it to be published in the magazine. This was the start of their relationship and King allowed Chizmar to reprint other stories and scripts for the magazine. At this time, Cemetery Dance had expanded to printing limited editions of novels as well as the magazine.

In 2001, King’s assistant sent the manuscript for his upcoming novel From a Buick 8 to Chizmar asking Cemetery Dance to produce a limited edition.

“Slowly our relationship expanded from just business to more of a friendship,” Chizmar said. “We would send each other our works, read them over, and send them back. We emailed back-and-forth pretty regularly.”

One day in 2016, following the release of his hit short story collection A Long December, Chizmar received an email from King. It contained an idea for a story titled Gwendy’s Button Box with a note saying he was having trouble finishing it.

“I told him I’d love to read it and he replied saying, ‘Do with it as you wish.’ I asked him if he wanted me to finish it and he said, ‘absolutely,’” Chizmar said. “I agreed I’d finish it. My hands were shaking, I was a nervous wreck, I couldn’t believe I was tasked to finish a Stephen King book.”

Once he finally sat down to write, Chizmar said the story flowed and he just started cruising, “I was transported to Castle Rock.” Within two hours, the nerves were gone. 10,000 words later, he had it attached in an email with his mouse hovering over the send button.

“I got all nervous again and started second guessing what I had done then finally said ‘screw it’ and hit send,” Chizmar said. “We played ping-pong with drafts of the story over email and finally came to a finished product. It was a happy accident emailing back and forth but writing with him was a wonderful experience.”

Gwendy’s Button Box was released May 2017 through Cemetery Dance Publications and spent six weeks on the bestseller list. King and Chizmar have worked together on other projects as well. Recently, they wrote a script for a movie Trapped. Chizmar’s oldest son has been tapped to direct the film.

Chizmar has two sons, Billy, 20, a student at Colby College in Maine, and Noah, 15, a sophomore at St. Paul’s High School. Both play lacrosse, but, Chizmar said, Billy got more of the reading and writing genes.

“Growing up with my dad being a writer and publisher has been a really cool experience,” Billy said. “I remember one day when I was little we didn’t have a babysitter, so dad took me to work with him. The Cemetery Dance warehouse is in Forrest Hill and I remember just being amazed walking around this huge warehouse and looking at all the cool artwork and the books. I fell in love immediately… it was hard not to.”

Billy said the Chizmars had a library room in their old home where he would always find his father reading and naturally he picked up the hobby. Billy describes his father as “someone I look up to a lot.”

Chizmar and Billy have produced multiple films together, including Murder House based on the home the Chizmar family recently moved into. The duo also published a novella, “Widow’s Point,” in February 2018.

“Writing ‘Window’s Point’ with my dad was an awesome experience,” Billy said. “I was nervous and excited. I’d written a few short stories myself, but when he asked me to help work on something of length, it was daunting but fun.”

Billy said his father asked him to finish it and their style differences worked perfectly for the structure of the story. What started as a short story quickly grew to a short novel.

“We had a moment where we realized we had more to say,” Billy said. “We were both on the same wavelength and just started going back and forth, adding things and editing parts. It was an absolute delight.”

The father-son duo are getting ready to work on a sequel to their hit novella. Both said they plan to start writing in November. Chizmar, meanwhile has a new book, The Long Way Home, coming in December and over the weekend, Chizmar was inducted into the Edgewood High School Hall of Fame.

Chizmar went from writing because of King, to writing to him, then going full circle and accomplishing what every constant reader and aspiring horror author dreams of: writing with him.

However, like Monteleone said, “There is life (in horror) outside of Stephen King.” Chizmar is part of that life and fostering some of that life at Cemetery Dance. Keep an eye out for the Chizmar name because it will be appearing more frequently in the coming years.

Review Time: “Creepshow”

“Creepshow” is a 1982 cult classic horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero (RIP) and written by Stephen King. This is the comic adaptation of the movie with illustrations from Bernie Wrightson (RIP).

Gallery 13 published this graphic novel edition of “Creepshow” in 2017, and it is entertaining for sure. We get to see The Creep, with his hooded decaying face, introduce and close out each story with his classic “heh-heh” laugh.

I enjoyed the illustrations a whole hell of a lot, and the stories were fun as well. In the end, the movie was just a better medium though. Below, I’ll go into each story a little bit, but my advice: skip the comic and watch the movie. Really, only get this if you want the art because it is something special.

“Father’s Day”

This is a twisted tale about a family reunion where the members discuss their crazy aunt who killed her just as crazy father seven years ago. The aunt visits her fathers grave every Father’s Day at 4 pm sharp. This year however, daddy decides to dig his way to the surface.

Zombie dad runs around asking for cake and killing the family members. It’s a great time.

