adventure – Tony's Horror Corner

“The Tommyknockers” and “The Stand” Join the List of Upcoming Stephen King Adaptations

“The Tommyknockers” and “The Stand” are set to hit theaters and TV screens in the coming years, exciting King fans everywhere.

After the announcement that King’s narrative poem “The Bone Church” was going to be a TV show, news of more adaptations were quiet. Enter James Wan, Roy Lee, Larry Sanitsky, Josh Boone and CBS.

On March 29, Wan and Lee announced they were teaming up with Sanitsky to create a movie adaptation for Stephen King’s novel, “The Tommyknockers.”

“The Tommyknockers” is a 563 page novel released in 1987 about a woman who finds a spaceship buried in her backyard. Through the process of trying to unearth the UFO, an unseen gas is emitted and begins to possess and change the inhabitants of Haven, Maine.

The novel has heavy themes surrounding addiction and often feels disorganized. King said he wrote the novel with bloody tissues hanging from his nose due to too much cocaine use.

I enjoyed it though, in all its jumbled weirdness. It was a fun, unique and overall a great novel that also carried heavy themes of redemption. I gave it a 4 out of 5 and have it ranked 46 out of 63.

James Wan, known for his work on “The Conjuring” films, and Roy Lee who helped produce the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s “IT,” have joined Larry Sanitsky who worked on the first adaptation of “The Tommyknockers” which hit TV screens everywhere in 1993. The trio plan to turn the novel into a movie.

The first attempt at an adaptation was hindered by the television platform. Hopefully with Sanitsky’s past experience with “The Tommyknockers” material, Wan’s success in the horror genre, and Lee’s success with King’s material, the trio can give us the worthy adaptation “The Tommyknockers” deserves.

In other, bigger news (yes, bigger), another, much more important King novel, is also being adapted.

One day after the “Tommyknockers” announcement, word of a new adaptation for King’s epic novel “The Stand” hit constant readers in the face.

OMG WHO’S PUMPED?!?! I KNOW I AM!!!

“The Stand” was reportedly picked up by CBS’s streaming service, All Access, for a 10-hour series. Josh Boone, whose past work includes “The Fault in Our Stars” and the upcoming X-Men horror, “The New Mutants,” has been attached to the project since 2014, and is still slated to direct the series.

Stephen King first released “The Stand” in 1978 and the novel tallied in at 823 pages. In 1990 he released an uncut edition which was 1152 pages long. I haven’t read the original, I only read the uncut edition, and it is PHENOMENAL. 5 out of 5, and lands at number 3 in my rankings.

“The Stand” is about a super-flu called Captain Tripps that wipes out almost the entire world population. The novel focuses on the epic battle between good vs evil and how their forces gather and then meet in a wild final showdown.

“The Stand” is where we are introduced to one of the most, if not THE most famous King villain: Randall Flagg.

The novel is epic and the original 1994 TV series directed by Mick Garris, starring Molly Ringwald and Gary Sinise, came in at just over six hours and didn’t do the novel justice whatsoever. The series wasn’t horrible by any means, but it wasn’t good either.

Hopefully Boone does better, and I think with four more hours to work with, better technology and most likely a bigger budget; things should definitely go better this time around. *Fingers Crossed*

So, to recap: read “The Tommyknockers” and “The Stand” BEFORE the adaptations release. They are both great novels, especially “The Stand.” You won’t regret it, and remember: The book is almost always better than the movie!

Stay tuned for updates, and be sure to follow for more news and reviews!

Review Time: “Cell”

“Cell” was my 62nd Stephen King novel. It was quick and pretty interesting but didn’t have enough to make it great for me.

A signal known as The Pulse is released through all cellphones into the brains of everyone who uses them. This signal drives the victims insane, making them primal.

“Cell” was released in 2006. This 350-page novel is King’s unique twist on zombies. As usual, King weaves in a very intriguing story with some incredible characters as well as an extremely creepy villain, Raggedy Man.

This novel had a very fun, very exciting start. Lots of gore, lots of action, lots of suspense.

