The "King" of horror may not be out to prove his talent. After all, he's had numerous best sellers, had much cinematic success with the film adaptions, but with a new novel release that follows up with his more successful work "The Shining" and a remake of his first movie adaption, fans are growing by the numbers. Adults who grew up reading "The Shining" and watching "Carrie" now have "Dr Sleep" and new King movies to pass on to their teenage children.
The remake of "Carrie", which stars Choe Grace Moretz as Carrie White and Julianne Moore as her unstable evangelical mother, opens October 18th 2013 in theaters. Opinions are quite mixed, with fans of the original film looking forward to a new rendition of the classic that was released 35 years ago, and other critics expressing misgivings about a remake in the first place.
"Carrie" was published in 1974 and the movie released in theaters in 1976, both to rave reviews. It is still considered by fans to be one of the best King adaptions to date, and is pulling in new horror fans to King's works. It follows Carrie White, an abused and bullied girl who finds out she has telekinetic powers which explode when both her mother and her schoolmates push her too far on Prom Night. The storyline, dealing with difficult times in high school, isolation and the idea of being singled out, being able to punish back always seems to speak to young people,and anyone who still has a sharp memory of High School.
"The Shining" was published in 1977, King's third novel and the first successful hardcover. It was contrived after he and his wife, Tabitha, took a weekend away to the Stanley Hotel, where they were the only guests, and King had had a nightmare about a firehose chasing his young son.
Contriving a story with a family, Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy and son Danny, taking a job as caretakers of a summer resort, the Overlook Hotel. What his parents don't realize, is Danny's sixth sense, a gift that allows him to see spirits and hear people's thoughts.
"The Shining" focused on Jack's descent into madness and alcoholism, eventually trying to murder his family under the influence of the Overlook Hotel's ghosts, leading to his untimely end, and "Doctor Sleep" picking up nearly immediately where it left off, the prologue following Wendy, Danny and former Overlook employee Dick Halloran into their recovery from the events. Fast-forwarding to Danny's adulthood where he's unfortunately inherited his father's taste for the bottle as it calms and quiets his gift, he runs into another like him, and remembering Halloran's words and kindness, attempts to do the same for his young charge.
The writing style is nearly identical to "The Shining" of previous years, yet seems cleaner, more cruel and brings back all the feeling of dread and foreboding from the first.
It absolutely proves Stephen King's muse has gone nowhere all these years. Seeing how quickly King's novels were optioned as films, it will be very very interesting to see how quicly a studio will option "Doctor Sleep" and more importantly, would Danny Lloyd be interested?
"Doctor Sleep" is now available in hardcover in bookstores, and barnesandnobles.com as an ebook.
"Carrie" will be released October 18th, 2013 in theaters everywhere.
