Hollywood pounced on Stephen King as soon as his first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974. Over four decades, filmmakers have continued to take his words off the page and on to screens, scaring and delighting audiences in equal measure. From the terror of Misery to the bittersweet charm of Stand By Me, King is one of cinemas biggest forces, his work lending itself to endless interpretations. So what is it that keeps the industry coming back for more? What exactly is that Stephen King magic that makes for such chilling entertainment, and what is it that makes him tick? We asked some of those who have brought his greatest creations to life.
Id read most of his books before doing It; hes such a great storyteller. I love that he is more likely to quote Springsteen than Shakespeare. Hes got a great sense of how children think and speak. And a feeling for landscapes. I think he knows that everyone is vulnerable to something. I havent met him. I wish I had.
I read It when I got the role and I thought it was wonderfully scary, because clowns are scary. Its the exaggeration. Pennywise always understood what each character was scared of, and provided it. And I could see what fun it would be to be that scary. They came up with such a great makeup. Theres the classic scene where little Georgie floats his paper boat down the gutter and puts his hand down to try and get it back, and is grabbed by Pennywise, who says: Down here we float ... The boy playing Georgie [Tony Dakota] yanked his hand away and said, Youre scaring me! I said, Im sorry, Im supposed to.
I was very disappointed by the ending, when I turned into a rather unconvincing spider. But some people are obsessed with Pennywise. I went out to dinner last night, and Im currently in a wheelchair because I had a stroke five years ago. And a guy saw me and stood up and said, Ive seen the original Pennywise! And I said, Well, good for you. I think whatever scares the pants off you when youre a child is an image that always stays with you.
Stephen Kings obvious reputation is as a great horror writer, but to me, it was always the quality of his writing the character development and the dialogue. It kind of gets overshadowed. For Stand By Me, I just focused on the characters and this experience that Stephen King actually had when he was young. To me, what was so good about the story was that it is real things that boys do, and experiences that they have, which is summed up at the end when Gordie says, I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone? That to me was what resonated. I was one of four, growing up. I felt the same way.
In the book, Gordie was an observer of the whole thing, the writer basically, Stephen King. But I looked into it further and thought, What if I make him the main character and make it about his transformation? And I started picking things out of the book, how his father and his mother were bereft over the fact that his brother had died and Gordie was feeling like an outsider; they werent really looking at him. And I started relating to it as how I felt, vis--vis my own father he was focused on his work and sometimes I felt like I was not there. Theres the scene where they find the body, and Gordie is sitting there and he starts to cry, because he hadnt cried at his brothers funeral, because his parents were so bereft, he couldnt really express himself. I remember writing that scene by myself in the hotel room in Oregon. He says, My father doesnt love me, and Chris replies, No, he just doesnt know you, he does love you. And Im literally crying as Im writing the scene. I could relate to Gordie. I knew what he was feeling.
The making of it, being up in Oregon for 60 days with these young kids, was like being at camp, this otherworldly experience, it was like reliving my youth. I took the kids river-rafting, it was just really fun. Ill never forget it. The scene where theyre at the campfire, and Chris is talking about the milk money being stolen and him getting blamed for it when really it was the teacher that had done it we did that scene a couple of times. River was such a wonderful actor, but he didnt quite get it, and I took him aside and I said, You know, River, you dont have to tell me what it is, but I just want you to think about an adult in your life who let you down. And then we did the scene again, and that made him cry, and thats the shot. Its one of the most incredible scenes. I love the movie.
I was a big fan of Stephens. Id read a lot of the books. I love his gift for observation of human beings, his characters. Theyre unique and quirky, like he is. I once ran into him and said, Stephen, how are you? And hes quite tall he looked down at me and said, Youre in the pink. Which was something that could come out of one of his characters mouths.
In the book, after Paul is hobbled, he realises he has become Scheherazade, and thus begins The Thousand and One Nights of Paul Sheldon. He has to write the story chapters for Annie in order to stay alive. In order to accomplish that, he has to fall into the hole in the paper. When I read Misery, I fell into the hole with Paul. I tumbled into his world. I became Annie. There was no going back. For the film, Rob Reiner told me not to take Annie home with me at night, but that wasnt possible. I was in it.
In the book shes very much his muse, as well as his tormentor. She was insane of course. There was a scene where she mows the sheriff down with a lawnmower, and Rob decided to leave that scene out because he thought it would be jumping the shark. I remember being very upset about that. I was new at the movie business, and he said to me, The book is written. Now were making the movie. I was a stickler to doing everything that was in the book. But his wisdom prevailed.
I think when Stephen wrote Misery, maybe he saw himself in the character of Paul, that he had written all these murder mysteries and thrillers, and he might have fantasised about writing something different. But thank God he didnt. I heard that at the first screening of the film, when Annie comes back in with the gun, Stephen said, Watch out, shes got a gun! Hes really into it, and theres a joy about it. Hes like a little kid.