The middle of “Cell” was a bit dry for me. It had a lot of explanations that played in later, but the actual events flew by almost too quickly. King, usually a very descriptive writer, decided to give an almost synopsis-like depiction of the characters journey from place to place.

The main character and main protagonist, Clay Riddell, a striving comic artist, was leaving a meeting in Boston where his artwork for a comic called “The Dark Wanderer” (sound familiar?) was just purchased, when The Pulse happened.

Clay does not own a cellphone. He makes friends and quickly gets out of Boston and heads north in search of his son.

Clay is easy to love. He is humorous, smart, and determined. The friends he makes along the way are great too. Specifically, Jordan. Like I said, King is great with characters.

“Cell” had plenty of moments where King would slow it down and spend some time in one area, and those moments were always awesome. Gaiten Academy, where we meet Jordan, being a personal highlight for me.

Jordan is a loyal and extremely smart young boy attending Gaiten Academy. He also didn’t own a cellphone but is a computer genius of sorts. Jordan’s character quickly became a favorite of mine due to his strength, courage, and brains. His theories on the phone crazies prove to be very useful and important.

Gaiten is also where we first see the creepy torn up leader of the phone crazies: Raggedy Man.

King does what everyone knows he’s good at: describing someone who will haunt you. Raggedy Man is that someone. He is a phone crazy but seems more aware. His physical description alone is creepy as hell, but some of his actions really made his scenes scary.

The end though… WOW. King packed a HUGE punch. The whole Kashwak scene was just INSANE! Talk about going out with a bang. The last few pages could have been done differently, but overall, I actually sort of liked the cliff-hanger.

“Cell” was adapted into a movie, starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, released in 2016. I watched it shortly after finishing the novel…

I wasted 97 minutes of my life.

Within the first five minutes of the film I was already angered. Changing small details that didn’t need to be changed, the effects were poor for a 21^st century movie, and the acting was Cheetoh’s level cheesy.

Don’t waste your time on the movie but do read the book. The book is at least cool.

“Cell” was pretty good, it just wasn’t great. I talked to a few people who follow my Stephen King Instagram page and discussed my issues. The last 100 pages or so made it better for me.

It felt like “The Stand’s” little cousin, but not nearly as good. There were a few “Dark Tower” nods that made me smile but the novel probably could have used another 100 pages and it would have been great.

This does seem to be a novel that people either love or hate, so read it and find out for yourself.

In the end, I give “Cell” a 3 out of 5, but it is a high 3… would probably be about a 7 out of 10 if we’re getting technical.

3 Out Of 5

Review Time: “Insomnia”

WOW “Insomnia” was my 61st Stephen King book and it’s the first one I am writing an official review for. So, here goes nothing:

READ THIS NOVEL

There, review done. Just kidding. Seriously though, read it. Preferably after you’ve read “IT” and “The Dark Tower” series.

“Insomnia” takes place in the fictional Maine town of Derry, where “IT” is set. “Insomnia” has a lot of references to the 1986 novel and it’s also pretty much a “Dark Tower” novel without having “The Dark Tower” in the title.

“In some ways – a lot of ways, actually – Derry wasn’t like other places.”

This novel quickly, slid itself into my top 5 King books (I will make a post about my King rankings soon). The “IT” and “Dark Tower” references alone made this an above average King book, but those weren’t even the half of it. After finishing, and wiping the tears off my face, I stared at my ceiling for a good ten minutes just digesting it.

Needless to say, I didn’t pick up my next read, “Cell,” until after a few days, and I still can’t stop thinking about “Insomnia.” The last time I had to do that with a King novel was after the “The Dark Tower” series finale.

“Insomnia” left me speechless. The book had EVERYTHING. King was like a witch throwing ingredients into a cauldron. He threw in a dash of horror, a little fantasy, a bit of drama, some politics, a touch of violence, a lot of emotion, a triple dose of excitement, and a whole lot of suspense. As usual, the characters and descriptions were superb.

This 787-page giant hit shelves in 1993. 787 pages seems like a lot, and there are a few instances where King seems to drone on or dialogue just crawls, but in all honesty, every word is necessary. Throughout the entire novel I never found myself anywhere close to boredom.

