Stephen King: Terror Taken from Books to Seventh Art

 By Alicia Centelles

Terror in Stephen King´s books catches the reader from the first pages and does not abandon him until the last, because the supernatural and madness take over perfectly described human communities, composed of very human characters.

There are many film critics who mention American film It among the best productions seen in 2017, in addition to highlighting the fact it has become the highest grossing horror film in the history of that country. The movie, a remake of another one made in 1990, is based on a story by Stephen King, an author specialized in making the reader's hair stand on end and with a long literary career.

It tells the story of a group of children whose lives are not easy in the midst of abuse and family problems, but who forget all their conflicts when they are together. Their difficult existence is complicated by the appearance of an evil clown, Pennywise, who devours his victims and against whom they must fight so as not to fall into his clutches.

This character is part of the terrifying universe created by Stephen King, one of the writers with a true record in terms of film adaptations of his works: 68 from 1976 to date! Among the most outstanding films based on his short stories and novels are Carrie (1976), nominated for two Oscars in the categories of Best Actress (Sissy Spacek) and Best Supporting Actress (Piper Laurie); and The Shining (1980), with an unrepeatable Jack Nicholson. There are also Misery (1990), which earned Kathy Bates an Oscar for Best Actress; Life Sentence (1994), nominated for seven Academy Awards and two Golden Globes, and The Green Mile (1999), also a contender for four Oscars.

However, regardless of the good luck that has accompanied most of the creations of this prolific author in his versions for the big screen and television series with high ratings, his extensive production shows that he perfectly dominates the mechanisms of the horror genre.

In his essay entitled Macabre Dance (1981) he says "we invent fictional horrors to help us endure the real ones". But it is undeniable that, regardless of the fondness of many for this type of subject, Stephen King's mastery to take us by the hand for his terrifying stories, and the way in which his characters face and deal with the evil and the unknown,  they are hallmarks of his literary work.

It is also true that not all of his writings have enjoyed the same fortune when taken to the cinema. Some have become more than mediocre films and others are frankly bad audiovisual products, such as The Dark Tower. But this has not alienated his followers, always willing to be frightened by his dark and sometimes suffocating plots.

Because a good horror story exerts an attraction that is difficult to get away from. Perhaps this is because in a way it takes us back to childhood, where, as the writer declares, "our own shadow can once again become that of an aggressive dog, an open mouth or an ominous silhouette."

King doesn´t live by terror alone

Heir to the great American tradition in horror narrative, with such outstanding exponents as Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen Edwin King (Maine, September 21, 1947) was interested in that genre since an early age. As he himself confesses, events such as the discovery in his aunt's house of a box full of old fantasy and horror novels, and listening to a radio serial with his grandfather contributed to reinforce that preference in the future writer. 

Also since his childhood, his ability to deepen people's minds, their hobbies, obsessions and fears was evident. This quality is the origin of a distinctive feature in his work: the terror it contains catches the reader from the first pages and does not abandon him until the last, because the supernatural and madness take over perfectly described human communities, composed of very human characters.

The strong point of his literary craft is the psychological portrait and description of the environment in which his characters live. From a humble background, the author of Carrie had several jobs before devoting himself fully to literature, among them, digging graves in a cemetery, and his ability to observe allowed him to bring to his books the scenarios in which he lived and worked. The protagonists of his stories—usually a writer, middle-class people, or a child—are often inspired by people he met.

There is also a link between monsters and supernatural forces in his narratives, to the point that his scholars speak of the Kingverse, a world whose interconnections have their center in the The Dark Tower saga.

In these eight books published between 1998 and 2012, there are some recurring elements: the Prim, the "darkness behind everything", and the basis of this multiverse; Father Callahan, center of the plot of The Mystery of Salem's Lot and whose story will last 29 years over four books; Randall Flagg, the villain of Apocalypse, King's longest and most ambitious novel... and many other characters.

Likewise, the subject of parallel universes, which the author begins to point out in The Talisman, is refined in its 2001 sequel, Black House, and appears again in The Dark Tower. In It these links are stronger, and what is more important, the foundations on which the Kingverse is based begin to appear. The main one is Maturin Turtle, Pennywise's infinite rival, who is much more than an evil clown. 

But this American author not only owes his fame and his fortune to his chilling stories and novels: other titles born from his prolific pen have also become well-known bestsellers. Such are the cases of The Body, Rita Hayworth and the Redemption of Shawshank and The Green Mile, all three successfully taken to the cinema.

If you don't like to read, don't write

It is true that from the publication of Carrie in 1974 – censored in American schools and whose film version was banned in Finland – King began the path of millionaire and famous writers, and continued to create successful books at an exponential rate.

But although he has repeatedly made clear his lack of literary pretensions, his criteria on the craft of writing show a deep reflection on the subject. Thus, in Danza Macabra, through a fun combination of biographical anecdotes and a three-decade journey through literature and horror cinema, he tries to respond to the paradox of people paying  to be frightened.

We also have to mention While I write, a master class on the craft of writing and in which he exposes such lucid criteria as "If you do not have time to read, you will not have the time or the necessary tools to write.”

And although there are many who criticize his almost industrial production of literature and what they describe as "lack of intellectual flight", the author of The Dead Zone y Cujo responds: "Writing is not a matter of making money, becoming famous, flirting a lot or making friends. Ultimately, it's about enriching the lives of people who read what you do, and at the same time enriching yours."