If you recall, The Losers’ Club is counting down Stephen King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best. For May, the heat turns up as they round out the 40s with a handful of picks that race all around King’s Dominion. In fact, one divisive title dusts off an iconic debate within the Club.

Stream the episode below and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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Missed the first three episodes? Catch up below!

The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #46-41 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As The Boys concluded its epic run, an eerie sense of prophecy seemed to plague the fifth and final season. Based on the comics by Garth Ennis, the Prime Video series takes place in a world where superheroes are real, but must contend with all-too-human flaws. Over forty episodes, we’ve watched Homelander (Antony Starr), a sinister twist on Superman, bully and brutalize his way into the highest levels of geopolitical power.

As life continues to imitate art, the supervillain’s fifth-season arc features shocking parallels to our reality and a certain U.S. President, including a life-sized golden statue and a vision of the superhero as Jesus Christ. Surprised by these coincidences, series creator Eric Kripke insists he based Homelander’s dramatic fall on historical examples of authoritarian creep, quipping, “It’s just really hard to out-satire this world.”

The series finale features an epic showdown between Homelander and his mortal enemy, resistance fighter Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), who leads a ragtag team known as the Boys. Butcher and his partner in crime, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), find themselves aided by Homelander’s estranged son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), in an epic battle that nearly destroys the West Wing.

But strip away the superpowers, capes, and bombastic effects, and this climactic battle is a modernized version of another classic political thriller. Stephen King’s The Dead Zone features a similar face-off between an unexpected vigilante and a villainous politician destined to bring about the end of the world.  

The Dead Zone’s Greg Stillson laid the groundwork for Homelander decades ago

Martin Sheen during a campaign in a scene from the film ‘The Dead Zone’, 1983. (Photo by Paramount Pictures/Getty Images)

First published in 1979, King’s award-winning novel follows Johnny Smith, a doomed schoolteacher who spends five years in a coma after a near-fatal accident. He awakens with clairvoyant power and the ability to access anyone’s deeply held secrets through physical touch. Smith locates his doctor’s long-lost mother and assists the sheriff of a neighboring town in unmasking the identity of a serial killer by holding the hand of his most recent victim.

King parallels Smith’s mysterious journey with the career of an ambitious businessman. We’re first introduced to Greg Stillson as an enterprising bible salesman who kicks a barking dog to death after checking his surroundings for witnesses. 

As he rises up the political chain, Stillson bribes his way to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. With a biker gang working as his personal strongmen, he will stop at nothing to amass more power. We watch as he threatens his political rivals and arranges the death of an FBI agent investigating his many crimes. Perhaps most disturbing, Stillson knows how to charm an audience, enjoying meteoric political success thanks to his talent for deception and a mega-watt grin that effectively hides his villainy. David Cronenberg’s 1983 adaptation of the story casts Martin Sheen in this pivotal role, sixteen years before he would play the beloved President Josiah Bartlet in Aaron Sorkin’s long-running series The West Wing.

Homelander is also adept at this cleverly concealed dichotomy, hiding his own murderous rage behind highly orchestrated acts of heroism. We first meet the blonde superhero as he stops a dangerous bank robbery, then pauses for selfies with his adoring fans. Literally draped in the American flag, he constantly reminds the world that civilians and first responders are the true heroes, downplaying his own actions to maintain a humble facade.

It’s only behind closed doors that we see who Homelander truly is. While attempting to save a hijacked plane, he accidentally kills the pilots too, sending the commercial jet plummeting to the ocean below. Because he can’t let the world know that he has failed, the callous hero refuses to save anyone onboard and allows hundreds of innocent passengers to sink along with the plane’s wreckage, sacrificing their lives to preserve his pristine reputation. 

As the seasons go by, Homelander slowly becomes more powerful, eliminating or vilifying anyone who stands in his way. He’s surrounded by a loyal group of sycophants who enable his increasingly egregious acts through a complex system of propaganda and misinformation. But the psychopath’s ambition knows no bounds. When the sitting U.S. President balks at his desire to eliminate Congress and imprison or kill the opposition, Homelander crushes the politician’s head and installs his loyal fixer in the coveted role.

Both villains mask violence behind patriotic spectacle

Antony Starr (Homelander). Photo credit: Jasper Savage/Prime

Having injected a rare serum granting him immortality, Homelander plans an Easter address in which he will declare himself the second coming of Christ and order the world to fall to their knees. Fortunately, Butcher and the Boys force their way into the Oval Office, determined to stop him once and for all.  

King’s The Dead Zone condenses this epic saga into a single vision of the future, instead focusing on the veracity of Smith’s clairvoyant power. By the time he crosses paths with the sinister political candidate, we firmly believe that these outlandish visions serve as an iron-clad prophecy. Shaking his hand, Smith glimpses a terrifying future of Stillson’s presidency, the man’s angry temperament sparking a nuclear war that will bring about the end of the world. Burdened with this knowledge, Smith knows that his singular vision cannot combat Stillson’s benevolent facade and decides to take matters into his own hands. He buys a rifle and stakes out the setting for an upcoming political rally, hiding in the auditorium’s balcony. 

As Stillson delivers a well-received speech, Smith misses his first shot, allowing his target time to defend himself. Frightened for his life, Stillson grabs a nearby toddler and holds him in the path of danger. Unwilling to kill the child Stillson uses as a human shield, Johnny relents and is fatally shot, but not before a photographer captures a damning picture of Stillson in this unforgivable act. King stops short of killing the horrific villain, allowing him to suffer the consequences of his own cowardice. Though Stillson survives this climactic showdown, Smith’s final vision reveals a political career in tatters. The once-powerful man will never again be able to convince the world to see him as anything but a conniving fool.

The Boys’ bombastic series finale features a similar end for Homelander. As the world watches his live address, he announces himself as God before slipping into familiar rage, threatening death to anyone unwilling to worship his name. Butcher interrupts this terrifying speech, sending cameramen fleeing for their lives without thinking to cut the live feed. In a brutal fight, Butcher and Ryan subdue the struggling villain while Kimiko unleashes a radioactive blast designed to eliminate superhuman abilities.

When the dust settles, Homelander regains his footing only to find that his eyes no longer emit deadly laser beams. His attempts to blast off into the sky result in a series of pathetic jumps no higher than a few feet off the floor. With the cameras still rolling, the world can see that Homelander is no longer a superhero, but a flesh-and-blood human just like them. 

Why The Boys ending is more brutal than Stephen King’s original vision

Antony Starr (Homelander). Photo credit: Jasper Savage/Prime

Without his steel skin, lightning-quick reflexes, and super speed, Homelander finds himself easily outmatched by the seasoned fighter. Butcher effortlessly stops his feeble punch and begins pummeling the man’s now-fragile face. Terrified, Homelander begs for his life, offering Butcher the full weight of his obscene power. Denied mercy, Homelander debases himself at the man’s feet, offering to eat his shit on live TV.

We remember the eerily prescient words of another fallen hero, delivered in the season’s first episode. Just before Homelander snaps his neck, A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) insists, “Take away these powers, and what are you, huh? A pathetic, weak, snivelling fucking loser.” With cameras still rolling, the world now sees the true nature of their self-professed savior. Like Stillson, he has been defanged and revealed as the weakling he truly is. 

Despite these similarities, Kripke has a more brutal end for his humiliated villain. In an interview with Deadline, he explained, “People have asked me, ‘Well, why don’t you send him out in the world powerless, wouldn’t that be the ultimate punishment?’ I’m like, it would, until he gets his hands on some more Compound V, and then you’re back to where you started.”

Thanks to this in-world serum, Homelander has been able to subdue his enemies with brute force and the ever-present threat of death. After all, the blue injectable allows him to instantly slaughter massive crowds with a simple flick of his laser eyes. Kripke continues, “So, he cannot walk out of that room alive, but we can spend time with him powerless to really reveal what everyone’s been saying all season, which is, ‘Take away those powers and you are nothing.’”

As the world witnesses their hero laid low, Butcher exacts his long-awaited revenge. He drives a crowbar into Homelander’s forehead, then cracks open the top of his skull. Homelander’s brains spill over the Resolute Desk while his body falls gracelessly to the floor. The camera lingers on the shocking demise before Butcher abruptly cuts the feed, leaving the world to grapple with the image of their former hero’s mangled body and proof that no one is indestructible. 

King wrote The Dead Zone in the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal and Richard Nixon’s unprecedented fall from grace. Explaining his inspiration for the novel in his 200 memoir On Writing, the author remembers wondering if a political assassin could ever serve as a protagonist. Though Smith fails in his stated mission, he ultimately succeeds in revealing Stillson’s true nature before he can bring the world to the brink of disaster.