“It’s Father’s Day and I want my cake!! And I mean to have it!!”

“The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”

In the film, Stephen King himself played ole Jordy. Jordy, a simple man, lives by himself in the middle of nowhere. One night he sees a meteor crash into his property. He goes to inspect it and gets infected with what looks like grass.

Jordy has visions of selling the meteor and when snapped back to reality he realized the alien grass is spreading. The itching becomes unbearable for poor Jordy and the grass spreads to cover his entire body. He eventually kills himself and we see his entire house and lawn are now covered in the alien grass.

“The Crate”

This is my favorite from the anthology. A janitor finds a mysterious crate at a University. He calls one of the professors to come check it out. The janitor and professor open the crate. The janitor reaches his hand inside and gets sucked in by a mysterious beast.

The professor runs for help and finds a student who also investigates the crate and also gets attacked by the beast. The professor then goes to his co-worker’s house, tells him the story of the crate. Mr. co-worker decides to get a little revenge on his cheating wife and tricks her into checking out the crate. You can probably guess the result for the Missus. After she gets torn up, the professors lock the crate up and sink it.

“Something To Tide You Over”

We start out seeing a man’s head in the sand… he is buried up to his neck at the beach. This turns out to be a revenge tactic. The man had relations with Richard’s wife. Richard buried the man, Harry, and Becky (the wife) both up to their necks in the sand. He set up television screens and cameras in front of both of their faces, so they could watch each other drown as the tide came in.

While they watched each other, Richard watched them die from the comfort of his home. After watching them die, Richard takes a shower. While showering, zombie Becky and Harry arrive and bury Richard up to his neck on the beach.

“They’re Creeping Up On You”

This one gives you the creepy-crawlies for sure. A man living in his spotless apartment begins having trouble with roaches. As he battles the roaches, the city experiences a blackout. During this blackout, the apartment is infested with roaches. When the lights turn back on, there are no more bugs… except for the millions escaping from the dead man’s mouth.

“Creepshow” was very enjoyable, but I the comic format only served as a good visual, it wasn’t very fun to read. My rating may seem generous based on what I’ve said, but I do like all the stories and the movie is just so awesome. It is a cult classic for a reason and I highly recommend it.

4 out of 5

Review Time: “Storm of the Century”

Stephen King’s screenplay “Storm of the Century” was my 71st and final book by the master of the macabre. It’s a bittersweet feeling, but with a few short stories remaining and “Elevation” coming late October, I’m not done yet! Anyway, check out my review for “Storm of the Century.”

Released in 1999, Stephen King wrote the “Storm of the Century” screenplay for a television movie. The film was released in three parts, totaling over four hours of air time. The book was interesting for sure, but I felt like the screenplay style hindered what it could have been. The film was exactly as you’d expect after reading the book.

The residents of Little Tall Island off the coast of Maine (of course) are battening down the hatches and preparing for what the news is referring to as the storm of the century (go figure). While this is happening, a mysterious man shows up and kills an innocent old woman.

Side note: You may recognize Little Tall Island. It was the setting for “Dolores Claiborne” and the short story “Home Delivery.” Dolores is mentioned a couple times by the residents in “Storm of the Century.”

Anyway, this mysterious man is Andre Linoge. He ends up being like a lame version of everyone’s favorite King baddy: Randall Flagg. Linoge gets himself arrested by island constable, and the main character of the story, Mike Anderson.

Anderson is in charge of keeping the citizens calm and making sure everyone is safe during this storm, but now he must also deal with a murderous stranger. The storm escalates to its title and all the residents of Little Tall Island end up taking refuge in the town hall building. Meanwhile Mike and a few others stand guard outside of the island’s one cell where Linoge is being held.

From his cell, Linoge uses some sort of psychic abilities and sorcery to cause chaos. I wont go much further into details to avoid spoilers, but some of the events Linoge causes are quite intense, especially the ultimatum at the end.

“This is a cash-and-carry world, pay as you go. Sometimes you only have to pay a little, but mostly it’s a lot. And once in a while it’s all you have. ” – Mike Anderson

This review is shorter because the book itself wasn’t long. The screenplay, coming in at 376 pages, is hard to go over without spoiling and it read much faster than that page count suggests. You can watch the movie and honestly probably enjoy it more. Like I said before, this story isn’t bad, and the end is even a little heartbreaking, but I would have liked it much more if it were in novel form.

Overall, “Storm of the Century” wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t King’s best work.

3 out of 5

Review Time: “Nightmares & Dreamscapes”

“Nightmares & Dreamscapes” was Stephen King’s third short story collection, and my 69th book of his and it was absolutely incredible. Check out my review below!

King released this 960-page collection of 24 short stories in 1993. The only King collection I have left to read is “Hearts In Atlantis,” which has novellas and short stories mixed in, so really “Nightmares & Dreamscapes” was the last one… and for me, it was the best one.

