Stephen King: Your Favorites and Not-So Favorites

[Zeus]

Favorite: Insomnia. (This *needs* to be a movie, especially now that the only good actors in Hollywood are starting to look downright cadaverous.)

Least Favorite: Hmm. That's a tough one. There's plenty of bad Stephen King books I couldn't make it through, but then, there've been plenty of really good ones I didn't bother to finish, either. I guess I'll just go with the least enjoyable book that I managed to make it through: From A Buick 8. That thing really needed to be a short story, or Tales from the Darkside adaptation, or something. The last twenty pages were amazing, but the rest of the book was like a slow, amiable, pie-filled buildup to a short story.

[Bob]

Good call on Insomnia, in the right director, that would be good.

I STILL cannot believe "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" was not made into a movie.

[Mr.Quark]

My favorites are Desperation and The Dark Tower series (Hi I'm Mr.Quark and I'm a Tower Junkie). The Gunslinger was the first novel I ever read (I asked my dad for a short book to do for a book report).

My least favorite was Rose Madder. I didn't like the whole woman getting abused the whole story. It made me mad so I never finished it, but I guess that was his intent

I heard that him that they call Stephen King doesn't like the movie version of The Shining. Is this true does anyone know? If true I can see how he may not like the fact his book isn't fully the film but they both are pretty darn good experiences imho. If you aint gonna stick to the book then at least make a great film. And The Shining is a great film imho (again).

.

That is true. He said Stanley Kubrick (SIC probably) destroyed the whole point of his book, which was the deterioration of the Torrence family and a father's love for his son overcoming any demon (alcoholism in this case).

[bratpop]

On the commentary for the series, he said it wasn't very interesting to see a guy who's already crazy go crazier. Which is a good point. Geez, everyone in Kubrick's version looks like a complete alien freak. The kid looks like a freak. Wendy looks like a freak. They're all scarier than any ghosts in the Overlook. I mean, normal for people in Colorado maybe.  But you never connect with them. It's a creepy for creepy's sake movie, which is only one type of horror, and pretty easy if you ask me. Just add Crispin Glover, 1 cup of water, stir. Instant Creepy Movie.

[Grillslinger]

Quark....From one DT junkie to another, you have to finish Rose Madder....it goes with DT, and the Talisman series.


Zeus...Insomnia has been announced. It's on it's way to pre-production.


For anyone who's interested. I have some SK based art up at www.nosprings.deviantart.com .

[Zeus]

Grillslinger: Serious? An Insomnia movie? Oh, that's going to be fun. Maybe it'll segue into a Dark Tower film series, or something.

Very, very cool. I can't wait.

Movies based on King books are some of the best horror movies out there. They inevitably screw up the ending beyond recognition (see: Dreamcatcher), but the characters are loads of fun and you get everything from Werewolves (Silver Bullet), to Killer Klownz From Outer Space (It) to epics like The Stand. And of course, my own personal, guilty favorite... Graveyard Shift.

Say what you want about the movie, Graveyard Shift has one of the best ending theme songs *ever*.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Hi

Gotta say I just like his style of writing and one-liners his charcters come out with. Have never read The Dark Tower books so don't know how they fair up. I recently re-read Dreamcatcher then got hold of the film. Oh My God! Why do directors etc etc change these things so wildly? As you probably guessed I thought the film was pretty bad.

I heard that him that they call Stephen King doesn't like the movie version of The Shining. Is this true does anyone know? If true I can see how he may not like the fact his book isn't fully the film but they both are pretty darn good experiences imho. If you aint gonna stick to the book then at least make a great film. And The Shining is a great film imho (again).

Yeah the Dreamcatcher movie sucked, but you can't polish a turd.  Probably the only time I've ever seen Morgan Freeman miscast.  What that role really needed was R. Lee Ermey.  That's who I pictured when I read the book.

Yeah King hated The Shining and it's no wonder since it bears little resemblance to his book.  But that was before King got total control over any movies made from his books.  Now, the TV miniseries from the 90's, that was King written and approved and it was junk, so what's his excuse for that? 

I agree that many of King's books start with a great premise and deteriorate.  Look at Desperation.  Great beginning with an apparently psychotic cop in the middle of nowhere.  Then it just dissolves into the typical good vs evil, heavy religious overtones, yada yada yada.