But The Boys exists in a different time. Decades later, we’re now plagued by so-called “alternative facts” and a populace determined to believe anything that maintains their delusions of unrivaled strength. Nothing short of complete destruction will force Homelander’s devout followers to accept the truth: that their empire has been built on lies.

While Stillson could be allowed to destroy himself, we must see the mighty Homelander fall to understand that he has always been nothing more than a fragile man in an empty suit. 

The post ‘The Boys’ Series Finale Explained: Homelander’s Fall Mirrors a Classic Stephen King Villain appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The humble writer from Portland, Maine, published his debut novel in 1974 and quickly became a household name. By 1978, he’d released five incredible books that continue to dazzle modern readers. Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, and The Stand run the gamut of horror subgenres, exploring everything from vampire lore and feminism to haunted houses and the apocalypse. But despite these differences, each story is a showcase for the prolific author’s ability to create intensely relatable characters forced to confront their darkest fears.

To celebrate this unparalleled legacy, Vintage Books presents a stunning reissue of King’s first five publications.

Adorned with gorgeous new covers from award-winning illustrator Gary Pullin, this series combines each story’s retro vibe with the timeless terror we’ve come to associate with the man now known as the Master of Horror. 

Carrie (1974)

Considering his later success, it’s surprising to learn that King’s debut novel almost ended up in the trash. When he first envisioned the bloody story, King was a young father living paycheck to paycheck on a teacher’s salary, supplementing the family’s meager income with short stories published in men’s magazines. Frustrated with what was shaping up to be a longer work, King famously gave up on his draft of Carrie and threw the first few pages away. Fortunately, his wife and fellow writer Tabitha pulled the manuscript out of the wastebasket and encouraged him to continue writing. 

Carrie follows a lonely high school girl whose telekinetic abilities blossom with the late arrival of her first period. A victim of relentless bullying, Carrie White finds herself the target of a vicious prank when her popular classmates orchestrate her unlikely election to prom queen, then douse her with pig’s blood at the moment of coronation. Humiliated, Carrie unleashes the full force of her awful powers on the laughing prom-goers, sparking a fire that threatens to destroy the town. 

The slim novel sold modestly upon initial release, but became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to a masterful adaptation from Brian De Palma. Featuring powerhouse performances from Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, Carrie (1976) remains a beloved genre classic and an early example of Good For Her horror. There’s even a new series adaptation on the way this year.

Vintage Books’ rerelease features an introduction from feminist author Margaret Atwood, who — upon the novel’s 50th anniversary — called its upsetting themes “still horrifyingly relevant.”

‘Salem’s Lot (1975)

King’s second novel highlights the author’s talent for creating abject terror while exploring the nuances of small town life. Haunted by an incident from his childhood, widowed novelist Ben Mears returns to the titular town intent on renting the Marsten House, a crumbling mansion said to be haunted by the ghost of its former resident. Unfortunately, he returns to find the home purchased by Kurt Barlow, a mysterious European antiques dealer, and his more visible companion, Richard Straker. Meanwhile, residents of the sleepy town find themselves shunning the light and inexplicably thirsting for human blood. 

A modern retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, King reverses the legendary text’s exploration of Victorian technology with characters so convinced of their rationality that they reject the growing vampire threat until the moment it bites them on the neck. Several sequences remain among the most frightening of King’s vast catalogue, but ‘Salem’s Lot is at its best when following the residents of the secretive town. One mesmerizing chapter begins with farmhands working in the pre-dawn hours before circling through a series of scandalous vignettes featuring a cantankerous bus driver, an elementary school bully, a corrupt real estate mogul, and an unfaithful housewife. The chapter ends when two young brothers are stalked through the darkening woods, kicking the vampiric horror into overdrive.

In some ways, ‘Salem’s Lot encapsulates the best of King’s distinctive style. Ben Mears serves as the first writer protagonist, while folksy side characters juxtapose fantasy elements with the grounded reality of everyday life. Neighboring the infamous Chamberlain — the town nearly destroyed by Carrie White — ‘Salem’s Lot also begins a literary connected universe still rippling through pop culture more than five decades later. 

Vintage Books’ rerelease of the novel that inspired multiple adaptations comes with an introduction by horror author Joe Hill.

The Shining (1977)

Not only King’s first hardcover bestseller, The Shining also introduces readers to his signature brand of storytelling through unflinching self-examination. The terrifying tale follows Jack Torrance, a failed teacher and fledgling playwright struggling to maintain his sobriety. Hoping to get his life back on track, Jack accepts a job as the winter caretaker at a luxury hotel set high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Joining him in this eerie assignment is his watchful wife, Wendy, and son Danny, a little boy gifted with immense telepathic powers. But solitude begins to wear on the fracturing family as the spirits who wander the empty halls want to claim the child’s talents for themselves. 

On the surface, The Shining is a nerve-shattering tale of a haunted hotel filled with vengeful ghosts. But beneath this horrific exterior is an intimate story of addiction-fueled domestic violence and a man consumed by the worst parts of himself. Written several years before the author entered recovery, King has described Jack as a vessel for exploring his own relationship with alcohol and the pressures of early parenthood.

Four decades later, he would write Doctor Sleep, a sequel following an adult Danny Torrance struggling to make peace with his father’s legacy that would also be adapted into a feature film.

Night Shift (1978)

King’s first collection of short stories is a thrilling showcase for the author’s unparalleled creativity. Lean, mean, and often grisly, these twenty tales pack a powerful punch while spanning a variety of subgenres and subjects. “The Mangler” features an industrial steam ironer accidentally possessed by an unlikely demon, while “Sometimes They Come Back” follows a traumatized high school teacher who must battle disruptive students from beyond the grave. “The Lawnmower Man” is an Arthur Machen-inspired curio blending folk horror with the tedium of suburbia, while “Graveyard Shift” sees a factory worker devoured by hordes of mutant rats. 

In a nightmarish return to his tortured town, King bookends the collection with “Jerusalem’s Lot” and “One for the Road,” wildly different short stories which serve as prequel and coda, respectively, to ‘Salem’s Lot. Though many entries see King gleefully lean into the uncanny and gross — like “Gray Matter” in which a father is consumed by moldy beer — others are more poignant. “The Last Rung on the Ladder” follows a brother forced to reckon with his wayward sister’s legacy, while “The Woman in the Room” sees King explore the experience of watching his mother slowly pass away. 

With most entries clocking in under twenty pages, Night Shift is surprisingly cinematic and has spawned a staggering number of adaptations.

To date, thirteen feature films and TV series have risen from the collection’s pages, not including ten sequels to Fritz Kiersch’s campy classic Children of the Corn. With Rob Savage’s The Boogeyman — inspired by Night Shift’s sixth short story — terrifying audiences in 2023, this curious collection continues to fuel the horror genre with new iterations of unimaginable fear.

The Stand (1978)

The same year Night Shift became a national bestseller, King published The Stand, a sprawling apocalyptic fantasy inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. This harrowing story opens with a malfunctioning gate and a frightened security guard fleeing a chemical weapons research facility just minutes after a disastrous breach. Weeks later, the Superflu or “Captain Trips” has spread across the United States, decimating the population as the army frantically tries to maintain control. 

King shows the collapse of society through a handful of disparate characters who somehow prove immune to the virus and find themselves left behind in a country strewn with rotting corpses. As each struggles to pick up the pieces, some are drawn to an old woman playing guitar on a humble porch, while others dream of a Dark Man wandering deserted roads throughout the night. After a brutal summer, these two factions find themselves in a desperate battle between good and evil where the prize is the very soul of humanity. 

At a whopping 1,152 pages, King’s longest work to date was originally released in 1978 with dramatic edits removing around 400 pages of colorful prose. Vintage Books’ rerelease features the “Complete and Uncut” version of King’s epic novel, originally restored in 1990. Among other exciting sequences, this expanded tome features the Dark Man lurking within a massive tornado and a beer-swilling miscreant known as the Kid who pays an unthinkable price for his treachery.

The Stand is now considered a masterpiece and one of America’s best modern novels thanks to King’s skillfully balanced characters who contemplate the awful price of war and our collective ability to better ourselves. A poignant conclusion asks the reader, if given a clean slate to start again, would we find the courage to stand for what’s right or wind up remaking the same mistakes? 

Five decades after they first hit bookshelves, King’s first five novels continue to unnerve readers with stories that still feel frighteningly familiar. The Stand proved eerily prophetic during the 2020 pandemic, inspiring The End of the World As We Know It, a collection of in-world stories contributed by  Paul Tremblay, Tananarive Due, and more of the genre’s most popular writers.

