31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 30 The Monkey

 

TITLE-The  Monkey

SOURCE-Blu Ray

I was in jr high ,7th or 8th grade when my cousin passed me a copy of Stephen King's Skeleton Crew. His much older sister had given it to him and he wasn't into reading.  Now almost 40 years later the kid of Anthony Perkins has taken that short story and made it into a gory insane film.

Two boys find a wind up monkey in the closet. Their father left years ago and all they got of his is a closet full of stuff he brought back home from trips. Each time the Monkey is used someone dies. 

With the rest of the film one of the brothers trying to figure out a way to get rid of the Monkey and the other wanting revenge for their mother dying. The Monkey gets chopped up,shows back up. Thrown down a well and shows back up. 

Acting aint bad mostly. What makes this stand out is the absurd kills. Like the Rube Goldberg like one near the start of the film in a pawn shop. Or a later one with a wasp nest and a drugged up teen dressed as a cop.

The kills are great. But good kills doesn't make a full film. The Monkey gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 21 Children of the Corn(original)

 

TITLE-Children of the Corn

SOURCE-Anchor Bay DVD

Who knew back in 1984 when this movie came out that it would turn into one of the longest running horror franchises of the modern era. Earlier this month I covered the recent reboot. And after watching it I realized I hadn't watched this original in a long time.

A couple break down in a small town. Where they notice there is only kids. Led by one child ,the kid sof Gatlin now worship He who walks behind the rows. Have killed all the adults and it looks like our couple will be next.

Before she was known cause of Terminator Linda Hamilton was in this. And you wouldn't know she would go on to become a big star,cause in CotC she is not good.

Really the only two in the film that do a good job are Malachi and Issac. Issac is the leader of the Corn Kids. Played by an adult actor who suffered from something that stunted his growth. He also came back for the 6th film. Then Malachi is so good. Tall and creepy looking. He is Issac's hitman and gets some of the best lines in the film.

The gore and FX work is ok. The film's low budget shows in  this part.

The Stephen King short story this is based on is pretty good. It is in the Night Shift collection. But it is just that a short story. Fleshing it out,or would that be padding it out,to a feature length film is part of the issue this movie has. The new stuff added into the film isn't that good.

It was close to 10 years before the first CotC sequel came out. And since then every few years we get another. 

Children of the Corn(original) gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 15 Children of the Corn 2023

 

TITLE-Children of the Corn 2023

SOURCE-RLJE DVD

So I lost count a bit ago on how many CotC films there are now. I didn't even know this one was out until earlier this year when a buddy was going through every film in the series.

Made in Austrailia in 2020 and sitting on the shelf until 2023,when it appears RLJE and Shudder got ahold of the film. This is a reboot/remake  of this long running franchise. So that makes what 2 remakes so far?

Teen comes out of cornfields. Tells little girl "Nothing ever dies in the cornfield". Then goes inside a children's home. Starts slaughtering the adults. 

Since the local cops think he is holding the kids hostage they pump in a gas to knock the killer out. Which kills all the kids.

Skip ahead a year or 2. We meet out lead. Bo,who is 17 and leaving the dying town in a few weeks. She tries to talk one of her few friends into leaving. But he has other plans.

Bo stumbles on a bunch of the younger kids playing in the cornfield. With Eden,the little girl from the beginning of the film,leading the kids. Eden is a huge fan of the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland.

It doesn't take long before these kids have taken over the town. They put piles of the adults in jail. Gas a few others then bury then in a pit to feed the corn. We Red Queen Eden asking for "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

The various theories mentioned in the films before this come back. He who walks behind the rows,the corn mold from part 2. And unless my memory is faulty this is the first time we get a good long look at He Who Walks Behind the Rows.

Overall not a bad film. Better than about half the previous films in the series. And equal to a pile of the previous films. Not the best,that is still 2 or 4. And not the worst that so far is 7. 

Ok acting,the kids are all not bad. Decent gore,with a few shoddy CGI fx. And all the big action scenes are good,with the explosions in the end looking a bit shoddy.

Children of the Corn 2023 gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 06 The Dead Zone

 

TITLE-The Dead Zone

SOURCE-Stephen King Movie&TV Collection DVD from Paramount

Back in 2020 this DVD showed up cheap during the Black Friday sale. I looked at it and figured out I only owned two things on this. So for the 10 bucks it cost figured it was worth that to get 5 King movies/mini series I didn't own.

Woke up today to a surprise. Normally I know way in advance if I will have the house to myself.  I woke up,after Maggie was howling at my door,to find out I was the only one here. So I hooked up the blu ray player in the living room and tossed in The Dead Zone.

Been trying to think which Cronenberg film is better known to the general public. Is it The Fly or is it The Dead Zone. I'm going with the Fly,but betting The Dead Zone is a close second.

Based on one of King's better novels this film was directed by David Cronenberg. We got Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith. A man that has a car accident. He ended up in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes up from the coma he now has the ability to see the future when he touches someone.

