Steven King fans, defend yourselves!

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I think Steven King sucks. I'm not looking to start a fight here, but his movies are lame and never scary. Plus, the casting is a disaster, and whats with the weird, fog light looking lens treatment or whatever it is they do in all his movies? Yes, I'm checking out Rose Red and I'm about to change the channel.

OK, The Shining is an exception, but that wasn't Kings credit really. He had to remake it as a made for TV piece of crap with the usual bad cast, poor cinematography and complete absence of any scary elements.
So, in the words of our wise Hrothgar, What say you?

 

All I have to say, is that I am not a fan.

 

Yeah, the movies suck, with the exception of The Green Mile, but his books are great. I love his dialogue, his use of local dialect, and his attention to detail. The plots of his books appeal to base human fears. Very simple gritty reading. I admit it, I love pulp. Still, as much of a fan of his books as I am, I cannot defend the movies made from them. They're awful.

(Ok, IT was decent, before I read the book. I watched it when I was kinda young, and I had a hard time going to the bathroom with the door closed for a good long time. Still, it doesn't hold a candle to the book.)

[This message has been edited by Damona Silvercloud (edited January 28, 2002).]

 

Well when i was younger they were pretty damn (can i say that here, its not so rude )SCARY! i couldnt slep because of that IT.
Now nothing frightens me!

A bug!

 

Well, I have to say that claiming an *author* sucks because some movies suck is pretty strange. Perhaps he's a bad filmmaker (I don't know what, if any, role he had in the movie making), but he's a first rate author. Salem's Lot is an outstanding book, IT and The Stand were pretty good, and the others I've read were at least decent (generally better than that, but horror isn't my especial interest).

Next I suppose you'll be saying Frank Herbert's not a god, because the Dune movie was lame, huh?

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

I can only say I agree with vormearin. A great many things are *lost* in the book ---> movies. And Steven King has had little to do with instructing movies.

Anyway, did you have a bad hairday or what?

 

As above. The author does not suck just because some of the films are poor.

Still, The Shining, Misery and the Green Mile are all good films.

Can't compare with the books, coz I ain't read'em. I would expect them to be better still, as books almost always are.

 

What about the Shawshank Redemption? That was a pretty good film, and a bit of a deviation from Stephen King's usual supernatural stuff. Never read the book, though, so I couldnt tell you how good that was.

 

I never saw any of the movies. King's books are wonderful. They represent both the stark realism of our lives and what we really think, contrasted with the horrors that lurk in the dark that could just maybe possibly happen.

Stephen King is a good horror/fiction author, and one can't judge a book by its movie.

 

Suprised none of you mentioned the Eye of the Dragon...very good book, I suggest reading it.

I'm not into most of his horror kinda writing, but I liked.....argh can't remember the name of it, but it was about a horror writer who was being held by some phyco women.

Also the Shawshank Redemption was very moving indeed...

Although I can understand your dislike for some of his work like "Tommy Knockers"...

 

That would be Misery, and I forgot all about The Shawshank Redemption, another excellent movie. Eye of the Dragon is a great book, as well as the Dark Tower series. I just wish he'd finish it, the suspense kills me.

 

You have a weird point of view, lad... Stephen King is a writer, not a filmmaker! Read the books, okay? and don't watch the movies if you think they suck.

 

I've read one of his books, something about Eyes of a Dragon (A fantasy book, obviously)
And tried to read another, but... Doesn't work.

Somehow, his books just don't click for me.

Ara
(Only 25 minutes till Hell... I have to go and clean up mmy room...)

 

If you judge writers solely by the films than until about three months ago Tolkien was a very bad writer eh?

 

I'd say he's a poor author but not a bad storyteller. I've tried to read some of his stuff but haven't liked most of it. However, one that is very very good to me is "The Long Walk" which he wrote as Bachman.

 

King rules, one of my favorite writers. I've read about every book he's written and seen most of the movies based on them. The Dark Half movie is one of the best examples of translating a book to movie I've seen. And for an intersting read get Desperation and The Regulators (by Richard Bachman) that he published simultaniously using the same group of characters in two different stories.

Orkrist: what movies (if any) do you find scary? I don't read King's books or watch the movies/miniseries for the scare but for the story they tell.

Will: Shawshank Redemption isn't a book it's a novella in a collection of 4 called Different Seasons (same book Apt Pupil and Stand By Me are from). As usual the book is better cause it goes more in depth into the minds of the inmates and gives a better perspective of the time Andy wasted away in Shawshank. Still the movie did a good job and used conversation and voice-overs real well to convey unfilmable parts. A good non-horror (mostly) group of stories.

Lord Sarevok: Tommyknockers the series or book? The series should have been twice as long to actually cover everything in the book, one of King's longest non-Stand books

And finally the Shining movie is HORRIBLE compared to the book and miniseries, which actually stayed true to the story King wrote. Kubrick took so many liberaties with the characters and totally butchered the ending. It's a good creepy movie if you don't love the book, but the faithful miniseries ABC did was way better.

 

I've enjoyed most of the King books that I've read. How can you possibly judge an author by the quality of movies based on his books. I KNOW that Stephen King did not direct or write the screenplays for any of the films that have been based on his work.

I'm surprised that no one here has mentioneed the Dark Tower/Gun Slinger books......WOW!

 

Llandon, please check my previous post. ^^^

 

Well there aren't going to be many more given he has announced his retirement. One more novel, one more collection of short stories plus the final three parts of the dark tower series.

Used to read rather a lot of them, although none of the more recent ones.A good storyteller, who unfortunately seems unable to consistently come up with a good finale to his works. Which seems to afflict pretty much all his horror based stuff.

First one I ever got was Dolores Claiborne, actaully took a long time to get into, had given up and read a few more before I got round to it, which is a bit of a shame as it is one of his best in my opinion.