Tobe Hooper’s 1979 adaptation of ‘Salem’s Lot just received a stunning new 4K rerelease while Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece The Shining continues to shape the look of modern horror, prominently referenced in blockbusters like Ready Player One and Coralie Fargeat’s awards darling The Substance. And no one goes to prom without thinking of a wide-eyed Carrie White doused in blood on the high school stage. Mike Flanagan’s upcoming miniseries adaptation promises to modernize Carrie’s brutal themes, bringing this disturbing tale of bullying into the digital age.

There’s never been a better time to pick up a copy of Vintage King and join the vast community of Constant Readers.  

The post Vintage Stephen King Collection Captures Enduring Legacy of Horror Master’s First Five Novels appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s available in the June issue of The Atlantic and can be read online with a subscription or a 30-day free trial.

The 6,000-word short story sees King trading in his signature New England setting for coastal Florida to explore a family’s dark secret.

King will next publish Other Worlds Than These on October 6 — but if Dinah’s Hat is any indication, a new short story collection could follow.

Other Worlds Than These is the final entry in the horror fantasy trilogy that King created with Peter Straub, following 1984’s The Talisman and 2001’s Black House.

King penned the 624-page novel based on a concept by Straub, who passed away in 2022. The book also wraps up the fate of the worlds from King’s Dark Tower series.

It follows Jack Sawyer, who must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds.

Illustrations by Hokyoung Kimen kin

The post Stephen King Publishes New Short Story ‘Dinah’s Hat’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

If you recall, The Losers’ Club is counting down Stephen King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best. What started in February continues in April as they’re finally cracking into the top 50. What can Constant Listeners expect? Harder decisions, harder revelations, and harder discussions. Don’t forget to return next month when their journey continues.

Stream the episode below and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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Missed the first two episodes? Catch up below!

The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #52-47 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Widow’s Bay is full of eccentricities and tantalizing secrets, but there’s a rock-solid foundation underneath it all. It’s a community with good bones, in more ways than one. It’s one of 2026’s best horror surprises. A confident first season hits the ground running to deliver consistent scares and laughs that are anchored by passionate performances, creative chaos, and an ambitious scope that sets the stage for many more seasons to come.

The series looks at a humble New England town that doubles as a hotbed for supernatural superstitions and paranormal activity. It effortlessly taps into that whole eerie island town vibe that feels ripped right out of a Stephen King novel. Widow’s Bay is also rife with the same style of community eccentricities that ran rampant in Parks and Recreation. There are definitely moments in Widow’s Bay in which it feels like a bunch of Pawnee residents have wandered into Jerusalem’s Lot, in the best way possible.

Matthew Rhys in “Widow’s Bay,” premiering April 29, 2026 on Apple TV.

There are clear parallels between Widow’s Bay and other Stephen King series, like Castle Rock, Kingdom Hospital, and even Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. Widow’s Bay makes sure to assert an original voice and viewpoint so that this doesn’t just feel like “Diet King.“ There are also shades of John Carpenter and reflections of Jaws in regard to how Matthew Rhys’ mayor stubbornly refuses to acknowledge Widow’s Bay’s increasing supernatural concerns, even as a body count accrues.

Widow’s Bay has a lot to say about the power of superstitions and how they can be a tool to preserve culture, protect a town’s secrets, and keep its residents safe. However, superstitions can also transform a community’s reputation or embrace lore that’s more interested in division than unity. The series even flirts with the idea that this New England town is cursed and is actively rebelling against attempts at gentrification and modernity as it tries to remain pure. It’s a creative take for this sort of story that cleverly ties together social concerns with heightened genre storytelling. Widow’s Bay tells a tale that’s eerie and unpredictable, but also surprisingly poignant and prescient.

Series creator Katie Dippold doesn’t just know comedy, but genre-blending comedy. Parks and Recreation, 2016’s Ghostbusters, and Spy represent just a fraction of Dippold’s career. Widow’s Bay is the perfect wheelhouse for Dippold, and it’d be so easy for this to be a predominantly comedy-forward series. One of its greatest assets is that it doesn’t try to undercut its scarier moments with comedic punctuation. The moments that are meant to be scary are genuinely unnerving and carefully constructed with the right cinematography, score, and visual aesthetics to evoke fear from the audience. 

Widow’s Bay stands out from many similar small town horror stories by giving these more intense moments the respect that they deserve, so that the series’ horror truly shines. This is also largely a credit to Hiro Murai (Atlanta), Ti West (House of the Devil, X), Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), and Sam Donovan (Severance, Utopia), who are all directors who actually know how to shoot horror. The series would fall apart in less competent hands, and there’s such a palpable and meticulous appreciation for gothic horror storytelling and frightening folklore.

Jeff Hiller in “Widow’s Bay,” premiering April 29, 2026 on Apple TV.

It cannot be stressed enough that Widow’s Bay is a series that is actually scary. It easily clears Apple TV+’s previous horror efforts like Lisey’s Story, Shining Girls, and Pluribus, while it’s about on par with M. Night Shyamalan’s suffocating Servant. As much as Widow’s Bay nails the horror elements, the comedy is also incredibly on point. The first season also contains what might possibly be my favorite joke ever about the ridiculous resilience of slasher villains and how impossible it is for them to truly die.

Widow’s Bay does great work with how it closes the walls around Loftis as he grows more susceptible to this island’s disturbances. It uses these moments to breathe life into rote scenarios that might otherwise wear thin and feel superfluous, like Loftis’ attempts to get his dating life back in order. Formulaic exchanges are then effectively subverted as Loftis loses sight of what’s real and what might be some antagonistic obstacle. Widow’s Bay routinely weaponizes its accomplished genre instincts to push generic ideas to uncomfortable places so that Loftis, and the audience, is left on guard.

On the topic of Tom Loftis, Matthew Rhys is such a delight here and infinitely watchable as Widow’s Bay’s frantic mayor. Loftis constantly oscillates between passionate town pride and defensive damage control. It’s an entertaining performance that really connects and allows Rhys to do something different that slightly pushes him out of his comfort zone. Rhys doesn’t hold back, especially once Widow’s Bay’s terrors intensify. Widow’s Bay also does a good job when it comes to highlighting Loftis’ constant stress level and the many balls that he’s juggling in his personal and professional life. Loftis tries to put his teenage son on the right path and successfully turns Widow’s Bay into a thriving tourist destination that puts Martha’s Vineyard to shame.

Kevin Carroll in “Widow’s Bay,” premiering April 29, 2026 on Apple TV.

Rhys’ Loftis steals the show, but Widow’s Bay is rich in a strong supporting cast of character actor weirdos that includes Jeff Hiller, Toby Huss, Neil Casey, Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, and Dale Dickey. Stephen Root is always enjoyable when he’s playing an exaggerated old coot, and he really commits to the bit in Widow’s Bay. He commands plenty of authority and plays a crucial part in this story instead of being some washed-up local punchline. All this works together, and it’s so much fun to see Loftis get swept up in a cyclone of nonsense between Widow’s Bay’s irregular residents and brewing paranormal activity as he tries to stay on top of it all.

Widow’s Bay is occasionally guilty of the “mystery box” style of genre storytelling that’s only become increasingly prominent in the streaming era. That being said, it isn’t overly gratuitous in this regard, and all of the hidden developments that it teases properly pay off and don’t just become red herrings or the equivalent of narrative white noise. There’s a sublime flashback episode on Widow’s Bay’s origins that’s justified and not just unnecessary lore-gazing. It highlights the cyclical nature and impossible circumstances of this cryptic curse.

Season one makes a perfect first impression, and its debut is strong enough that viewers will want to set up permanent residency there. There’s an excellent sense of storytelling, character development, and an engaging mystery that’s strengthened through pitch-perfect horror and comedy. A proper sense of closure is reached by the end of ten episodes, but the narrative also dramatically evolves and sets the series’ future up for success.

Widow’s Bay has the potential to simultaneously succeed as Apple TV+’s next comedy classic and horror hit.

Widow’s Bay premieres on Apple TV+ on April 29th with two episodes, with new episodes following weekly.

The post ‘Widow’s Bay’ Is a Horror Comedy That’s Actually Really, Really Scary [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But even with that in mind, there’s never been a discussion of King quite like Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Part in-depth analysis of King’s creative process, part memoir, part ode to the synchronicities and magic of stories, Caroline Bicks’ nonfiction dive into several of King’s most important works is an essential piece of horror nonfiction, and a thrilling odyssey into one of America’s most productive imaginations. 

The book began a few years after Bicks was named the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair of Literature at King’s alma mater, the University of Maine. The position was simply named for King; he did not create or fund it, but thanks to childhood experiences reading his work, Bicks felt a certain distant kinship with the author, a kinship furthered when King reached out and asked to meet her. A short while later, Bicks became the first major academic granted access to King’s private archive of his papers, including manuscripts going back six decades or more. The result is this book. 