The introduction, which King titled “Myth, Belief, Faith, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” was truly incredible and inspirational. It was without a doubt the best introduction to anything I have ever read. I highly recommend you check out the intro, even if for some stupid reason you don’t read the rest of the book, at least read that.

“First, repeat the catechism after me:

I believe a dime can derail a freight-train.

I believe there are alligators in the New York City sewer system, not to mention rats as big as Shetland ponies.

I believe that you can tear off someone’s shadow with a steel tent-pole.

I believe that there really is a Santa Claus, and that all those red-suited guys you see at Christmastime really are his helpers.

I believe there is an unseen world all around us.

I believe that tennis balls are full of poison gas, and if you cut one in two and breathe what comes out, it’ll kill you.

Most of all, I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks.”

– Stephen King

Forewarning, this post will be long because I am going to briefly go over each story, so sit back and enjoy the ride!

“Dolan’s Cadillac” – The lead-off story, as King put it, got readers right in the zone. A noir revenge story with an extremely intricate build-up. I really enjoyed this tale and it was one of my favorites in the collection.

“The End of the Whole Mess” – Another gem, and probably my favorite in the collection, just purely for the thoughts you’re left with afterward. One man’s genius brother discovers the saying “there’s something in the water” is actually true. The cure to violence ends up having some serious side-effects.

“Suffer the Little Children” – this story was very dark and pretty disturbing. It leaves you questioning what the right “answer” was. Once you read it, you’ll understand.

“The Night Flier” – A writer for a tabloid magazine, one that seems to specialize in blood, guts, horror and all things supernatural, chases a vampire with a private pilot’s license down the east coast. The final confrontation was intense. The 1997 film adaptation was decent too.

“Popsy” – A young boy gets abducted and later saved by his grandfather, Popsy, who displays similar characteristics to the antagonist of “The Night Flier.” In the notes at the end of the collection, King confirms they are indeed the same person. This story started off somewhat disturbing in the sense of the subject matter but finished in classic bloody-King fashion.

“It Grows on You” – I was disappointed with this one. I was intrigued with the Castle Rock setting and the elderly characters whom had survived the events of “Needful Things,” but the story was just… meh. It has a couple creepy bits but overall, I think it would actually serve better as a novel where we could get more detail.

“Chattery Teeth” – A classic case of King turning something mundane, such as the toy wind-up teeth with feet, into something utterly horrific.

“Dedication” – This story was strange. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. It had a sense of realism that made it good, but overall it was slow and not very exciting. This story would be better suited in the collection “Full Dark, No Stars.”

“The Moving Finger” – CRAZY. That’s seriously the best way to describe this one. A man discovers a finger prying around his sink poking through the drain… It was intense, and the way King wrote it made you feel like you were going insane too. WAS IT REAL????

“Sneakers” – this was a strange ghost story, but it definitely gave me the creeps and I really liked it. You’ll never look at a pair of shoes underneath a bathroom stall the same way after reading this one…

“You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” – A couple takes a wrong turn and ends up in a town called Rock and Roll Heaven. Little do they know, it IS Rock and Roll Heaven, and they are now trapped and must listen to nightly concerts from dead rockers. Doesn’t sound too bad actually.

“Home Delivery” – King spins out another gem here. A pregnant woman on an island off the Maine coast, loses her husband while he’s catching Lobsters. She decides to have the baby in the comfort of her own home. Why? Well only the small matter of a zombie apocalypse on the mainland. This is one of my favorites in the collection mainly because of the way King hides the horror and spins a great tale around it.

“Rainy Season” – This story has a very classic King feel to it. A couple staying at a summer home in Maine decide to stay there the wrong year. That night, they get rained on by killer toads with razor sharp teeth. As you can guess, this one doesn’t end well for our “heroes.”

“My Pretty Pony” – A slower tale about a grandfather sharing some wisdom with his grandson. Reading it I really didn’t think I was going to enjoy it, but as the tale unfolds, I grew to really appreciate it and the lesson it left me with. A great message about the passage of time. Not a favorite, but really a beautiful story.

“Sorry, Right Number” – This one blew me away. I didn’t cry, but I definitely got close. King wrote it like a screenplay and I think it really added to the pace and atmosphere of the story. Super dark and depressing but a great tale with a wild twist.

“The Ten O’clock People” – King spins an excellent story here, tapping on real social issues while also adding his usual supernatural twist to it. Every day, at 10 O’clock, people converge outside to smoke their cigarettes (since the office buildings started to ban smoking inside). These people can see things… What they see, are people in higher-power positions with giant grotesque bat heads. This story escalates quickly and is super interesting. One of my favorites.