Quick synopsis: Ralph Roberts, the 70-year-old protagonist of the novel, begins to suffer from insomnia following the death of his wife. Ralph begins to see auras surrounding his neighbors. Little does he know these auras have a deeper meaning and they’re not just pretty colors

!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!

Alright, here’s where the real review comes in *insert sly smile emoji here.*
Like I said before, I can imagine King just pulling snippets from every genre and every book he has written and sprinkling pieces into “Insomnia.” Okay, maybe not every book, but a few of them.

King made me cry within the first 100 pages describing the death of, Ralph’s, wife, even though we as readers had little to no interaction with her. Seriously how does he do it? Pretty sure I cried three times throughout this novel, so we’re not done with the water works yet.

Later Ralph has a confrontation with a neighbor who is spouting nonsense about colors, little bald doctors and the Crimson King… YEAH, THE CRIMSON FREAKING KING!

Ralph starts suffering from insomnia and begins seeing auras (colors) around people. He soon discovers these colors correspond to moods or intentions. Each aura has what Ralph describes as a balloon string, attached to the head.

The descriptions King puts into Ralph’s visions are so vivid. I absolutely loved reading these. Some people who weren’t fans of the novel describe them as acid trips. Now, I’ve never done acid so I wouldn’t know, but I found these visions to be very cool and honestly beautiful.

Ralph sees three little bald guys (doctors) and had a lengthy 45+ page discussion with two of them. He names the doctors after the three Fates in Greek Mythology. Clotho and Lachesis, who serve The Purpose, and Atropos, who serves The Random.

The Purpose is where everyone has a designated time of death and Clotho and Lachesis will show up, cut your balloon string and send you to your death peacefully. Atropos on the other hand, slices the string and you die in some sort of random act of violence, tragedy or accident: The Random.

“We are all bound together by the Purpose. That’s ka-tet, which means one made of many.”

The Crimson King has been working on Ralph’s neighbor for years and influenced him to go against the Purpose and Random and fly a plane, with a bomb inside, into the Derry Civic Center where a pro-women’s rights activist is speaking to a crowd of 2000+.

King sprinkles in large amounts of pro/anti-abortion and pro/anti-women’s rights political arguments throughout “Insomnia.” The politics are often cited as an area of complaint for some, but to me, they made the novel feel grounded and real.

Anyway, the Crimson King doesn’t care about pro or anti-women’s rights. He cares about a 4-year-old boy who got dragged to the convention center with his mother. This boy is Patrick Danville. Patrick is destined to save the life of a man trying to get into the Dark Tower.

For “Dark Tower” fans, this is the same Patrick Danville from the 7th “Dark Tower”, and the man he is destined to save? Yeah, that’s Roland. Crazy right? I mean I was absolutely mind-blown.

Little Patrick sits inside the civic center drawing a picture while the activist is speaking. His picture is of Roland outside the Dark Tower with the Crimson King at the top. I can’t even express how excited I was reading that passage. OH MY GOD.

“His name is Roland, Mama. I dream about him, sometimes. Him’s a King, too.” – Patrick Danville.

Before the Civic Center we get a mini adventure into the depths of Derry through a little cave at the base of a tree: Atropos’ lair. Here we see a maze of all the trophies he collects from those he kills, one of which is little Gage Creed’s shoe… yeah I got a bit misty reading that passage.

Anyway, Ralph redirects the plane saving Patrick and defeating the Crimson King… for now. Ralph marries his neighbor and they live happily for a few more years… until Ralph gets hit by a car while saving a little girl. COME ON, KING, WHY?!?!?! Yeah, I bawled. I mean cried my freakin’ eyes out.

Sorry this review got a little lengthy but “Insomnia” is THAT good. All I want to do is talk about it, and I hope when you read it, you’ll feel the same way. King is incredible and once again delivers a beauty.

5 out of 5

Stephen King’s poem “The Bone Church” to be adapted for TV

The next few years are shaping up to be pretty exciting for Stephen King fans after the rights to his narrative poem “The Bone Church,” were picked up by Cedar Park Entertainment. It looks like we’ll be seeing King’s name on our TVs or computer screens once again.