Bicks’ scholarly experience tends more toward Shakespeare than Stephen King, yet from the beginning she applies the same rigor and emotional investment to the King of Horror as she would to the Bard. She also wisely limits her explorations to five key books – Pet Sematary, The Shining, Night Shift, ‘Salem’s Lot, and Carrie – rather than attempting to grapple with King’s entire catalogue. This allows her the space to really dig into the minutiae of King’s compositional habits while also reflecting in each chapter on her own relationship to the work. 

Even diehard King fans will learn something from the depth to which Bicks dives. Her research, including thousands of hours with King’s first drafts, revision notes, and correspondence with editors, uncovers everything from The Shining‘s much darker original ending to the shifts in characterization that make Pet Sematary even more frightening to the surprisingly personal roots of ‘Salem’s Lot. Bicks, through engaging and personal prose, conducts her excavation with care, humor, and constant curiosity, reaching out to King himself to ask what Shakespearean tragedy he might have been thinking of throughout the writing of The Shining, or why he discarded a supporting character at the last moment in Pet Sematary.

She even digs into King’s column in UMaine’s student newspaper back in the 1960s, and explores how his emerging political convictions and anger of the state of America shaped the stories in Night Shift. It’s a mesmerizing view of King’s early work, rich in details that’ll have you going back to the novels themselves to see the secret scaffolding lurking behind the scares. 

But perhaps more importantly than her academic rigor and enthusiasm, Bicks seems to grasp from the beginning that it’s King’s humanity which sets him apart, which helped catapult him into the upper echelons of the bestseller lists and remain there for decades. Rather than focusing entirely on King’s thematic concerns and emotional leaps through the work alone, she carefully intertwines her analysis with King’s personal history, his evolving views on the world, and the instinctual decisions which shape key moments in his defining work.

Then she goes further still, infusing pieces of herself into the narrative both as a fan and as a person attempting to undergo a form of creative mesmerism through immersion in King’s world. Along the way, everything from the daily word games she plays to the drives she takes through Maine to and from King’s Bangor home seem to take on a preternatural aura. 

The result is not just a portrait of a young artist writing the work which would shape his professional life, but a portrait of a scholar in search not just of answers, but of the magic behind the basic facts and strokes of blue pencil in the margins of a manuscript. Monsters in the Archives is not just a wonderful companion to King’s work. It’s a journey in and of itself, revealing the spell King’s work continues to cast, and the hard work which made that magic possible.

Monsters in the Archives is now available wherever books are sold.

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The video is credited for helping Jackson’s album become an all-time bestseller, let alone catapulting the single to a perennial Halloween staple. Even the making-of documentary became a huge hit on home video at the time.

So, it’s no surprise that Michael Jackson would continue to experiment with elaborate short film productions throughout his career, including an oft-forgotten “Thriller” follow-up in the ’90s.

Michael Jackson’s “Ghosts” sought to top its supernatural predecessor in just about every way; it screened at the Cannes film festival and held the Guinness World Record for the longest music video until 2013, for example. More importantly, it saw Michael Jackson teaming with the likes of horror stalwarts Stephen King, Mick Garris, and SFX legend Stan Winston. 

The short film, with story by Stephen King and Michael Jackson, was initially conceived as a tie-in for Addams Family Values in 1993, titled “Is This Scary?” Mick Garris, who’d previously played a zombie in “Thriller,” was attached as writer/director. That was also when Jackson was hit with abuse allegations, halting production and its ties to the family film sequel. 

“Ghosts” eventually resumed production in 1996, with all Addams Family connections dropped and SFX master Stan Winston taking over directorial duties after Mick Garris departed to helm The Shining miniseries. While some of Garris’ footage was used, the six-week shoot added new scenes, dance numbers, and special effects. 

The lengthy film clocks in at 39 minutes and centers on an eccentric magician named Maestro, who entertains the local children every day in his spooky mansion. One stormy night, the town’s mayor leads a group of angry citizens to the mansion in an attempt to run Maestro out of town. 

Michael Jackson plays five roles in Ghosts, including:

• The Maestro
• The Mayor
• A Skeleton
• The Super Ghoul
• The Ghoul Mayor

Four of those characters required extensive prosthetic work and hours in the makeup chair, along with a slew of dancers made up to look like ghouls.

“I wanted Michael to play the haunted house guy,” explained Winston via his School of Character Arts, “but also the mayor of the town, and an evil demon who comes in at one point. Michael wanted badly to be accepted as an actor, as something more than the King of Pop. But it was so difficult for people to get past Michael’s persona. I thought that the only way he would be accepted as a real actor was if he played all these parts, disguised in makeup, so that no one would know it was him until the end. And he was very agreeable to that idea.”

The pop legend was said to be terrified by genre films but deeply admiring of special makeup effects and prosthetic work. That’s certainly reflected here, with Stan Winston’s team crafting memorable ghouls, ghosts, and demons, and Michael Jackson fully embracing all five roles in a dazzling horror video with heartfelt messaging of tolerance and acceptance. 

Retitled and released as Michael Jackson’s Ghosts, the special effects showcase is also notable for being included with select prints of the Stephen King adaptation Thinner, further entrenching this extension of “Thriller” in the horror genre.

Parallels between its story and Jackson’s real life ultimately meant that, in addition to production delays, Ghosts received only a limited release that prevented it from reaching the same heights in popularity as its predecessor. That Ghosts features multiple tracks likely means it’s not as earworm catchy as the extended Thriller feature, too, further rendering this ambitious follow-up to forgotten territory.

Michael Jackson’s Ghosts was also Stan Winston’s last outing as director.

While the full short film isn’t streaming currently in an official capacity, you can watch the abridged music video and the complete 39-minute experience below.

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Named the University of Maineʼs inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, Bicks became the first scholar to be granted exclusive access to King’s private archives — a huge coup and one that certainly turned our heads at the Derry Public Library.

Together, they discuss the expectations vs the reality of the archives, how King’s work and themes have evolved, bucket list stories to sift through, and much much more. Fans of our Stephen King Archives series in The Barrens will delight in this episode.

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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Simon & Schuster will release the audiobook the same day the novel is published: October 6.

King penned the 624-page horror fantasy tale based on a concept by Straub, who passed away from complications of a broken hip in 2022.

In addition to following Jack Sawyer from 1984’s The Talisman and 2001’s Black House, the story wraps up the fate of the worlds in King’s beloved Dark Tower series.

“I’ve been a Stephen King fan since I was 10,” said Oswalt. “His books were a huge part of how I fell in love with storytelling in the first place, so having the opportunity to narrate Other Worlds Than These feels a little unreal. Being able to step into the Dark Tower universe and bring the final chapter of the Talisman trilogy to life is an absolute honor.”

“I think it’s wonderful,” added King. “I love Mr. Oswalt. Spoiler alert: In Other Worlds, there’s a character named Payton Orville, who’s a stand-up comedian!”

Other Worlds Than These follows Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met when he was 12, crossing America and “the territories” to save his mother’s life, and met again as an adult facing a child killer and the Crimson King, among other evils.

In the new adventure, Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds. Jack is older now; his Ka-tet is fraying; and his task, nearly impossible.

Other Worlds Than These features 30 black-and-white illustrations by Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key).

Mutual fans of one another’s work, Oswalt and King were both subjects of the recent Texas Chain Saw Massacre documentary Chain Reactions.

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Together, Michael Roffman, Jenn Adams, and Dan Caffrey discuss the changes from Stephen King’s pages to the (small) screen, the stylish direction of Tommy McLoughlin (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives), the golden age of TV movies, the allure of model train sets, and whether or not Tim Matheson was knocked aside by Rockin’ Rob Lowe.

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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So, what’s on the shelves this month? We’ve got some intriguing debuts, story collections from the genre’s, new books by horror mainstays, and much more. So, from the latest Clay McLeod Chapman novella to follow-up books by Kylie Lee Baker and Monika Kim, here are your best bets for new horror books in April 2026.

The Boatman by Alex Grecian – April 7

Sometimes all a book needs to hook me is a single indelible image, and the latest from Alex Grecian (Red Rabbit) does exactly that. It begins with a cruise ship dubbed the Maria Calypso heading out for yet another voyage, but this time the ship has more than just vacationers to deal with. Passengers soon discover that they’re being pursued by a lone man, clad in white, rowing in a small boat that’s somehow keeping up with them. As they realize they can’t shake this mysterious rower, the passengers also discover that very strange things are happening onboard. I cannot wait to find out where a premise like that takes me.

Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman – April 7

One of the most prolific and exciting voices in modern horror returns this spring with an intriguing novella about an outsider artist and the ghosts who seek their revenge for his work. No doubt inspired by the story of janitor and artist Henry Darger, Clay McLeod Chapman‘s latest promises supernatural revenge, strange visions of obsessive creation, and more. Any new Chapman book is worth checking out, but this one feels like a particular treat for those obsessed with how artists create.

Sarafina by Philip Fracassi – April 7

One of the most consistently entertaining and versatile horror authors working right now, Philip Fracassi just might have outdone himself with this propulsive dark historical fantasy. Set during the American Civil War, the book follows three brothers who desert the army during the Battle of Shiloh and, after weeks on the run, find themselves in the home of a beautiful and mysterious woman who seems to have everything they need. She feeds them, heals their wounds, and even protects them from discovery, but Sarafina’s home is not what it seems, and in this ferocious riff on Hansel & Gretel, the strange house in the woods is only the beginning.

The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own by Gwendolyn Kiste – April 14

Gwendolyn Kiste is a powerhouse of dark fiction. Her work is lyrical, thrilling, relentless, and possessed of often jaw-dropping depth. Now, the author of Reluctant Immortals and The Haunting of Velkwood is back with a new collection of short fiction, bringing together some of her most memorable tales for new readers and longtime fans alike. Every Gwendolyn Kiste story is an elegant blade honed down to a fine, glimmering point, and if you’ve never had one plunged into your heart, you’ll want to get this book.

The Hive by Ronald Malfi – April 14

From the author of Come With Me, Senseless, and Small Town Horror comes a vision of suburban terror with a very intriguing setup. Set in the community of Mariner’s Cove, The Hive picks up in the aftermath of a storm, when the residents find a collection of random objects scattered across the neighborhood, objects that seem to call to individuals with a siren song that immediately stirs obsession. As each person finds their uncanny object, Mariner’s Cove changes as the residents develop a kind of hive mind. But what’s really going on, and what does one local kid developing weird new powers have to do with it? I’m very excited to find out.

Wife Shaped Bodies by Laura Cranehill – April 14

It’s always great to find a horror debut with a premise as promising as Wife Shaped Bodies by Laura Cranehill, and I can’t wait to dig into this. It’s set in an isolated community where married women sprout mushroom growths out of their skin, and follows a young woman who’s never known anything of the outside world as she enters into a loveless, distant marriage and begins growing mushrooms of her own. Nicole’s life is a mystery, but the arrival of another wife who’s ready to break free of a life of secrets and shelter just might change everything. Mycological horror is always fascinating, and I’m excited to see what Cranehilling does with this very unsettling setup.

Crossroads by Laurel Hightower – April 21

The latest release from indie horror icon Laurel Hightower is technically a reprint, but I’m including it here because Crossroads represents the perfect opportunity for new readers to discover Hightower’s work and get in touch with her particular brand of grief horror. The novella follows Chris, a grieving mother who lost her son in a car crash. While she’s understandably having trouble navigating the loss, something strange happens: Chris accidentally spills a lone drop of blood on her son’s memorial at the site of the accident. Soon, she starts to see her son’s ghost, but is what she’s seeing real, or something darker playing tricks on her? Read and find out in this handsome new edition from Shortwave Publishing.

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker – April 21

Kylie Lee Baker‘s electrifying novel Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is one of the best horror novels of 2025, and one of the best of the 21st century so far. Now, Baker’s back with another can’t-miss journey into darkness, this one punctuated by a rift in time itself and notes of Japanese myth and legend. Set in both the present day and in the late 19th century, the book follows two people – a college student on the run and an exiled samurai – who both retreat to a single house surrounded by sword ferns in an effort to escape the world. What they find instead is an unlikely link between their two worlds, and a darkness that transcends time and history. I absolutely can’t wait to read this one.

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King by Caroline Bicks – April 21

There is no shortage of books about the life and work of Stephen King out in the world, but Caroline Bicks has still managed to do something no writer or scholar has ever achieved before. As the University of Maine’s first-ever Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, Bicks also became the first academic to get unprecedented access to King’s private archives, featuring unpublished drafts, notes, manuscripts, and much more. A hybrid of biography, memoir, and critical study, Monsters in the Archives looks at King’s early years and creative process through the lens of his earliest masterpieces, and how he made them. This is an essential for King fans and should not be missed.

Molka by Monika Kim – April 28

Fresh off her Bram Stoker Award-winning debut, the brilliant The Eyes Are The Best Part, Monika Kim is back with another unforgettable horror novel steeped in Korean culture and unrelenting dread. Named for a slang term for a hidden camera, the novel follows an IT technician with his own vast, voyeuristic network of cameras throughout his building, and the woman with whom he becomes obsessed. It starts from an instantly creepy place, and just keeps building from there, and if you’ve read Kim’s previous horror work, you know that she can ratchet up tension with the best of ’em. Don’t miss the latest from one of horror’s rising stars. 

The post Revenge, Haunted Houses, and Mushrooms: 10 Must-Read Horror Books in April 2026 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

If you recall, The Losers’ Club is counting down Stephen King‘s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best. What started at the bottom of the barrel in February (#66-59) continues right as March comes to close with their picks for 58 to 53. Will they start to see the light? Find out and return next month as their journey continues.

Stream the episode below and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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Topics include: Other Worlds Than These, Mike Flanagan‘s The Mist, The Dark Tower, and Carrie, the forthcoming John Mellencamp book with a foreword by King, the definitive answer on Daylight Savings Time, a viral tweet about “archaic” slices of life, the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and much, much more.

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon | Store

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Wil Wheaton has returned to the story that helped launch his career by narrating the new audiobook of Stephen King‘s The Body.

Wheaton — who, of course, starred alongside River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell in Rob Reiner’s 1986 adaptation Stand By Me — kicks off the story in our exclusive excerpt below.

The first standalone audiobook edition of King’s seminal coming-of-age novella releases on March 24 via Simon & Schuster.

Set in 1960, The Body takes place in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. When a boy from a nearby town disappears, 12-year-old Gordie Lachance and his three friends set out on a quest to find his body along the railroad tracks.

During the course of their journey, Gordie, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio come to terms with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesn’t offer much in the way of a future.

“Narrating The Body by Stephen King, the story that became Stand By Me, has been an extraordinary and deeply meaningful experience for me,” said Wheaton. “This story has stayed with me my entire life, and revisiting it in this way is something I’ve hoped to do for a long time. It’s truly a full-circle moment for me and a dream come true.”

The Body was originally published in King’s 1982 short story collection Different Seasons.

Stand By Me returns to theaters for a one-week engagement in celebration of its 40th anniversary beginning March 27.

Copyright © 1982 by Stephen King. Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from the audiobook The Body, read by Wil Wheaton, published by Simon & Schuster Audio, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Behold, The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking!

In the following months, the Club will countdown King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best. Today, they begin this journey with their picks for 66 to 59. In other words, their least favorite books in his decades-spanning bookshelf. So, come in with an open mind and don’t get too disappointed if something you love is something they hate. That’s the fun of a ranking, right? Yep, right.

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we continue to rank the rest of King’s books in the months ahead. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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Stand By Me will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a one-week theatrical engagement beginning March 27 via Columbia Pictures.

Based on Stephen King‘s novella The Body, the 1986 film is directed by Rob Reiner (Misery).

Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, and Kiefer Sutherland star.

In a treehouse on the edge of Castle Rock, a small, woodsy town in Oregon, a budding 12-year-old writer named Gordie LaChance (Wheaton) prepares to embark on an extraordinary journey—one that will change his life forever. When his best friend Vern (O’Connell) overhears his older brother discussing the discovery of a dead body in the woods, Gordie and his friends set out in hopes of becoming local heroes.

Joined by the tough but compassionate Chris (Phoenix) and the reckless daredevil Teddy (Feldman), the boys’ innocent adventure quickly becomes a profound odyssey of self-discovery. As they venture deeper into the forest, Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern are tested in ways they never imagined, confronting fear, loss, and the realities of growing up.

Written by Raynold Gideon & Bruce A. Evans (Starman), Stand By Me was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Wheaton is narrating a new audiobook of The Body, releasing March 24.

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What does Mike Flanagan plan on bringing to the table with his own version of The Mist? In a series of posts on BlueSky, he promises that his adaptation will very much be its own thing.

Flanagan promises to a fan, “The Mist is going to be great. If there wasn’t an excellent answer to why, I wouldn’t do it.” He continues in a follow-up post, “I love Darabont’s film, and there’s zero point in remaking it. Which is why I’m going in a different direction.”

He doubles down, “This isn’t a retread. The differences start page 1.”

“And FWIW, I got the same ‘but why’ comments for Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor, House of Usher, Carrie, The Exorcist, even Ouija: Origin of Evil,” Flanagan notes. “Also got it for Life of Chuck. I’ve been lucky so far in my career to only take on projects I’m really excited about.”