“Crouch End” – Another favorite of mine from this collection. A couple (huh, King likes screwing with couples, doesn’t he?) gets lost in the suburbs of London and find themselves in the mysterious town of Crouch End. The wife loses the husband after a series of creepy events and begins seeing and hearing disturbing things. She finally makes her way to the police station to share her story. The ending makes readers shout “NO!” King wrote this one as a little ode to Lovecraft.

“The House on Maple Street” – Four siblings discover metal growing beneath the floors and behind the walls of their house. In the cellar, they then discover a control panel with a series of numbers counting down. The eldest hatches a plan to trap their evil step father in the house when the countdown hits zero. When it does, the house takes off. It was a crazy little tale but very fun and left you with a smile on your face.

“The Fifth Quarter” – This felt like a Bachman story, and King even admitted as much in the notes at the end. A man discovers one of his friends got mixed up with some bad people. These people stole money, buried it, made a map to find it again, and tore the map in four pieces to be distributed amongst themselves. Of course, no one trusts one another, and all are trying to get the pieces for themselves. Our main character, the fifth quarter, seeking revenge for his friend, slowly gathers the pieces. It was a cool little tale and I don’t think I did it justice here.

“The Doctor’s Case” – King writes about the classic characters Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in this murder mystery. In this case, Dr. Watson is the one to discover the murderer, but Holmes, Watson, and an Inspector all decide to hide the evidence and leave the mystery “unsolved.” This was a really interesting tale and pretty ballsy of King to do his own take on such classic characters.

“Umneys’ Last Case” – Umney is a private investigator or detective of sorts who goes about the same daily routine. The day of the story however, things have changed and Umney can’t deal. He gets to his office where he meets his doppelganger who happens to be “God” aka the man who created Umney. Umney is fiction and the doppelganger is the author of the Umney stories. The author intends to write himself into Umney’s life and Umney into the real world. It is a very unique and very cool story.

“Head Down” – This is a non-fiction essay, originally published in “The New Yorker,” about Stephen King’s son Owen’s baseball team, Bangor West, and their run at the Little League championship. King, being a huge baseball fan, and a gifted writer (obviously) was able to spin the tale of his son’s team’s triumph out for readers like one of his own stories. He kept it light and factual but still extremely intriguing and heartwarming. When King told readers of a non-fiction tale in the intro, I was like “Oh boy this will be boring.” WOW was I wrong. Reading this story gave me HUGE feelings of nostalgia back to my little league days.

“Brooklyn August” – King spins out a little poem about baseball for us. It’s a nice conclusion before we reach the notes section where he tells us about some of the stories.

“The Beggar and the Diamond” – After the notes, King hid an extra story. This one is somewhat religious and its King’s take on a Hindu parable. The story wasn’t anything amazing, but the message and the lesson were nice.

Overall, this short story collection was absolutely incredible. I was blown away. If I could give this collection more than a perfect score, I would. But alas, I give “Nightmares & Dreamscapes” a:

5 out of 5

Review Time: “Just After Sunset”

“Just After Sunset” was my 68th Stephen King book and the 5th Short Story collection of his that I have read… it also happens to be the 5th collection of short stories that he wrote. Without further ado, read below and check out my review!

“Just After Sunset” was released in 2008. This 360 page collection containing 13 stories, had a somewhat depressing tone throughout. I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. It was underwhelming.

This is the first time I have reviewed a story collection. I’m going to go through each story individually, so be prepared for some spoilers, but I wouldn’t let that stop you from reading, they won’t be bad, I promise.

The first story, “Willa,” tells the tale of a group of people waiting in a train station. David realizes his wife, Willa, is missing and decides to leave the station to find her even though the other waiting passengers advise against it. He finds her in a bar with live music.

Throughout David and Willa’s discussion, it is revealed to the reader that they, along with the other passengers waiting at the station, are all dead. Their train derailed, killing everyone, but only a few have accepted the fact that they are ghosts stuck in this station.

“The Gingerbread Girl” is the second story and this one was fun. A woman, grieving after the loss of her infant daughter, leaves her husband and lives alone in Florida. While there and on one of her daily runs, she is abducted by a neighbor. She escapes and is chased by her abductor down the beach. I wont ruin the ending, but this was definitely one of the stronger stories in the collection and it is being adapted into a movie.

Next up is “Harvey’s Dream.” This story was more of a tale of foreshadowing than anything. Harvey has a dream, tells his wife, and then they receive a phone call and, as you would expect, Harvey’s dream came true. It’s a little creepy once you read what his dream was about.

“Rest Stop” followed and this one was okay. A man stops at a rest stop to use the restroom and hears a couple arguing and hears the man begin to harm the woman. Our hero steps in to save the day.