I was 13 when I grabbed Pet Sematary one summer. It blew my mind. And then I read everything, Skeleton Crew, Night Shift. The short stories were my favourite because they were intense and you could switch from one crazy story to the other. And then came It, which was terrifying and delicious, but the thing that landed deepest was the love story between Bill and Bev, and all of the other emotional elements in the story. I was a little older than the Losers were, and I was going through the usual things that kids go through at that age; the first time you fall in love, the first time you come into contact with violent situations, or are bullied. So it really resonated with my life at that time.
In developing the film, I was retrieving my emotional experience reading the book. I wanted to communicate the feeling of intimacy and innocence of the Losers. It wasnt that difficult. Its almost like smelling; those smells that stay with you for so long. And the other thing that was very important to me, because it had shocked me, is that It was a shapeshifting monster. He can literally become your worst nightmare, your worst fear. In the book King is doing a portrait of being a child in the 50s, and their fears are very tangible theyre monsters from Universal movies like Dracula and Frankenstein and The Mummy. I wanted to bring a fear that was deeper, more related to trauma.
The 1990 TV version of Pennywise is a classic 20th-century clown. I wanted to go for something more layered, weird, and ancestral, a stranger and unpredictable kind of horror. Theres a passage in the book that stuck with me forever Bill Denbrough saying, What if this monster is eating kids because thats what were told monsters do? So it might be a case of, this character is alive as long as its alive in the imagination of children. My first sketches of the clown were very childlike. I wanted to bring that look to him because he might be made of childrens imagination. Its a dog that eats its own tail.
Follow this link:
'It was wonderfully scary': Tim Curry, Rob Reiner and Kathy Bates on the joy of adapting Stephen King - The Guardian
- The 30 best classic horror movies of all time - Entertainment Weekly News - March 16th, 2024
- The 23rd Spring, Is Jeepers Creepers Coming Back To Michigan? - 102.5/104.9 The Block - March 16th, 2024
- Winnie The Pooh Horror Movie Dominates The Razzie Awards - 106.3 The Groove - March 16th, 2024
- This Underrated Blumhouse Horror Movie Is Unlike Any Other Creature Feature - Collider - March 16th, 2024
- 13 Horror Movies Where Everyone Dies by the End - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- Willy Wonka Experience Villain The Unknown Gets Its Own Horror Movie - TMZ - March 8th, 2024
- The 13 Scariest Horror Movies Streaming on Peacock: Alien, Leprechaun, The Exorcist: Believer and More - Syfy - March 8th, 2024
- Every Horror Movie Releasing in March 2024 - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- 10 Scariest Movies That Have Won Oscars - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- The 10 Best New Horror Movies To Watch in March 2024 - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based on Viral Willy Wonka Experience Coming Soon - Bloody Disgusting - March 8th, 2024
- Where To Watch Imaginary: Showtimes & Streaming Status - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- Immaculate: Eveything You Need to Know About Sydney Sweeney's Upcoming Horror Movie That Will Give You ... - FandomWire - March 8th, 2024
- The 20 best horror movies on Peacock - Entertainment Weekly News - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based on the Willy Wonka Experience Villain, The Unknown, Now in the Works - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- Melissa Barrera's Scream 7 Replacement Actually Sounds Better Than Fighting Ghostface Again - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- 'Shaitaan' Movie 2024 Filming Locations: Shooting Spots Of The Horror Flick - TRAVEL + LEISURE INDIA - March 8th, 2024
- The Horror Movie Franchise With the Most Sequels Ever Is One You've Never Heard of - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- Jimmy Fallon asked people to ruin a horror movie by adding a single word to its title - Upworthy - March 8th, 2024
- The Absolute Best Horror Movies on Hulu - CNET - March 8th, 2024
- Willy Wonka Experience creepy character 'The Unknown' handed role in new horror movie - The Mirror - March 8th, 2024
- The Best Sea Monster Movies, Ranked - Screen Rant - February 28th, 2024
- The Borderlands Movie's Scary Behind The Scenes Drama That Has Us Worried - Screen Rant - February 28th, 2024
- Netflix Just Quietly Added the Best Holiday Thriller of the Decade - Inverse - February 28th, 2024
- The 20 best scary movies streaming right now - Entertainment Weekly News - February 19th, 2024
- Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked - New Scary Movies to Watch - Rotten Tomatoes - February 19th, 2024
- 'Only Murders in the Building' Adds Molly Shannon to Season 4 Cast - Yahoo Eurosport UK - February 19th, 2024
- Why Lindsay Lohan Refused to Kiss Charlie Sheen in "Scary Movie 5" - Best Life - February 19th, 2024
- 15 Best Scary Movies To Stream - Screen Rant - February 11th, 2024
- Eight Skin-Crawling Scary Films That Don't Have Any Jump Scares In Them - Digg - February 11th, 2024