Flanagan will be writing and directing the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, which was first published as part of the 1980 anthology Dark Forces before being included in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew – also home to The Raft, Survivor Type, and The Monkey.

The story is set in a Maine town that is consumed by a mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside.

Flanagan’s The Mist is one of many new Stephen King adaptations in the works, including Flanagan’s own Prime Video series “Carrie” and a series adaptation of the novel Fairy Tale.

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Last year brought not one but six genre series and films based on the works of King, along with a plethora of announcements and an even busier 2026 and beyond.

Constant Readers can look forward to a second season of “The Institute” and Mike Flanagan’s “Carrie“ sometime this year, and there’s no shortage of new adaptations currently in development.

This list highlights new projects that were announced or received updates within the last 18 months, which won’t touch on previously announced titles like The Regulators, Billy Summers, Elevation, Sleeping Beauties, or Later, adaptations that haven’t received a recent update. Or adaptations that may be in limbo, like The Talisman, after recent reports.

Here are all the recently announced Stephen King adaptations currently in development:

Carrie

Carrie (1976)

Frequent King collaborator Mike Flanagan serves as showrunner and writer of an eight-episode series adaptation of Carrie for Amazon MGM Studios, giving a modern update on the classic.

The story follows misfit high-schooler Carrie White, who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother. After her father’s sudden and untimely death, Carrie finds herself contending with the alien landscape of public high school, a bullying scandal that shatters her community, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.

Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie White, with Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Josie Toah as Tina Blake, Arthur Conti as Billy Nolan, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, and Amber Midthunder as Rita Desjardian.

Recurring guest stars include Heather Graham, Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, Crystal Balint, Danielle Klaudt, Tim Bagley, Tahmoh Penikett, Mapuana Makia, Naika Toussaint, Delainey Hayles, Cassandra Naud, and Rowan Danielle.

Expect this series adaptation to arrive in 2026.

Autopsy Room Four

A feature film adaptation of the short story from King’s Six Stories in 1997 was announced in December 2024, with British director Ranjeet S. Marwa and veteran Hollywood exec Jon Levin (In the Tall Grass) attached.

Autopsy Room Four will “delve into the mind of a man who, after a life-threatening accident, wakes up to find himself trapped in an autopsy room. As he confronts his own mortality, the story navigates themes of fear, survival, and the unknown.”

Marwa will write and direct, with King giving his blessing on the project.

Cujo

Cujo (1983)

As of March last year, Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Mother!, The Whale) was announced to be in talks to direct Stephen King’s Cujo for Netflix.

While there’s been no update since, it does seem to be a fast-track priority for the streamer.

The novel’s synopsis: “Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.”

Roy Lee (IT) is producing the new adaptation of Cujo for Netflix.

The Dark Tower

The second Mike Flanagan/King project on this list was first announced in 2022, when Flanagan’s Intrepid Pictures acquired the rights to The Dark Tower.

The sprawling saga that follows a gunslinger’s obsessive search for the elusive Dark Towe spans multiple novels. As such, the filmmaker previously suggested plans for a multiple season arc with potential feature films, too.

Scope is definitely a concern for Flanagan, who revealed in an update last year, “We’ve been moving it forward this whole time. It’s just, that’s how big it is. It’s constantly in the works, and you better believe as often as you guys may want to ask about it, Stephen King is asking me about it more, and I’m not gonna let him down.” With multiple projects announced since, it’s safe to say that it’ll be a while yet before we see The Dark Tower.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Lionsgate and The Long Walk scribe JT Mollner (Strange Darling are reteaming on an adaptation of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, first announced in July 2025.

The novel follows the harrowing survival story of a nine-year-old girl named Trisha as she struggles to stay alive after getting lost in the woods alone. With only her Walkman radio playing baseball games to keep her company, the girl’s love of pitcher Tom Gordon begins to manifest in hallucinations that may save her life.

Strange Darling producer Roy Lee will also reteam with Mollner for Tom Gordon.

Fairy Tale

A24 is taking on King with a 10-episode series first announced in October 2024.

Stephen King’s Fairy Tale novel is “an epic tale that follows a 17-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a terrifying world where good and evil are at war. The stakes could not be higher, for that world and ours, as he journeys into the mythic roots of human storytelling.”

J.H. Wyman (“Fringe”) will serve as the showrunner. Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, Jason Bourne), who wrote the script for the planned feature, will write with Wyman.

The Mist

The Mist (2007)

Flanagan is sticking with King for the long haul; yesterday brought the announcement that the filmmaker is writing and directing a new adaptation of King’s acclaimed novella The Mist.

The story is set in a small Maine town that is consumed by a thick, mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack the townsfolk. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside.

The filmmaker will also produce the feature through Red Room alongside Tyler Thompson and Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Chris Stone. Alexandra Magistro will executive produce for Red Room.

Up first from Flanagan, of course, will be Carrie and his take on The Exorcist.

Mister Yummy

Mister Yummy is the first short story to be adapted from King’s 2015 collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, announced this past November.

Set at Lakeview Assisted Living Center, the story details the last days in the life of elderly homosexual Ollie Franklin, who is certain that he will die soon due to frequent visits by a beautiful man called Mister Yummy. The haunting tale follows a man confronting mortality, where death waits around every corner.

Troy Blake wrote the screenplay. Intrinsic Value’s Aimee Schoof, Isen Robbins, and Megan Freels Johnston are producing with Thomas Mahoney.

Rat

The third adaptation from King’s If It Bleeds was announced in September of last year.

The story follows writer Drew Lawson, who is “cursed by his own ambition. Each attempt at a novel has ended in disaster—illness, misfortune, or worse. Determined to break the cycle, he retreats to a desolate cabin in the Maine woods, convinced this time will be different. But as a violent storm traps him in isolation, Drew’s body falters and his mind begins to unravel. In the grip of fever and madness, a stranger appears—an uncanny visitor who promises salvation and success…for a price Drew can barely comprehend.”

Screenwriter Jeff Howard (The Haunting of Hill House) will adapt the novella for screen; Parvulos director Isaac Ezban is set to helm.

Previous novellas Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and The Life of Chuck were also recently adapted from If It Bleeds.

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Topics include Andy Muschietti’s IT supercut, Welcome to Derry season 2, Mike Flanagan’s Carrie, The Talisman no longer happening with the Duffer Brothers, and Wil Wheaton narrating The Body. It should be noted this was recorded right before the official announcement of King’s new book. Stay tuned for a future episode on that.

Stream the episode below and stay tuned as we rank all of Stephen King’s books in our great big ranking. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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The post Stephen King News Roundup: On ‘IT’ Supercut, ‘Welcome to Derry Season 2’, Mike Flanagan’s ‘Carrie’, and ‘The Body’ [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline broke the news that Flanagan is writing and directing a new adaptation of King’s acclaimed novella The Mist.

Flanagan will also produce the feature through Red Room alongside Tyler Thompson and Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Chris Stone. Alexandra Magistro will executive produce for Red Room.

The story is set in a small Maine town that is consumed by a thick, mysterious fog from which creatures emerge to attack the townsfolk. A group of survivors hole up in a local grocery store, sparking mob mentality and empowering unhinged extremists who become as dangerous as the horrors outside.

The Mist was first published as part of the 1980 anthology Dark Forces before being included in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. The novella spawned a 2007 film directed by Frank Darabont and a 2017 TV series on Spike.

The Mist will mark Flanagan’s fifth King adaptation, following Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck, and the forthcoming “Carrie” series.

The post Mike Flanagan to Adapt Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ for Warner Bros. appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Other Worlds Than These, the final entry in the horror fiction titans’ Talisman trilogy, will be published on October 6 via Scribner.

King penned the 624-page horror fantasy novel based on a concept by Straub, who passed away from complications of a broken hip in 2022.

The book also wraps up the fate of the worlds in King’s beloved Dark Tower series. “I wanted to go back to Mid-World, which was always the Territories by another name,” said King.

Other Worlds Than These follows Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met when he was 12, crossing America and “the territories” to save his mother’s life, and met again as an adult facing a child killer and the Crimson King, among other evils.

In the new adventure, Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds. Jack is older now; his Ka-tet is fraying; and his task, nearly impossible.

Described by the publisher as “magnificent, riveting, full of heart, and humor,” Other Worlds Than These features 30 black-and-white illustrations by Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key).

Steven Spielberg has owned the film rights to The Talisman since the ’80s, attempting to get several adaptations off the ground in the years since. Most recently, “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer Brothers were attached to turn it into a Netflix series, but it never made it through development.

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Wheaton, who played Gordie Lachance in Rob Reiner’s 1986 film, narrates the first standalone audiobook edition of the seminal coming-of-age novella.