“Stationary Bike” was a very interesting story that fell flatter than the Earth (haha just kidding). This story had so much promise, but the ending sucked, it just didn’t wrap up how you’d want. The concept was very cool, touching on aspects from “Rose Madder” or “Duma Key.”

“The Things They Left Behind” was depressing and creepy as hell. A man who decided to call out of work one day, survives 9/11 because of this decision. About a year later, his coworkers’ possessions start showing up in his apartment and he hears things coming from each one. Creepy and depressing are the best words for this story. It is a good one though.

“Graduation Afternoon” came next, and King stayed with the depressed, destroyed New York theme. A girl is being a loner at a graduation party and watched New York city explode in the distance. The story was alright, but that feeling of dread really hit you.

“N.” was my favorite story in the collection. It was also adapted as a comic by Marvel and in my opinion, it deserves a movie. It was creepy, disturbing, and just great. A man finds a Stonehenge-like stone circle in a field in Maine. Looking upon these stones gives him extreme OCD and makes him believe he must act upon these compulsions to keep demons from escaping the circle.

Each person that sees these stones and becomes infected with the compulsions commits suicide after passing the infection onto someone else. The story is very dark but its fantastic. The comic version had an alternate ending that was extremely disturbing.

Next up was my second favorite, “The Cat from Hell.” This story started out a little slow and strange, but the later half and ending were CRAZY. An old man hires a hitman to kill a cat. The old man tells the hitman about the cat’s history of murdering his family members. The hitman, thinking “this will be the easiest job of my life,” takes the cat, but during the car ride, the cat attacks. This story also appeared in the 1990 film version of the horror anthology series from the 1980’s: “Tales From The Darkside.”

I won’t say anymore because its wild, you have to read it. In the “Sunset Notes” section of the collection, where King talks about why he wrote each story, King says he actually wrote “The Cat from Hell” 30 years ago but never used it in a collection until “Just After Sunset.” The story is definitely different from the others, and I think that 30-year difference is why.

“The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates” was next and this one was interesting. A woman receives a call from her husband during his funeral. Yes, you read that right. Her husband is in a building reminiscent of Grand Central station waiting to move on. He tells her a couple premonitions because “time moves differently here.” The story is depressing but has a nice little twist.

“Mute” came next and I really enjoyed this one. A man is in a church confessional telling the pastor about one time he picked up a supposedly def-mute hitchhiker. While driving the man tells the hitchhiker about his cheating wife who is also in trouble with the government for stealing money. Later his wife and her lover turn up dead. Police say the mute hitchhiker is responsible. A very interesting concept and a dark little tale. I liked it.

“Ayana” followed, and this was another interesting one. A family taking care of their terminally ill father are visited by a woman and a young girl, Ayana. Ayana kisses the sickly father and one of the sons and days later the father is no longer dying. The son who received a kiss also, was given a gift. Every now and then, a man visits the son and takes him to hospitals where he must kiss someone else with a terminal illness and save them. This story was mysterious but uplifting, it was enjoyable.

The last story, “A Very Tight Place,” was my third favorite. This story was disgusting but awesome. A man gets locked in an overturned porta-potty by his rival neighbor. I don’t need to say anymore because you can probably smell the fecal matter now. It was so gross to imagine being trapped there, but the story was so good.

Sorry this ended up being long-winded, but it was the best way to show you that the collection as a whole, was underwhelming, but it had some very, very good stories. Overall, I enjoyed it, but of five collections I’ve read, it is number five. I am currently reading the collection “Nightmares & Dreamscapes,” and it is incredible (review coming soon).

Before my rating, I’ll leave you with the last few sentences King uses to close out the collection:

“Take care of yourself… and say! Did you maybe leave the oven on? Or forget to turn off the gas under the patio barbecue? What about the lock on the back door? Did you remember to give it a twist? Things like that are easy to forget, and someone could be slipping in right now. A lunatic, perhaps. One with a knife. So, OCD behavior or not… Better go check, don’t you think?”

Anyway, here is my rating for “Just After Sunset:”

3 Out of 5

Updates on the Stephen King Adaptation Boom

It has been over two months since I updated you all on the multitude of Stephen King adaptations, and A LOT has happened. So, without further ado, get your reading glasses on, sit back, get comfy, and get caught up.

IT’S “CASTLE ROCK” WEEK!!!

It’s finally here. “Castle Rock” will be available to stream Wednesday July 25^thon Hulu. I personally am extremely excited, and I know almost every constant reader is too.

John Anderson, writer for The Wall Street Journal, wrote an excellent review for “Castle Rock,” one I hope to emulate when I finish the show. All reviews out there are saying similar things, very good things, which only heightens my excitement.

Andre Holland and Bill Skarsgard reportedly run the show. I can’t wait to see Bill in action again, especially after watching him terrify audiences as Pennywise in the 2017 adaptation of “IT.”