- David Cronenberg names some of the scariest movies ever - Far Out Magazine - February 11th, 2024
- 12 Horror Movies That Will Give You the Biggest Jump Scares - Collider - February 3rd, 2024
- TAROT's Trailer Brings the Iconic Cards to Life and Things Get Weird - Nerdist - February 3rd, 2024
- Review: Baghead - Is the Movie as Scary as it Looks? - Blazing Minds - February 3rd, 2024
- Natasha Lyonne Says James Woods Hit On Her As A Teenager While Filming Scary Movie 2 - 106.3 The Groove - February 3rd, 2024
- The Witcher's Freya Allan explains the challenges of filming her first horror movie Baghead: "You have to surrender ... - Gamesradar - January 26th, 2024
- The 5 Best Uses of Popcorn in Scary Movies - Dread Central - January 26th, 2024
- 5 Horror Films That Transformed The Genre - Study Finds - January 26th, 2024
- Kristen Stewart Wants to Star in Another Horror Movie in the Future - ComingSoon.net - January 26th, 2024
- Best Home Invasion Movies of All Time, Ranked - MovieWeb - January 26th, 2024
- Presence Review: Steven Soderbergh Tells a Ghost Story from the Ghosts POV. It Is Scary? Not Quite. But the Family Demons Lure You In - Variety - January 26th, 2024
- 55 best horror movies that are actually good and terrifying - Digital Spy - January 18th, 2024
- She is a Real Housewife, was in a scary movie franchise, is pals with Bethenny Frankel, has a Hilton connectio - Daily Mail - January 18th, 2024
- The Scream cast talk about the legacy of Scary Movie - Popverse - January 9th, 2024
- The 20 Best Horror Movies on Netflix: January 2024 - Vulture - January 9th, 2024
- Scream cast reveals their favorite scary movies - Popverse - January 9th, 2024
- Horror fanatics are 'desperate' to watch the first scary movie of the year Night Swim after trailer leaves the - Daily Mail - January 9th, 2024
- 20 Scariest Horror Movies That Are Too Disturbing to Re-Watch - Collider - January 1st, 2024
- Raging Grace review politicised critique of imperialism in horror movie form - The Guardian - January 1st, 2024
- 15 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time, According to Rotten Tomatoes - MovieWeb - January 1st, 2024
- The 19 Best Horror Films of 2023 Best Life - Best Life - January 1st, 2024
- The Best Horror Movies of 2021, Ranked by Tomatometer - Rotten Tomatoes - December 23rd, 2023
- This Is What Takes 'The Descent' From Scary to Terrifying - Collider - December 23rd, 2023
- 15 Best Horror Movies Of 2023 - Screen Rant - December 23rd, 2023
- 25 Best Horror Movies Created in the Last 5 Years - CBR - Comic Book Resources - December 12th, 2023
- 25 horror movies that were based on true stories - Yardbarker - December 12th, 2023
- The 30 best horror movies of all time - Gamesradar - December 12th, 2023
- Scary Movies In Theaters Now (2023/12/06)- Tickets to Movies in Theaters, Broadway Shows, London Theatre & More - Hollywood.com - December 12th, 2023
- What Is the Highest Grossing Horror Movie of All Time? - Collider - December 12th, 2023
- The 27 Best Horror Films of 2023 - MarieClaire.com - December 12th, 2023
- Upcoming horror movies: new scary films coming in 2023 and beyond - Gamesradar - December 12th, 2023
- 20 Best Horror Movies on Max (Formerly HBO Max): Dec. 2023 - Vulture - December 12th, 2023
- Scary Movie (2000) - Plot - IMDb - December 3rd, 2023
- The Best Horror Movies on Netflix - Rotten Tomatoes - October 16th, 2023
- The Best Horror Movies on Prime Video to Watch Right Now - October 16th, 2023
- From Psycho to a new crop of horror movies, the genre has some mommy issues - The Seattle Times - May 13th, 2023
- Months After Hulu Controversy, Mike Tyson Makes Major Move in the World of Cinema - EssentiallySports - April 8th, 2023
- Best Horror Movies of 2023 Ranked - New Scary Movies to Watch - March 31st, 2023
- Three cheers for the Moose: Everybody knows the name of beloved '80s sitcom star and 'Masked Singer' eliminee - Yahoo Entertainment - March 31st, 2023
- The 10 Scariest Horror Movies Ever - Rotten Tomatoes - February 26th, 2023
- Films Turning 10 in 2013: Oz the Great and Poweful The Croods Oblivion Labor ... - Latest Tweet by Pop - LatestLY - January 1st, 2023
- Family of slain Idaho student from Skagit County relieved to hear of suspect's arrest - KPIC News - January 1st, 2023
- The 50 Scariest Movies of All Time - Reader's Digest - December 24th, 2022
- 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' director rips cancel culture in comedy ... - December 24th, 2022
- "I was a side piece and you're a str*pper": Nia Long spills tea about Regina Halls role in The Best Man: The Final Chapters - Sportskeeda - December 24th, 2022
- Mother says scary movie guy wanted to kidnap her child in Spains Castellon area - The Olive Press - December 16th, 2022
- The Daily Show To Replace Trevor Noah with Chelsea Handler, Kal Penn, Al Franken, Sarah Silverman & Leslie Jones - Television - December 8th, 2022
- 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' director rips cancel culture in comedy: 'We don't want to try to educate' - Fox News - November 11th, 2022
- 20 Scary Horror Movies to Watch on HBO Max - Harper's BAZAAR - October 2nd, 2022
- Best scary movies of 2022 to watch for Halloween - Dexerto - October 2nd, 2022
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero