Since the 1970s, the name Stephen King has been synonymous with horror. His vast number of books has spawned a similar number of feature films and TV shows, and together they offer a rich opportunity to consider how one writer’s work has been adapted over a long period within a single genre and across a variety of media—and what that can tell us about King, about adaptation, and about film and TV horror. Starting from the premise that King has transcended ideas of authorship to become his own literary, cinematic, and televisual brand,
Screening Stephen King
explores the impact and legacy of over forty years of King film and television adaptations.
Simon Brown first examines the reasons for King’s literary success and then, starting with Brian De Palma’s
Carrie
, explores how King’s themes and style have been adapted for the big and small screens. He looks at mainstream multiplex horror adaptations from
Cujo
to
Cell
, low-budget DVD horror films such as
The Mangler
and
Children of the Corn
franchises, non-horror films, including
Stand by Me
The Shawshank Redemption
, and TV works from
Salem’s Lot
Under the Dome.
Through this discussion, Brown identifies what a Stephen King film or series is or has been, how these works have influenced film and TV horror, and what these influences reveal about the shifting preoccupations and industrial contexts of the post-1960s horror genre in film and TV.