This new ability of his becomes known the to the general public and Sheriff asks for help solving a series of murders in a smallish town. Johnny finds out that the Sheriff's deputy is the killer. They,Johnny and the Sheriff,rush to the home the deputy shares with his mother and before they can arrest him,the deputy kills himself in a gruesome way.

This ,along with learning his girlfriend from before the coma has gotten married and had a kid,causes Johnny to become a recluse. During this time Johnny gets hired to tutor a rich kid. He sees that in the future the kid is gonna go thru the ice on a frozen pond and die. "THE ICE IS GONNA BREAK!"  When the kid's father keeps his kid at home and the ice does break Johnny figures out that the futures he is seeing can be changed. 

Johnny ends up going to a politcal rally for a third party candidate who is running for the Senate. Johnny shakes his hand and sees in the future this man will become President and start a nuclear war. 

So the rest of the film is Johnny doing all he can to stop Greg Stilson from winning a seat in the Senate. After debating on if he should kill Stilson,Johnny decides to kill Stilson himself.  He hides up in the balcony of a place Stilson is giving a speech. Johnny shoots but misses an Stilson grabs a kid and uses the kid as a human shield.Before Johnny can take another shot he is killed by one of Stilson's bodyguards. Stilson comes over to gloat about this. Smith grabs his hand and sees that the public will learn of Stilson's using a kid as a human shield and Stilson will not win. Johnny then dies knowing he has prevented the horrible future from happening.

Now I have read the book this is based on a few times. And honestly while the movie leaves out some stuff it is a great adaptation of this novel. 

The cast is really good. Besides Walken as Johnny you got Martin Sheen as Greg Stilson. Sheen is great playing a politicion who only cares about himself and not the people he claims to be helping. The other stand out in the cast is Tom Skerritt as the Sheriff that asks Johnny to help him solve the murders.

I'm guessing the budget for this wasn't huge. Maybe 8 or 9 million.But it never looks cheap or low budget.

The DVD in this set is the same disc that was released years ago. You get all the special features from that old DVD. Most of which are not that long. Most feel like stuff you would see on HBO back in the 80s between the films they were airing. I do wish David Cronenberg had did a commentary for the film. Or hell get Walken to do one.

Overall this is a great film. And one of the better 80s adaptations of a Stephen King work to cinema.

The Dead Zone gets a A-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 05 Silver Bullet

 

TITLE-Stephen King's Silver Bullet

SOURCE-Paramount DVD

I was sure I had reviewed this years ago for 31 Days of Horror. Looked and nope. Based on King's novella Cycle of the Werewolf  this film hit theaters in 1985. Back when Corey Haim was a superstar and before most people realized Gary Busey was insane.

Set back in 1976 this film tells the story of a brother and sister. They live in a fairly tiny town. The brother is in a wheelchair. Plus they have Gary Busey as their crazy wacky drunk uncle.

This town has been having some mysterous deaths. One man is loses his head near the railroad tracks. Another person who is suicidal is killed in a bloody way. 

All these deaths scare the townfolk. So  a curfew is put into effect. Which cancels the town's 4th of July celebrations. But Busey and his niece and nephew figure out something is up.

The new preacher in town is also a werewolf. And now it is up to Busey and his niece and nephew to kill this holy man werewolf. 

Before getting this on DVD I doubt I had seen the film in at least 20 years. All I remembered was the tricked out wheelchair Corey Haim gets. And that the preacher is the werewolf. What I had forgotten is how well acted this is. Plus how the FX work is pretty good.

I'm shocked at how much is done on the small budget of 7 million. And the film didn't get the best reviews. But  back in the mid 80s most of your major movie reviewers hated horror. 

Anyways Silver Bullet gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 30 A Good Marriage

 

TITLE-Stephen King's A Good Marriage

SOURCE-Some file I found on a flash drive I lost 5 years ago

Yea I'm guessing the file I watched was a DVD rip. But wow first off Full Dark,No Stars is my favorite Stephen King Novellea/Short Story collection. And over the past 10 years 3 of the four Novelleas have been made into films. I covered Big Driver and 1922 in the past. So time to complete this trilogy. What is it with Stephen King novellea collections only have 3 of their 4 stories made into films? Same thing happened with Different Seasons.

Joan Allen is our lead and she discovers a hidden compartment in her husbands garage/workshop. In this compartment is a pile of IDs. IDs of women who had died in the past years by a uncaught serial killer. Anthony Lapaglia is her husband and part of his job is him being gone for days at a time. Joan starts checking the dates of when her husband was gone and the various unsolved deaths. They match up! She now is sure that her husband of 25 years is a monster.

Based on the BTK Killer,Dennis Rader,this is a pretty well done serial killer film. The cast isn't big names but Joan and Anthony are great as the leads. This will be the third time I have watched the movie. And really need to track down a DVD or Blu Ray of it.

Out of the so far three films based on stuff from Full Dark,No Stars A Good Marriage is in second place. 1922 is amazing and easily gets 1st. Good Driver was hindered by being made for Lifetime. So is the worst,but still worth seeing.

If you haven't read Full Dark,No Stars and/or seen any of the three films I mentioned...GO GET THE BOOK AND SEE THE THREE FILMS!! I see people griping often about how there has been no good horror in years. And here are 3 damn good horror films that no one mentions.

A Good Marriage gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 19 Firestarter

 

TITLE-Firestarter

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

This was the first Stephen King film I saw before I read the novel. And sure there is some major differences between the two,the one that stands out the most to me is how the novel ends compared to the book. They are both well done pieces of fiction.

Charley and her dad are on the run. Years ago Charley's parents had taken part in a drug trial. And both of them ended up developing powers out of this. The mom has TK and the dad can "push" people to do things. Now that Charley is showing that she has powers The Shop. The Shop is a secretive group in the CIA that does the wetworks missions.

After running for a long time they think they are safe. They find a cabin by a lake. Then the Shop shows up. They capture both of them and take them to a secret place the Shop runs.

While they are there the Shop seperates them. And slowly is driving a wedge between Charley and her father. But then the Dad manages to get a message to Charley. Once she learns that a janitor,who was an undercover shop agent,has been lying to her...Well all hell breaks loose.

Now I have seen this movie so many times. Even got a chance to see a 35mm print at a revival screening over a decade ago. And this blu from Scream Factory looks very close to the 35mm print I saw.

The Blu is loaded with extras. All of which are worth watching. Really my only complaint about this Blu is I hate the new artwork used for the cover. That is what I posted at the top. But Scream Factory is smart,the front cover is reversable and the other side is the cover that I remember from the VHS and DVD releases.

Firestarter gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 14 The Twilight Zone(1980s revival)

TITLE-The Twilight Zone
SOURCE-Airings on MeTV

Ahh yes the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone. I had seen some of the original Twilight Zone episodes but this mid 80s revival was my first good exposure to the series. I watched it every week when it was airing on CBS. Sadly when the show entered syndication for it's third and final season no channel I got carried it. So until MeTV picked it up I hadn't seen any from that final season.

Out of those first 2 seasons there is 3 episodes that stand out for me. The first is based on a Stephen King short story.Titled Gramma and it was part of the first season. During season 1 each episode was 1 hour long. So you would get 2 or 3 stories an episode. Gramma was part of the 18th episode of season 1.It first aired on Valentine's Day 1986. The screenplay was written by the late great Harlan Ellison. Which is a shock since Ellison had already had some very bad experiences working on TV shows.  A young boy is left at home alone to take care of his senile gramma.  Of course there is something we wouldn't expect with Gramma and the ending of this episode has the classic O'Henry style twist that Twilight Zone is well known for.

The next episode that stands out is titled Profile in Silver. This episode aired in March of 86 as the first half of the 20th episode.It has a history professor who goes back in time to witness the assassination of JFK. JFK's death is prevented. And we see how JFK living causes the future to be horrible.

The third episode is the second part of episode 20. Titled Button Button and based on a Richard Matheson short story with Matheson doing the screen play.Mare Winningham and Brad Davis are a married couple. Who are always having money problems. Then one day a box is delivered to them. It is a plain simple wooden box with a button on the top. The next day a strange man comes and explains to them that if they press the button 2 things will happen. They will be given 200,000 bucks. Plus someone they don't know will die. With money being tight the couple debates over pushing the button. And finally the wife presses it. The next day the  strange man returns. Gives them the 200,000. And tells them "Now I will give the box to someone you don't know." Implying that if the next people that get the box press the button Mare and/or Brad will die. If this sounds a familiar that is cause in 2009 Richard Kelly,best known for Donnie Darko,released a movie based on the same short story. This movie is titled The Box.

Now sure this 80s revival of Twilight Zone gets shit on. And it has more crap episodes than the original series did. It might be because I saw this show as a kid and nostalgia is clouding my judgment.It might also be that I have seen every episode of the original run of Twilight Zone many many times. Anyways I love the 80s Twilight Zone. And think the best episodes from it stack up to the best episodes of the original run.
.
Ok that's enough rambling from me. If you are interested in seeing this somewhat forgotten show it airs on MeTV Monday through Friday at 11:30pm central. Plus all three seasons have been released on DVD.

Twilight Zone(80s revival) gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 31 1922

Title-1922
Source-Netflix

Over at a friend's home helping pass out candy,she has Netflix and we are looking for a new horror film to watch. I read the description of 1922 and realize it is from the best Stephen King  novella collection Full Dark No Stars.

So far ,before 1922 which came out Oct 20th 2017 ,2 other novellas from the collection have been made into films. Both are worth seeing. Big Driver has Maria Bello,Olympia Dukakis plus Joan Jett in an exrended cameo and was made for the Lifetime channel a few years back. Don't hold its made for cable tv origins against it. Then Good Marriage got a limited theatrical release,i caught it on DVD. Again it's worth seeing.

