Screening Stephen King: Adaptation and the Horror Genre in Film and Television

Simon Brown

feb 2018 · University of Texas Press

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“Gathers together the unruly mess of King adaptations . . . And places it within the sociocultural and industrial context of four decades of horror.” —Philip L. Simpson, author of Psycho Paths
 
Starting from the premise that Stephen 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 and The Shawshank Redemption, and TV works from Salem’s Lot to 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.
 
“Well-written . . . It really is the most exhaustive analysis of Stephen King on the screen that has ever been written.” —Cinepunx
 
“This book is not only essential as a study of Stephen King and his works adapted to the big and small screen; it is also an exemplary study of the evolution of the horror genre in its ebb and flow from literary adaptation to gore-laden saturation and beyond since the mid-1970s.” —Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, author of Postmodern Vampires

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SIMON BROWN is an associate professor of film and television at Kingston University. His previous books include Cecil Hepworth and the Rise of the British Film Industry 1899–1911.