The Body audiobook will be released on March 24 via Simon & Schuster.

Set in 1960, the story takes place in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. When a boy from a nearby town disappears, 12-year-old Gordie Lachance and his three friends set out on a quest to find his body along the railroad tracks.

During the course of their journey, Gordie, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio come to terms with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesn’t offer much in the way of a future.

“Narrating The Body by Stephen King, the story that became Stand By Me, has been an extraordinary and deeply meaningful experience for me,” said Wheaton. “This story has stayed with me my entire life, and revisiting it in this way is something I’ve hoped to do for a long time. It’s truly a full-circle moment for me and a dream come true.”

The Body was originally published in King’s 1982 short story collection Different Seasons.

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The Emmy nominee will play Nolan Reeves, an eccentric European tech billionaire and one of the Institute’s financial backers with an ambitious agenda all his own.

Allen joins returning cast members Joe Freeman, Ben Barnes, Mary-Louise Parker, Simone Miller, Fionn Laird, Robert Joy, Arlen So, Jeff Fahey, and Hannah Galway.

Production is currently underway on the supernatural horror series in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Picking up after the first season finale, Season 2 follows Luke Ellis (Freeman), Tim Jamieson (Barnes), and their fellow survivors as they work to expose the Institute’s crimes while staying one step ahead of the army of killers on their tail.

Meanwhile, the ruthless and calculating Ms. Sigsby (Parker) pursues her quest for vengeance and a return to power, in the process discovering more about the deep inner workings of the Institute than she ever could have imagined.

King executive produces alongside writer Benjamin Cavell (“The Stand,” Justified”) and director Jack Bender (“Mr. Mercedes,” Child’s Play 3).

“The Institute” scored MGM+’s best-ever premiere when it debuted last July.

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Hailing from writer Benjamin Cavell (“The Stand,” Justified”) and director Jack Bender (“Mr. Mercedes,” Child’s Play 3), the supernatural horror series will return on MGM+ later this year.

Ben Barnes, Joe Freeman, Simone Miller, Fionn Laird, Hannah Galway, and Arlen So are back to star, with additional casting to be announced.

“Set free but hunted, new dangers await the escapees from the Institute, and I can’t wait,” King previously teased.

In the first season, teen genius Luke Ellis is kidnapped and awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did and who are all possessed of unusual abilities.

In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide.

“The Institute” scored MGM+’s best-ever premiere when it debuted last July.

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Based on the 1982 novel by Stephen King, the dystopian action thriller stars Glen Powell.

In a near-future society, ‘The Running Man’ is the top-rated show on television—a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing a greater cash reward.

Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards is convinced by the show’s charming but ruthless producer to enter the game as a last resort. But Ben’s defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite—and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall.

Wright co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street).

William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin round out the cast.

Wright produces alongside frequent collaborator Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver) and Simon Kinberg (Deadpool, The Martian).

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review of the film, “Wright tees up scathing critiques only to sweep them aside for cheery splatstick in a way that almost entirely scrubs this adaptation of stakes, poignancy, and the dystopian themes of King’s source novel.”

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“I’m going to write about Holly again,” King shared on Threads. “Happy New Year to me.”

Holly Gibney first appeared in 2014’s Mr. Mercedes and returned for its sequels, 2015’s Finders Keepers and 2016’s End of Watch. She went on to play a major role in 2018’s The Outsider and was the main character in 2020’s If It Bleeds, 2023’s Holly, and last year’s Never Flinch.

Across the stories, the character has evolved from a shy recluse to an intrepid private investigator.

“I could never let Holly Gibney go, from the Mr. Mercedes books,” King stated in a 2022 interview. “I mean, she was supposed to be a walk-on character and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart.”

Holly has been portrayed on screen by Justine Lupe in “Mr. Mercedes” and by Cynthia Erivo in “The Outsider.”

“Constant Readers are a bit divided on the subject of Holly Gibney,” Jenn Adams wrote in her review of Never Flinch. “Some love the intrepid private investigator and her evolving confidence through horrific adventures while others grow weary of her quirky catchphrases and cautiousness that occasionally veers into scolding.”

Before Holly’s next adventure, King is expected to publish a third novel in The Talisman saga based on an idea by the late Peter Straub.

Justine Lupe as Holly Gibney in “Mr. Mercedes”

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Stream the episode below. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, Alien, and the Universal Monsters.This year? Hellraiser!

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Re-Animator, Darkman), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Manhunter), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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In the end, Stranger Things remained what it has always been, a love letter to outcasts and fans of genre fiction. The show that once ignited Easter egg obsessives with a The Thing poster hanging in the Wheelers’ basement went out with a handful of fun horror references.

Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) refers to the vicious demogos as “mutant Cujos,” namechecking Stephen King‘s 1981 novel about a rabid Saint Bernard. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) may channel John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) with her machine guns and bandoliers, but she infiltrates the Abyss in a haircut identical to Sigourney Weaver‘s Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s original Alien. Max (Sadie Sink) traverses memories from Hawkins’ past set to the pleasing chorus of the “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” featured in the 1985 comedy Clue. And that’s not to mention an ominous Greek chorus which brings to mind a deadly college production of “Agamemnon” in the 1997 sequel Scream 2. These surface-level references may be a dream come true to horror cinephiles, but Matt and Ross Duffer also fill their finale with the threads of deeper thematic connection.  

The first season of Stranger Things drew comparisons to Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, with a main cast of tweens riding bikes through suburban streets. Though always an original story in its own right, the connection was so strong it paved the way for Andy Muschietti to adapt the kids’ storyline in his 2017 film It, which remains the highest-grossing horror film of all time. Though later seasons would drift away from this unofficial source material, the show’s season finale takes us back to the novel.

Throughout season 5, we’ve caught glimpses of Vecna/Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) hovering in his lair, which, from the outside, resembles one of the villain’s ropelike claws with curved fingers turned up to the sky. But as the final battle ensues, we realize that this scraggy home is the body of the Mind Flayer itself, the beating sac above Vecna’s head a pulsing monster heart. As we learn the truth about Henry’s horrific transformation, the creature emerges from the earth with a multitude of spider-like legs. The Duffers solidify this visual nod when the nebulous Mind Flayer first appears to Henry in the form of a tiny, black spider crawling from the depths of the Creel house. 

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

Though most casual fans picture Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Constant Readers know that the sinister charmer is just one of the many faces It wears. This shapeshifting monster manifests as Its prey’s greatest fear to maximize terror and “season the meat.” Yet, when the Losers confront Pennywise in his subterranean lair, they see It at its most basic form — or at least the closest approximation our minds can imagine. The entity emerges for a final showdown not in the guise of a bloodthirsty clown, but a massive spider, tapping into one of humanity’s greatest phobias. What’s more, the beast has laid dozens of eggs, signalling a horrific future for Derry and the larger world. Ben manages to smash each one, mirroring Steve (Joe Keery) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) using their makeshift spears to destroy egg-like sacs on the Mind Flayer’s underbelly. 

In the wake of this jaw-dropping conclusion, Hawkins has begun to repair with the military quarantine now a memory. Mike (Finn Wolfhard) processes his terrifying experience in a final campaign with the Party’s remaining members, outlining happy futures for them all. Though not what Mileven shippers may have wanted (more on that in a minute), we see an adult Mike sitting in front of a typewriter, translating the Party’s adventures onto the page. As the Game Master, Mike has always felt like the leader of the Stranger Things Party, a proxy for King’s Bill Denbrough, who leads the beloved Losers’ Club. We follow this shy protagonist on a journey of empowerment as It follows his quest to avenge the death of his younger brother. A born storyteller like Mike, Bill grows up to become a horror novelist, and an obvious parallel to King himself. 

But writing is just one way in which Mike processes his grief. We reunite with the shattered hero 18 months after the climactic battle to see him patiently waiting for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to return. With his own campaign concluded, the episode’s final moments show Mike wistfully watching his younger sister Holly (Nell Fisher) and her friends begin their own D&D journey, remembering some of his happiest moments. This — combined with the character’s name — reminds us of Mike Hanlon, the lifeline of the Losers’ Club. The only one to stay in Derry after their first battle with Pennywise, Mike remains to keep the watch and look for signs of the monster’s return. While waiting, he compiles a history of the dangerous town and a series of mass casualties linked to Pennywise’s periodic resurgence. As the Game Master, Mike serves a similar purpose, his own D&D binder — the last to grace the basement’s shelf — chronicling a long history of epic campaigns.  