Speaking of “IT,” filming for “IT: Chapter Two” is underway and set to release September 6th, 2019. The cast and crew look to be doing an amazing job.

Let’s run through a little casting call to get everyone up to speed and be sure to check out shaunwatson87 on Instagram. He’s made some amazing pictures featuring cast members from the adult and young Losers’ Club.

The Losers’ Club: James McAvoy ⇒ adult Bill Denborough. Jessica Chastain ⇒ adult Beverly Marsh. Andy Bean ⇒ adult Stanley Uris. James Ransone ⇒ adult Eddie Kaspbrak. Jay Ryan ⇒ adult Ben Hanscom. Isaiah Mufasa ⇒ adult Mike Hanlon (hopefully he’s ready to make some calls), and last but definitely not least, Bill Hader ⇒ adult Richie Tozier.

The cast who portrayed the young Losers’ Club will be reprising their roles in “Chapter Two” in flashbacks. Stephen Bogaert is returning as Beverly’s father, and Ari Cohen is returning as Stanley’s father. Two other major members reprising their roles: Jackson Robert Scott ⇒ Georgie Denborough and of course, Bill Skarsgard ⇒ Pennywise.

Other notable casting info: Teach Grant ⇒ adult Henry Bowers. Yeah, Henry isn’t dead. Jess Weixler ⇒ Audra Phillips, Bill’s wife. Will Beinbrink ⇒ Tom Rogan, Beverly’s abusive husband. Xavier Dolan ⇒ Adrian Mellon and Taylor Frey ⇒ Don Hagarty. Adrian and Don are a young gay couple who get harassed by a group of bullies and then attacked by Pennywise.

All the set photos and promos that have been circulating seem to be shaping this film into something spectacular (as expected). I am pumped.

Speaking of pumped, studios aren’t pumping their breaks on Stephen King adaptations, and why would they? “Mr. Mercedes” Season 2 has wrapped up filming and airs August 22^nd on the Audience Network.

Season 1 was a major hit and Season 2 looks to be just as good. All the major characters will be reprising their roles, yes even Harry Treadaway is returning as Brady Hartsfield.

The first season of “Mr. Mercedes” followed Stephen King’s novel of the same name to a T. The second season, however, will follow the events of the third book in the Hodges Trilogy, “End of Watch,” said producer/director Jack Bender.

Wait a second… season two follows book three not book two? Yep, I was confused and a little disappointed too, but Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson don’t really factor into “Finders Keepers,” (book two), until about halfway through.

With these three characters being such a major part of the first book and first season, fans don’t want to watch a show and have to wait for the halfway point to see the heroes.

I personally really enjoyed “Finders Keepers,” and hope it gets an adaptation, but unfortunately it is doubtful. “End of Watch” is a very dark book and a great finale for King’s trilogy, so season two of “Mr. Mercedes,” should be excellent.

As I mentioned in my last post, the producers of “Mr. Mercedes,” Jack Bender and Marty Bowen have been tapped to work on a 10-episode TV series adaptation of King’s newest novel “The Outsider.” The novel has some Hodges Trilogy ties, so they’re the perfect guys to work on it.

Before I go, here are a couple more updates for you:

John Lithgow poses for a portrait at The Collective and Gibson Lounge Powered by CEG, during the Sundance Film Festival, on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

The new “Pet Sematary” adaptation is set to release on April 5^th, 2019. Last time I updated you on this one, Jason Clarke and John Lithgow had been cast as Louis Creed and Jud Crandall, respectively. Since then, filming has begun, Amy Seimetz has been cast as Louis’ wife, Rachel Creed, Jeté Laurence will portray the Creed’s daughter Ellie while twins Hugo and Lucas Lavoie are set to play the Creed’s young son Gage. This adaptation is shaping up to be amazing.

Stephen King and Maryland author Richard Chizmar have teamed up again. They co-wrote the novella Gwendy’s Button Box, but this time they have co-written a script for a film titled “Trapped.” Filming recently began, so stay tuned for more updates.

Ewan McGregor has been cast as Danny Torrance in the upcoming adaptation of “Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to “The Shining” and Rebecca Ferguson has been cast as the antagonist, Rose the Hat. This is very exciting news for constant readers. McGregor may not have the exact look I had in mind for Danny, but he is an excellent actor and I know he will crush the role.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, writers of the hit 2018 horror film “A Quiet Place,” have been chosen to write a film adaptation of Stephen King’s short story, “The Boogeyman” from the collection “Night Shift.” With the success of “A Quiet Place,” (it was awesome, trust me), we should expect something great from this adaptation.

Stephen King’s 1980 novel “Firestarter” has been tapped for a new adaptation. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have brought on Akiva Goldsman and Jason Blum to produce, Fatih Akin to direct, and Scott Teems to write. The original 1984 film was actually decent, but with new technology, this movie could be something special.