1922 is a career highlight from Thomas Jane. He is buried so far in his role of a 20s Nebraska Salt of the Earth farmer that I didn't believe it was the same guy I mostly remember from The Mist or The Punisher.

Jane's wife wants to sell the farm to a local factory. And then move to the big city of Omaha.Jane as Wilfred wants to keep working the farm and convinces his teenage son that they must not sell the farm and move to the big city.

Wilfred convinces himself the only way to keep the farm is to kill his wife. He talks his son into helping him. And they pull off a well thought out murder. But a streak of bad luck strikes.

The son gets his girlfriend pregnant. She just happens to be the daughter of Wilfred's best friend. The son and pregnant girlfriend go on the run. And become a Bonnie and Clyde style of robbers/killers.

Really this is so worth seeing that I am ending my plot summery there. The cast is good,with Jane being AMAZING! The cinematography is nice to look at. My only gripe is mostly cause I have read,and loved,the novella many times. In the novella we are left to wonder if there is any kind of supernatural elements to the story at all. The few ghosts/etc could be delusional visions of a man under major mental stress. In the film this is way less ambiguous.

Still 1922 is the best new horror film of 2017s Halloween season. And it gets an A.

31 Days of Horror Day 27 The langoliers

Title-Stephen King's The Langoliers
Source-YouTube

I am pretty sure the last time I saw this was when it first aired back in 95. Found the almost 3 hour,looks like a DVD rip,cut on Youtube. And thought hell I need to rewatch this.

When it first aired I had read the novella it is based on. And wondered why a novella need right at 3 hours to tell the story.

The cast is a decent mix of tv vets that are average actors and one horrible misstep. The actress playing the King trope of somewhat psychic pre-teen,who is also blind,is almost as bad as the kid from House by the cemetery.

But the real stand out in this bloated,slightly hampered by a TV budget,film is Bronson Pinchot. He chews the scenes as the crazy real villain.

From what I can remember the movie follows the novella fairly close. With stuff added to the movie ,unneeded padding.

The Langoliers gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 23 Stephen King's It

Title-Stephen King's It
Source-VHS

Recently started going thru my stacks of VHS. Some of them are labeled some are not. So been kind of interesting seeing what is on these various tapes. On one tape was a recording of when some channel aired the tv mini series Stephen King's It a few years ago.

Ahh It,this was one of my most anticipated adaptation of a King novel. Maybe 2 years before the mini series premiered I had read the novel. And was wondering how they would be able to keep it true to the novel and still air it on broadcast TV.

Set in the town of Derry Maine,It is about an evil entity that feeds on children. Every so many years It kills a few children then disappears again. Until it meets up with a special group of children. This group is made up of all the outcasts at the local elementary school. And thru the bond they share they managed to kill It. Or so they thought.

They grow up and one by one move away from Derry. With only one of them staying behind.Now they are approaching middle age and find out that It is back. So can this gang of now adults manage to stop It?

This aired over 2 nights. Each night it was 2 hours with commercials. The first night covered the half of the story when they were kids. And the next night covered the last half when they are adults. It is surprisingly gory for a network TV mini series. And thanks to the great acting from Tim Curry It is packed with scary moments. Even having to tone down some parts of the novel didn't hurt the mini series too much.

What hurt it was how they handled the final battle with It. In the novel it gets very metaphysical. And has a bunch of connections to King's Dark Tower series of novels. In the mini series It is revealed to be a giant spider. Which our gang defeats. Yep a giant spider. I get that it would have been hard to recreate the battle from the novel. But they could have done something better than Hey it is is a giant spider.

Stephen King's It gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 08 Misery

Title-Misery
Source-New Line Home Video VHS

When I hear people talking about how there was no good horror coming out in the 90s until Scream,Misery is one of the first films I mention. Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her role as Annie Wilkes.

Months back I found a semi local store that still has a huge amount of VHS. Most of it seems to come from a few of the now closed local video stores.Plus it seems like I am the only person that comes in looking for VHS. I was trying to kill some time while waiting on someone,so went into the store just figuring I would look around for 20 minutes find nothing and leave. But fairly quick I saw that they must have restocked their VHS shelves. So that 20 minutes of looking around turned into about an hour of digging thru boxes and looking all over shelves for VHS.I had thankfully brought my laptop with me that day. So I went and grabbed it.Pulled up my list of all the movies/tv shows/etc I own and discovered I didn't own Misery. With the cheap prices the store wants for VHS I grabbed it.

Based on one of Stephen Kings best novels,Misery is the story of a writer and his number 1 fan.James Caan plays Paul. A writer who feels trapped. He has a series of best selling romance novels. But he is tired of that genre and wants to branch out. As is his tradition he goes way up in the mountains when he is writing the first draft of a new novel. He finishes the novel and is on his way back to his home when his car goes flying off the road.

When he wakes up he is in a bed. Seems Anne Wilkes,his NUMBER 1 FAN,found him. And  has him at her home until the snow clears enough for her to take him to a doctor.Thankfully she is a nurse so can help him heal.