“If you want to hear, buy me another drink. …There were thirty-two of us went into that greensore, Thirty days in the green and only three who rose above it.”

Chris Long and David Ayer, founders of Cedar Park Entertainment, acquired the rights to Stephen King’s narrative poem “The Bone Church.” Long and Ayer plan to turn the eight-page poem into a TV series.

Chris Long is no stranger to King’s work. He was an executive producer on Audience Network’s adaptation of “Mr. Mercedes.” Long was programming chief at Audience for 18 years but left to form Cedar Park with Ayer.

David Ayer is best known for his work directing the DC comics film “Suicide Squad” as well as the hit Netflix movie “Bright.” After “Bright’s” success, Ayer signed a deal with Netflix to direct and write “Bright 2.”

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Stephen King wrote “The Bone Church” in the 1960s but didn’t publish it until 2009 in “Playboy Magazine.” The poem was later revised and republished in his 2015 short story collection “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.”

“The Bone Church” is a tale of a drunk man telling a story about when he and 31 other explorers trekked into the jungle in search of the mythic Bone Church. Throughout the story, the narrator asks for more drinks and describes the deaths of every traveler except himself and two others. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 29 deaths.

As a poem, “The Bone Church,” is a different read but the style doesn’t take away from the creepy nature of the tale. This eight-page poem is guaranteed to give you chills. It is just one of 20 short stories in the “Bazaar of Bad Dreams” anthology. Other notable stories include:

“Ur” about a mysterious pink Kindle that contains books, newspapers, and other written works from other dimensions, and the future. This tale even has some connections to King’s magnum opus, “The Dark Tower.”
“Obits” is another good one about a young man who discovers he can kill people by writing their obituaries prematurely.
In “Mile 81” a young boy explores an abandoned rest stop and discovers a car that eats people. Sounds silly, I know, but it has little hints of King’s other car related novels, “Christine” and “From a Buick 8.”

Almost every story in “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” is a hit and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some others getting their own adaptations soon.

“The Bone Church” joins a long list of King stories set to hit TV screens or movies theaters:

“Castle Rock” debuts this summer.
“IT” part one was a huge success in September 2017. Part two begins filming this summer.
In January, Mike Flanagan, director of the adaptation of King’s novel “Gerald’s Game,” signed on to adapt “Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to King’s famous novel “The Shining.”
“Mr. Mercedes” season one was a huge hit. Season two began filming in February.
The rights to a re-adaptation of King’s famous novel (and my personal favorite) “Pet Sematary” were picked up by Paramount in December 2017. The new movie is slated for an April 19, 2019 release.
Last, but certainly not least, following the film’s flop in the summer of 2017, “The Dark Tower” will be rebooted for TV thanks to Amazon.

In case I lost you up there, here is a list of the novels and short stories. These should get you ready for the adaptations out currently and all the hopefully amazing movies and TV shows we will see in the coming years!

“The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” (2015) (495 pages) (Collection of short stories)
- “The Bone Church” (8 pages) (no release date for TV show yet)
“IT” (1986) (1138 pages) (TV movie 1990) (film 2017, part one. 2019, part two)
“Gerald’s Game” (1992) (332 pages) (film 2017)
“Mr Mercedes” (2014) (436 pages) (TV show 2017)
- “Finders Keepers” (2015) (431 pages) (season 2 of Mr. Mercedes set for 2019)
- “End of Watch” (2016) (429 pages)
“The Shining” (1977) (447 pages) (Film 1980) (TV movie 1997)
“Doctor Sleep” (2013) (529 pages) (presumable 2019 or 2020 release)
“Pet Sematary” (1983) (374 pages) (film 1989) (remake 2019)
“The Dark Tower” (series of 8 novels) (1981-2004) (over 4000 pages) (film 2017) (TV show coming soon on Amazon)

You should know by now what I am about to say: read the books before seeing the movies or watching the shows! I know there is a lot of material listed there, but you can do it. Some were listed in previous posts anyway, so you should have a head start… right?