The cult classic anthology film, “Creepshow” created by Stephen King and the late George A. Romero, will be remade into a TV series by Greg Nicotero of “The Walking Dead.” The series will air on Shudder. At the moment, information is light, but this seems very exciting.

Lastly, it was announced Monday that King’s 2002 novel “From a Buick 8” has been tapped for an adaptation. William Brent Bell will write and direct, while Addison Mehr and Priya Amritraj will be executive producers. I didn’t love this novel, but I feel like a film adaptation could be really interesting.

Sorry this post ended up a little long winded, but it had been a while since I updated you and, like I said earlier, a lot happened! Anyway, thanks for reading and again stay tuned and keep checking in for more updates.

Review Time: “Bag of Bones”

“Bag of Bones” was my 66th Stephen King novel and it was a good one (as usual). The tagline: “A haunted love story” is a next to perfect description. Read below for my review, and don’t worry, there are no spoilers ahead.

“The most brilliantly drawn character in a novel is but a bag of bones”

Quick synopsis: Mike Noonan, a famous author, is still grieving four years after the sudden death of his wife and decides to leave his current home in Derry (you may recognize that town name) and stay at his lake house on Dark Score Lake in TR-90, near Castle Rock (more towns you may recognize).

Mike hopes the move will get him past his current writers block and also help him along the grieving process. While staying in the lake house Mike gets wrapped up in a custody battle and discovers there are some angry spirits on the lake and in his house.

One of my favorite parts of this novel was the way King had the spirits communicating with Mike through the magnets on his refrigerator.

Stephen King released this 529-page Gothic beauty in 1998. “Bag of Bones” was the first book King released after leaving Viking and signing a deal with Scribner to be his new publisher.

I really enjoyed this one. There were some scenes that were genuinely terrifying, and a moment or two even brought out tears. The last 100 pages were incredible, they flew by.

The novel was paced very well, with a great start. it did have a somewhat jumbled middle though and was maybe a tad slow during some of the custody battle bits, but overall it was fine and all the middle jumble came to a head and shot from a cannon, creating the fire of the last 100 pages.

“Bag of Bones” was adapted into a TV mini-series in 2011 coming in at a little over two and a half hours long. It was very boring. Could have easily cut an hour out and it would have been better.

Pierce Brosnan portrayed Mike Noonan and he did fine. He had the look of Mike down, but Pierce is just so cheesy. The whole movie was cheesy.

The film caught the essence of the novel, but it was definitely just okay. The ratings say just that: 34% “Liked It” on Rotten Tomatoes and it received a 5.8 out of 10 on IMDb. I give the movie a 5 out of 10 myself.

In the end, I definitely recommend reading this gothic romance novel, but the movie is totally skippable. I give the book a:

4 out of 5

Stephen King Releases Short Story “Laurie,” Novella “The Gingerbread Girl” To Be Adapted and “IT: Chapter Two” Finds Two More Actors

Stephen King released a new short story, the rights to one of his novellas was purchased for a film adaptation, and Andy Muschietti’s adult Losers Club is coming together.

King surprised everyone May 17, with the online release of a brand new short story, “Laurie.” (that is a link to the pdf). You can find the story through a link in King’s tweet announcing the story’s release, or through his website.

I’m posting a brand new short story, if you want to read it–think of it as an appetizer to the main course, THE OUTSIDER, coming next week. The story is free. Read, print, share, whatever. Go to my website or click the link. Enjoy! https://t.co/tfHIWTPoNw

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 17, 2018

“Laurie” tells the tale of Lloyd Sunderland, an elderly man living alone in Florida following the death of his wife. Lloyd’s sister stops by one day and gives him a puppy, Laurie.

For fear of spoilers, I’ll stop there, but “Laurie” is a very nice, heartwarming tale with an interesting King-esque thrill dropped in later.

I give it a 4 out of 5. It had some reminiscent themes from “Insomnia.”

In other news, the movie rights to King’s novella, “The Gingerbread Girl” were purchased by Brainstorm Media.

“The Gingerbread Girl” was first published in Esquire magazine but can now be found in King’s 2008 short story collection “Just After Sunset.”

The novella tells the tale of a woman who forces herself into a grueling running routine to avoid dealing with loss. One day she runs into the mysterious Pickering (dun dun dun).

Craig Baxley will be directing the film and he is co-writing the script with King himself. Baxley directed “Storm of the Century,” a screenplay King wrote and released in 1999.

Mitchell Galin has signed on to produce the film. King fans may recognize his name seeing as how he has produced the adaptations of Kings “Pet Sematary,” “The Stand,” “Thinner,” “The Langoliers,” “The Night Flier” and “Golden Years.” You could say King likes his work and vice-versa.