She ends up reading his newest novel and reacts badly when the lead,Misery,dies. And this is when her evil side comes out. The rest of the movie is a cat and mouse game between our two leads. How far will Anne go to make sure Misery isn't dead? And will Paul ever be able to escape this lunatic's home?

This is one of the movies based on King's novels were I saw the movie first. Really there is only two major changes between the novel and the film. In the novel there is full chapters of the Misery romance novel. Having never read much of that genre I have no idea how well King goes about capturing the feel. To me it read like I expected a romance novel to read. THen the other change. In the film to make sure Paul can't escape,Anne takes a sledgehammer and smashes Paul's ankle in. Were as in the book I am pretty sure she cuts one of his feet off, Then uses a hot iron to cauterize the wound.

Misery is a damn good film. Caan should have been nominated for a best actor Oscar. And in my eyes the film should have gotten nominated also.The look of the film is bleak. It so perfectly captures the feel of being snowed in that even when I watch this during the summer I feel a bit cold.This is also one of the few King films that non-horror fans seem to enjoy.

Misery gets a A.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 057 The Drawing of Three

TITLE-The Dark Tower II The Drawing of Three
AUTHOR Stephen King
FORMAT-Oversized Trade paperback
FIRST TIME READING-LMAO No!
PRICE-$5

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!

With this book in the Dark Tower series we get away from the world building and start expanding the main cast. Roland ends up on a beach. And gets attacked by monster lobsters. He loses a few fingers and his bullets get wet. So now he is handicapped and his one weapon's ammo is unreliable.
He learns that there are 3 doors on this beach. Each one connecting to our world. And he is going to draw three people over to his world.

Behind the first door he finds Eddie. A heroin addict who is in the middle of smuggling some smack back into the states for a big time Mafioso. During this part there is plenty of really good scenes. With the gunfight at the Mafioso's HQ being so well done.

Behind the second door Roland finds Odette. A civil rights activist who thanks to an accident is trapped in a wheelchair. But the gunslinger learns she has a split personality.

And behind the third and last door. Roland finds the man that killed Jake from the first novel.

For the people that read the Dark Tower series this is usually the first novel in the run that they really enjoy. I believe this is because the first novel while shorter was much more dense. And you spend lots of time trying to figure stuff out. With The Drawing of Three you already know a bunch about Roland's world. Plus with a good chunk of the book happening in our world. In NYC in various time periods,you have a connection and understanding that isn't there with Roland's wasteland of a world.

I own 2 versions of this book. I got the hardcover and this oversized trade paperback. Both of which come with great artwork from Phil Hale. This artwork is sadly missing from the mass market paperback. Looks like the oversized trade paperback can still be found for a decent price. I got lucky and found it at a used bookstore. The owner wanted to get rid of it because the odd size of the book made it hard for her to rack it.

The Dark Tower II The Drawing of Three gets a 4.82 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 054 Full Dark,No Stars

TITLE-Full Dark,No Stars
AUTHOR-Stephen King
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
PRICE-$6.35

After watching the film versions of "A Good Marriage" and "Big Driver",I wanted to re-read this collection of 4 novellas.I got this originally as soon as the paperback was out. After the Dark Tower series ended,I have gotten where I wait on the paperbacks of King's books. Plus for the past 20 years I have found his short stories and novellas the best stuff he has done.

In a few interviews King was doing to promote the book he talked about how he had wanted to write some darker stuff.And talked about how much he enjoys reading Jack Ketchum. That desire to write darker stuff comes through in the 4 novellas and one short story in this collection.

1922 is the first novella in the collection. Set in Nebraska in 1922,it is about a man who's wife wants him to sell off their farmland and move to a big city. He doesn't want to do this. And convinces his son to help him kill the wife.

After she is killed the body is dumped in an old abandoned well. Which fills with rats.The husband believes the dead wife is haunting him. And a series of bad things happen to him and his son.

I like that this story is set in the town Mother Abigal in the Stand was from. Plus IIRC one of the kids in IT moved to this town when he grew up. Overall this is a well done story. It feels very Edgar Allen Poe inspired.

Big Driver is the second novella.Tess is an author of mystery novels. And her fanbase is mostly elderly women.She goes to a small town library to give a speech. And one of the ladies gives her directions for a short cut. Of course this being a King story something has to happen.

While using the short cut,Tess's car hits some boards with nails and gets a flat. She has no idea how to change the tire. And there is no cell signal out there,so she has to wait on someone to drive by. Finally a huge man in a truck stops and offers to help. While he is trying to change the tire,Tess notices boards with nails in them in the back of his truck.

He then attacks,rapes and then leaves Tess for dead in a drainage ditch. She escapes and plots her revenge.

This story really has a much darker feel that pretty much anything King has written since the mid 80s.This ended up being my second favorite story in the book.

Fair Extension is next.And it is a twist on the normal sell your soul to the devil. It is a nice dark comedy. And King is decent at writing that kind of stuff.

The final novella is my favorite,A Good Marriage. This is King's fictionalized version of the BTK killer story.

A wife discovers her husband is a fairly infamous serial killer. And then plots out his death.

Last year this was made into a film. And I am not surprised. It has a very cinematic feel. And is my favorite novella King has written.

And only in the paperback we get a short story. Under the weather is the title of it. It is fairly short and has a twist I called 1 page in. But not a bad story.

Full Dark,No Stars gets a 4.87 outta 5

2015 Reading Challenge Book 052 The Gunslinger original edition

TITLE-The Dark Tower Volume 1 The Gunslinger
AUTHOR-Stephen King
FORMAT-Trade Paperback with color inserts
FIRST TIME READING-LOL nah
COST-$9

There is a handful of books I love so much I read them once a year. The Gunslinger is one of them.And one of the few books I own in more than one format. Of the original edition I got the above pictured trade paperback,the normal sized paperback that is missing the art inserts and finally the limited hardcover.And if a new version of this edition came out with new cover art that I liked I would buy it.

So what is the book about. Our hero,if you can call him that,is Roland. The last of the gunslingers. In this world the gunslingers are their version of the military and cops combined. He is on a mission to track down and capture the man in black. No not Johnny Cash.

In this book,the first of 9 books in the series yeah I said 9,we get introduced to Roland and his world. Which appears to be very similar to our world. With stuff that we share. But also very different. Roland comes to the town of Tull. Which appears to be an old western town. We find out that a big war happened that changed this world. And that Roland is the last of a long line of gunslingers.

Also in this book Roland saves a boy from our world. Jake,who it seems came to this world after being killed in ours.While chasing the Man in Black. Who has taken a tunnel through a mountain,Roland has to make a what seems to be hard decision. And his choice lets us know so much about how dedicated Roland is to his final mission.

For the people that haven't read this book,honestly it is a hard read. Firstly it is nothing like any of the other books in Mr King's history. It reads like you are in chapter 10 of a 50 part series.And lots of stuff is left up to the reader to figure out. That is why when ever someone tells me they are going to read the Dark Tower series,I always tell them. "Do not give up on it until you finish book 2." Hell I see lots of people saying to skip the first book. But you shouldn't do that. All the stuff in this book that makes no sense is explained later on.

As for why this is one of my favorite books? There are many reasons. There is the way King blends so many genres into the age old quest storyline. This volume of the series is a blend of western,science fiction,fantasy,horror and psychological suspense genres.

Now you might have noticed I call this the original edition. That is because back before the 7th and final volume in the series was published,King went and revised The Gunslinger. At the time he said it was to make the book fit better with the later books in the series and to correct a few nagging mistakes.And it does do that. But I also have a theory on why we now have two versions of this book. Which I can't talk about because they majorly spoil later volumes in the series and the end of the series. I think to highly of this series to spoil it for anyone that hasn't read it. But if you want to hear my theory on why we have two versions of The Gunslinger track me down and I will be happy to tell you.

The Dark Tower volume 1 The Gunslinger original edition gets a 4.98 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 042 Carrie

TITLE-Carrie

AUTHOR-Stephen King

FORMAT-Paperback

FIRST TIME READING-Nope! I can not remember how many times I have read this book.

COST-10 cents

Right after I moved back to Mississippi the local library had it's 4 time a year book sale. They had 4 or 5 copies of Carrie. So instead of the normal 50 cents for a paperback,they were 10 cents. I had left most of my books out in Texas. And had no clue what all I owned. I figured if I bought it and already had a copy out in Texas I was out 10 cents. When I did get my stuff I had left 2 states to the west ,either I had not owned a copy of Carrie or someone had borrowed mine.

I feel like everyone reading this knows the story. They have either seen one if not all of the three film adaptations. I have only seen the original film and the made for TV remake.The original film is a decent adaptation of the novel. The main parts that are missing are medical reports that would have been hard to translate to the screen.

As for the novel. I choose to read it this time because I couldn't sleep. I thought reading something I have read many many times before would distract my brain long enough for me to get some much needed sleep. That didn't happen and in a little under 3 1/2 hours I read the entire book.

Hmmm.. what more can I say. I like this cover more than any other US printings cover. I wonder how many people before me owned and read this copy. I don't like Carrie enough to want to own it in hardcover.So this cheap kind of beat up paperback copy will do well.

Carrie gets a 2.85 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 024 The Bachman Books by Stephen King

BOOK TITLE-The Bachman Books
AUTHOR-RIchard Bachman AKA Stephen King
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$2

This was one of the first 5 Stephen King books I read.What drew me to it at first was not only did it contain 4 complete novels,it also had The Running Man. I had recently seen the movie. So wanted to read the novel.

I am sure people reading this know why King wrote books under the Bachman pen name. And why he revealed this secret.The four novels this collection reprints were pretty hard to find before it was known King was Bachman. Once that piece of knowledge got out they became super hard to find. So this collection was published to not only give the fans a way to read these stories. But there was so much demand the publishing company knew they would make a nice profit.