No release date has been announced yet, but casting is currently underway.

A couple weeks ago I told you the second part Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of “IT” had found a few actors, well this week they added two more to the adult Losers Club.

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On May 16, James Ransone announced via his twitter page that he will be playing adult Eddie Kaspbrak and constant readers everywhere are sucking on their inhalers in excitement.

Ransone is known for his work in “Sinister,” “Sinister 2” and “The Wire” along with a few smaller films and shows.

Only a day after Ransone made his announcement, Andy Bean was announced as adult Stanley Uris.

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The announcement came via Wyatt Oleff’s Instagram page. Oleff played young Stan in the uber successful first part of Muschietti’s adaptation.

Bean’s previous work include “The Divergent Series: Allegiant,” and TV shows “Power” and “Here and Now.”

Bean and Ransone aren’t very well-known actors, and they’ll have to fight for screen-time with James McAvoy, Bill Hader, and Jessica Chastain, but I’m sure the two new additions will do very well in their roles and I have complete faith in Andy Muschietti’s direction.

Lastly, let’s not forget the release of “The Outsider” is fast approaching… constant readers can practically taste the 22^nd.

In other writing release news, a collection of short stories edited by Stephen King and writer Bev Vincent, “Flight of Fright” is set for a September 4 release.

“Flight or Fright” contains stories all about the horrors of plane travel. It includes stories from King himself, as well as his son Joe Hill, and 15 other authors.

A month after “Flight or Fright” hits shelves, King’s newest novella, “Elevation,” will be released October 30.

It is seriously a great time to be a constant reader and Stephen King fan.

Netflix Adapting “In the Tall Grass” and More “Pet Sematary” News

The 2019 remake of “Pet Sematary” signed another actor and the director made some big statements. Meanwhile, Netflix nabbed the rights to the co-written novella “In the Tall Grass.”

“Pet Sematary” (2019) screenwriter Jeff Buhler, in an interview with Dread Central, said, he and the directors, Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, want to make the upcoming remake King’s scariest movie yet.

They are aiming for a more “grounded and psychologically horrific” adaptation. Buhler also said “if you love the book, you’ll love this movie.” Which is very encouraging.

King’s 1983 novel tells the tale of a doctor and his family who move into a new home in Maine and discover a secret cemetery behind their house that harbors a greater power than they could imagine.

Last week, I told you “Pet Sematary” had landed its leading man; Jason Clarke as Louis Creed. Well, as soon as last week’s post published, it was announced the movie had begun negotiations with another actor.

John Lithgow has joined the cast and will portray the Creed’s neighbor, Jud Crandall. Jud becomes a great friend of Louis and tells the younger man about the horrific past of the cemetery behind his home.

Jud was portrayed by Fred Gwynne, a.k.a. Herman Munster in the 1989 movie. Gwynne nailed the role, so Lithgow has some big shoes to fill.

Lithgow, known for his work on “The Crown” and “3^rd Rock from the Sun,” should be a perfect casting choice for the elderly neighbor. Jud is a wise, sad, and caring old man; all traits which Lithgow can express perfectly. I just hope he hides his goofier side and based on the direction the movie seems to be heading, I’m sure there will be very little room for levity.

“Pet Sematary” is my favorite King novel. I am hoping for an excellent adaptation and I’m chomping at the bit for any news and updates, stay tuned!

“Sometimes dead is better.”

Aside from the “Pet Sematary” remake: on May 8 Netflix announced they purchased the rights to the novella, “In the Tall Grass.” Yes, another King movie!

King wrote “In the Tall Grass” with his oldest son Joe Hill. Hill is also a best-selling author known for novels like “NOS4A2” (which AMC is adapting into a tv series) and “The Fireman” as well as the “Locke and Key” graphic novel series. I guess writing runs in the family.

“In the Tall Grass” was originally released in two parts in the June/July and August 2012 issues of Esquire magazine. In October of 2012, the novella was released in e-book and audiobook formats.

The novella tells the tale of a brother and sister who venture into tall grass in Kansas after hearing a young boy’s cry for help but discover there may be no way out…

James Marsden, known for “Westworld” and “X-Men” has signed on as the lead. Meanwhile, Vincenzo Natali will direct and has written the script while Steve Hoban, Jimmy Miller, and M. Riley will produce the film.

Natali and Hoban worked together on the film “Splice” and Miller and Riley both produced the movie “The Lazarus Effect.”

In 2017, Netflix released two other King adaptations: “1922” and “Gerald’s Game.” Both films were very well done and received great reviews among King’s faithful constant readers.

“In the Tall Grass” will begin production this summer in Toronto but a release date has yet to be announced, so again, stay tuned and thanks for reading!