Well onto the stories in the collection. Gonna do them from worst to best.

Roadwork-A already slightly deranged man finds out his house is being demolished to make way for a road. And we get to see his mental state goto shit. As he plans out a way to prevent this road. What makes this the worst novel in the collection to me is that it is way to long. The idea is decent. But it would work much better as a short story.

The Running Man-Set in a dsytopic future. We get the story of a man who is trying to keep his family living. His son is deathly ill.Mostly because of all the pollution in the air. He ends up on The Running Man gameshow. Where he hopes to make enough money to provide for his family's well being. As you can see already the story is very different from the film. The film just takes a few ideas from this story and changes so much. There is no arena in the book. Instead our hero is hiding in the cities and countryside. I enjoy the film. With it being one of the few Arnold action films I can still watch and enjoy. The book though is so much better. I would love to see a proper adaptation of the book. But I doubt that will happen.

Rage-This story is the reason why this collection is now out of print. And according to Mr King this story will never be reprinted. Thankfully it is really easy to find this collection in used bookstores for cheap. The store I got it from usually has at least 5 copies on the shelf. This is a tale of a high school student. He has some emotional issues. And is about to be kicked out of school. So he shows up to school with a pistol. And takes his morning class hostage. I know of at least two incidents where someone who had read this story tried to take a high school class hostage. Because of that and various school shootings Mr King asked that this collection be taken out of print. I understand why he felt he should do this.

The Long Walk-It is somewhat uncommon for King to write science fiction. This story set in the near future is one of my favorite non-Dark Tower books from King. Every year 100 young men start on the long walk. You have to walk a non-stop. And keep up at least a minimum speed. If you break any of the rules you get a warning. Three warnings and you are killed. The walk keeps going until there is only one person left.I am really surprised that so far this hasn't been adapted into a film or an episode of a TV show.

Even the worst novel in this collection is worth and read. With the best two being 2 of my favorite Stephen King books.

The Bachman Books gets a 4.15 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 016 Danse Macabre

2015 Reading Challenge Book 000 Danse Macabre written by Stephen King

BOOK TITLE-Danse Macabre

AUTHOR-Stephen King

FORMAT-Paperback

READ FIRST TIME-No

COST-$1.50

Danse Macabre is King's early 80s thesis,for lack of a better word,on the history and future of the horror genre. He spends chapters talking about horror in fiction,movies,tv shows and even radio.

This is more than likely the 4th copy of this novel I have owned. I always end up losing them or loaning them out and never getting them back. One good thing is every used bookstore is loaded with King's books. And this one is easy as hell to find. I got my current copy for $1.50. And the owner,who I have known since I was 4,told me she had had this copy for years. "People just don't seem to buy his non-fiction." 

After reading this book for the who knows how many times,I now have a long list of films,books,tv shows and old time radio shows  I want to read,see or hear. After reading his critique of the original Amityville Horror film I now see it in a totally different light. King calls this film "the ultimate Yuppie horror film." And I can see why. 

If you have any interest in the history of the horror genre grab a copy of this novel and check it out.

Danse Macabre gets a 4.15 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 015 The Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born

2015 Reading Challenge Book 015 The Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born written by Peter David and Robin Furth art by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove

 BOOK TITLE-The Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born
AUTHOR-Peter David,Robin Furth and Stephen King
FORMAT-Hardcover
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$15

I love Stephen King. It was through him that I got into horror fiction. Out of all his books I love his Dark Tower series the most. Having now read the 9 books in the proper series at least 3 times each. So I heard King was letting Peter David,who I have never cared for much,and Robin Furth to write comic books that will fill in some of the gaps in the story of Roland I was really excited. Knowing that these mini series would get put out in hardcovers and trades I skipped buying the single issues. Got this beautiful hardcover in a Sci Fi Book Club sale. And since then have read the second collection. I plan on getting them all one day. But have been wanting to get them all in hardcover and all fairly cheap.

The Gunslinger Born is made up of stuff from Books 1 and 4 of the Dark Tower series. With some new stuff added in. We start off with pre-teen Roland being set up by a magician who has been sleeping with Roland's mother while his father is away. Roland finds out about his mother's affair,and this prompts him to go and take his test of manhood way ahead of time. In Roland's world the gunslingers are the closest thing they have to the knights of ancient times. And if you fail the test of manhood you are banished and leave the civilized part of the world in shame. But thanks to some quick thinking and an unusual choice of weapon Roland passes the test. And becomes the youngest gunslinger ever.

Before Roland has a chance to exact his vengeance on the man his mother has been cheating on his father with,he gets assigned a mission. Roland and 2 friends go out to Hambry. They are there to do a census on the various goods Hambry has that will help out the fight against an evil man who is trying to take over what is left of the world. They get there and find out the leader and law enforcement of Hambry are working for this evil man.Also Roland meets the love of his life.

With the Dark Tower novels my least favorite is book 4.  When it came out I had waited 5 years for the next volume of the Dark Tower series to come out. And instead of getting more adventures of Roland and his band of gunslingers in training,I get a bit of that story then the rest of the novel is a flashback of Roland's trip to Hambry. Now that the entire series is over I see why King felt the need to tell this story of Roland's past. I prefer the comic version of book 4. Cause it cuts out some of the "fat" from the novel.And you get some amazing Jae Lee artwork. I have been a fan of Mr Lee for a long ass time now. And his artwork on this series is the best stuff I have seen from him since Hellshock.

I do wonder how accessible this hardcover would be to someone that hasn't read any of the Dark Tower novels.So if anyone reading this post has read the hardcover and not the actual novels let me know what you thought.

The Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Reborn gets a 4.60 outta 5.

Library Booksale Haul Jan 2014

Overslept today,which was nice when I have been lucky to get more than 4 hours sleep since before X-mas. Got up grabbed a quick breakfast and had time to kill so went to see what the library booksale had.

Use to be the local library,which is the only one for THREE COUNTIES! Yeah think about that for a few minutes. This place is tiny and covers three entire counties.Anyways used to be they had a library booksale 2 or 3 times a year. And I have found some decent stuff at them. But starting sometime in 2014 they took a small section of the library and made it into a permanent booksale area. With a few bins of paperbacks,3 or so shelves full of hardbacks. Then boxes and bins full of unsorted books,vhs,cassettes,etc.

Was told the other day that they had just gotten in a big amount of new stock and it wasn't the normal stacks and stack of John Grisham,Fern Michaels or James Patterson stuff.

With the prices on books being super cheap I had just brought 10 bucks and maybe 4 bucks in assorted change. I had thought ahead and put a plastic bag in my back pocket. Thinking I would be grabbing lots of stuff.

After a quick glance at the new release shelf,where I saw nothing I wanted to read I walked over to the bins of paperbacks.The last time I was here to look not only was there 2 big wooden bins but at least 8 huge boxes of paperbacks under the bins. No boxes this time. But that just means I don't have to bend over and dig through dusty old boxes.

 

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Tried watching season 1 of the tv show and quickly got bored with it. Been avoiding the books since Martin hasn't finished the series yet. But I keep getting recommendations on the books from people who's opinions I trust. Gonna throw this one into the "Will read one day" pile.This copy looks brand new. No cracks on the spine. Really it looks like it was never read or even opened.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Angel Chronicles Vol 1 by Nancy Holder

8 years or ago Dollar Tree was overflowing with books from this series of Buffy novels. The ones I found and read were original stories. But this seems to be novelizations of 3 Angel-centric episodes.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Gold Bug by Edgar Allen Poe

I love Poe. And this collection of two of his better short stories is great. Dating from the 70s it has pictures from the film versions of the two stories. I know there is better collections of Poe's stories.I mainly grabbed this one cause of the pictures.

Captain Shark Vol 1 Jaws of Death by Richard Silver

I just recently discovered the world of 60s and 70s Men's adventure novels. Stuff like The Executioner,The Remo Williams series and many many others. Even found a few blogs that contain fun reviews of these semi forgotten pieces of fiction. Never heard of Captain Shark. The cover caught my attention and I plan on trying to read this fairly soon.

Red by Jack Ketchum

FUCK YEAH!!! A Ketchum novel I don't own. Really I would have bought any Ketchum novel I found. But to find one I hadn't read. And one where I love the movie,made the trip worth it.This is going never the top of my unread horror fiction pile.

I then started looking at the shelves full of hardbacks. Lots of really old self help books.Bios on people I have never heard of. And a whole bunch of the Left Behind novels.But I did find two things.

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

I thought I owned this. Thankfully I keep a halfway complete booklist on my laptop. So I checked it and saw I didn't own this book at all. I would have preferred a paperback. But at least the dust jacket is in good shape. I checked and it isn't a first print. No joke if it had been I would have flipped it quickly on Abebooks or Amazon. Already read this book 2 times. Many many years ago. Will re-read it one day.For now it will join my ever rotating hardback shelf.

Spook Country by William Gibson

The only ex-library book in my haul. And one that I got a connection too. This copy comes from my local library. I checked it out the day they got it in. And every visit to the library I would see it sitting on the shelf. I kind of doubt it got checked out that much. Which would be why they are selling it. It is in perfect shape. From what I remember it was one of the Gibson novels that is set "3 years in the future". I enjoyed it but not as much as the Sprawl series or his other earlier works.

So I ended up doing pretty decent. Total cost was $1. I never saw any vhs,dvds,cassettes. Really all they had was paperbacks,hardbacks and a huge stack of magazines. I looked at the mags quickly and it was all Nat Geos,gardening stuff and other mags of that ilk.

Between what I got today and all the books/comics I got for the holidays I am covered until July. So if you are reading this and want to get me a birthday gift,July 10th,grab me a book. Or not,I don't give a fuck.