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. (L to R) Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix © 2025

Though Mike may be keeping watch, Vecna is unlikely to return. After Eleven uses her telekinetic powers to impale the villain on a large spike, the Party hears him sputtering back to life. Wary of Vecna’s own psychic powers, Joyce (Winona Ryder) emerges to finish his story once and for all, nodding to one of the most exciting moments in slasher history. Twenty years after Michael Myers came home to terrorize his younger sister and her friends, the masked killer returns in Steve Miner’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. But rather than continue to run and hide, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) turns with an ax in hand to hunt down the brother who ruined her life. When a crashed ambulance leaves Michael similarly trapped — pinned between an ambulance and a tree — Laurie uses her own ax to chop off his head, definitively ending the Shape’s reign of terror. (We don’t talk about that jaw-dropping retcon in Halloween: Resurrection.)

Her empowered “MICHAEL” as she stalks the famously terrifying killer channels the same strength Joyce wields when she insists that Vecna “messed with the wrong family.” The fierce mother takes similar action and chops off Vecna’s head while the Party watches, each remembering the pain he’s caused in their lives. 

While Joyce may get her happy ending, season 5 teases a disturbing future for our favorite star. The return of Kali/Eight (Linnea Berthelsen) and subsequent revelation of Dr. Kay’s (Linda Hamilton) ultimate plan leave Eleven’s future in jeopardy. The sinister military scientist has been harvesting Kali’s powerful blood and transfusing it into pregnant women, hoping to create a new batch of psychically talented kids. Kali explains that as long as Eleven remains alive, Henry’s blood — similarly fed to her own pregnant mother — will tempt future mad scientists. She and Eleven must destroy themselves along with the Upside Down to permanently end all traces of Henry’s power. We see this devastating pact play out as the Party returns to Hawkins proper. With Dr. Kay watching, Eleven allows herself to be consumed by the explosion that collapses the bridge to the Abyss. 

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

Hamilton’s presence has always nodded to James Cameron’s The Terminator, but Kali’s theory recreates the heartbreaking conclusion of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Wary of future inventors using his recovered circuitry to develop deadly AI, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) vows to rid the world of his advanced technology and lowers himself into a vat of molten steel. It’s Hamilton as the legendary Sarah Connor who must push the button that seals his fate. But the Terminator was never meant to share our timeline, and his choice to self-terminate will save countless lives. As Hopper (David Harbour) explains in a gut-wrenching scene, Eleven deserves a chance at happiness. 

Everyone involved with the final season of Stranger Things was wary of fumbling the long-awaited conclusion, keeping one show’s finale firmly in mind. After years of dominating TV ratings and every element of pop culture fandom, Game of Thrones sparked fury among devotees with an egregious turn for its female star. For eight seasons, we’d watched Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) transform from a bartered and abused bride to a benevolent ruler and the mother of dragons. But the penultimate episode saw her use this hard-earned empowerment to decimate the home she’d always longed to rule. Daenerys would be killed in the season finale, her surprising villainous arc complete. Fans remain outraged over this narrative betrayal and a perceived warning about giving women too much power.

Stranger Things seemed to be approaching a similar misstep before a last-minute course correction. 

Drawing on painful memories from her sacrificial choice, Mike envisions a hopeful future for our heroine. Theorizing that she couldn’t use her powers against Dr. Kay’s technology, he tells the tearful Party that perhaps Kali used her own telepathic gifts to cloak Eleven with invisibility so that she could escape the horde of military goons and finally find peace in a distant land. We leave Eleven as she crests a hill and gazes at two beautiful waterfalls, a picture of the bright future she’d hoped for with Mike. After experiencing love and acceptance for the first time, Eleven has emerged from the shadow of Hawkins Lab to find happiness on her own terms.

While not the ending we might have chosen, it’s a fitting conclusion for the powerful character and a reminder that strong women should not have to destroy themselves to save a world built on their exploitation. And who knows, with at least two spinoffs in the works, we may yet see Eleven return to once again save the day. 

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5.Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

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Stream the episode below and share your favorites in the comments. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon), which includes their spinoff series Talkin’ Hawkins, CrichtonCast, and Dark Tower Detour.

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The Duffer Brothers confirmed to CBR in an interview that their adaptation of The Talisman, initially reported in 2021, is no longer moving forward.

Ross Duffer told the outlet, “Sadly, Talisman is no longer at Netflix, so we’re not involved.” He continued, “When I interned, when I was really, you know, back in college at Kennedy Marshall, I remember reading, I think it was a movie script for Talisman. So it’s been in development forever, so I’m sorry that we were not the ones to break the curse.”

Published in 1984 and written byStephen King and Peter Straub, the fantasy epic novel is one of the few King stories that has not yet been adapted for film or television. This is despite Steven Spielberg owning the rights to the book since the ’80s, with various planned adaptations taking different forms over the years.

The Duffer Brothers were set to team up with Spielberg, with Netflix producing alongside Amblin Entertainment, but the creators recently set up a new deal with Paramount and have set their exit date with Netflix for April 2026.

In The Talisman, “Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman—the only thing that can save Jack’s dying mother. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States but also through the wondrous and menacing parallel world of the Territories.

In the Territories, Jack finds another realm, where the air is so sweet and clear a man can smell a radish being pulled from the ground a mile away—and a life can be snuffed out instantly in the continuing struggle between good and evil. Here, Jack discovers ‘Twinners,’ reflections of the people he knows on earth—most notably Queen Laura, the Twinner of Jack’s own imperiled mother. As Jack “flips” between worlds, making his way westward toward the redemptive Talisman, a sequence of heart-stopping encounters challenges him at every step.”

Though The Talisman is now dead at Netflix and the Duffer Brothers are set to depart soon, look for the “Stranger Things” finale on New Year’s Eve and supernatural series “The Boroughs” next year.

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After nearly a decade of Stranger Things lore, we thought we’d finally figured out the Upside Down.

Ross and Matt Duffer first introduced this liminal space as a horrific mirror image to our own reality in the first episode of season 1, when a young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is pulled through a portal by a petal-faced monster we would come to know as the Demogorgon. But the second installment of season 5 throws everything we knew about this terrifying realm into the wind, reframing Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) as the Upside Down’s architect and Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) as the resident of a nightmare dimension. Season 5 Vol. 2 leans heavily into scientific theory as Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) muses about exotic matter and Mr. Clark (Randy Havens) finally joins the Party.

But despite these logical explanations, season 5, Vol. 2 includes plenty of horror and fantasy references woven throughout this sci-fi adventure. 

Over the years, Stranger Things has attracted a surprising number of genre icons from Paul Reiser and Sean Astin to Cary Elwes and Robert Englund. But the series’ long-awaited season 5 features a pair of episodes helmed by a true genre legend. After retiring in 2013, Frank Darabont returned to the director’s chair for “The Turnbow Test,” an action-packed episode in Vol. 1 which sees the Party trap a Demogorgon in the home of a local real estate king. Vol. 2 opens with “Shock Jock,” Darabont’s second Stranger Things episode, which closes the throughline of this monstrous plot. Hoping to locate Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) devises a plan to manually reconnect Will with the hive mind by resurrecting one of the Demogorgons he killed while first harnessing Vecna’s powers. But while one team hunts monsters in Hawkins proper, Holly and Max (Sadie Sink) navigate an elaborate dream world, allowing Darabont to drop an exciting Easter egg. 

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. (L to R) Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

Following a trail of memories, Holly revisits her most recent Halloween, which connects her to Vecna’s human persona, Henry Creel/One (Bower). As the duplicitous villain lurks outside the window, Holly huddles close to a friend while watching A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Directed by Chuck Russell, this fan-favorite entry in Wes Craven‘s landmark slasher series also follows a group of teens who must discover their own innate strengths to battle a monster who weaponizes dreams. In addition to inspiring later seasons, this beloved slasher also happens to be Darabont’s first screenwriting credit.

He would use the film’s success to secure the rights to Stephen King‘s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, which would become his directorial debut. Darabont would follow his genre-bending The Shawshank Redemption with two more highly-regarded King adaptations and the zombie juggernaut The Walking Dead. The sci-fi aspects of this episode also feel like a sentimental nod to Darabont’s original script for the 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which was significantly altered throughout production. Only time will tell if the famed creator will return to retirement or extend his time in the director’s chair, but regardless of what the future holds, “Shock Jock“ provides a fitting farewell by honoring the spark of an impressive career. 

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

Though Darabont emerged from the slasher heyday of the 1980s, his second Stranger Things episode references classic horror titles dating back to the genre’s foundational texts. Lucas’ electrified Demogorgon “creature” may not escape the Squawk’s makeshift laboratory, but the gang refers to his outlandish plan by name-checking Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Always the cinephile, Robin (Maya Hawke) cheekily corrects their pronunciation by quoting Mel Brooks’ hilarious spoof Young Frankenstein.

Meanwhile, the military outfit holding the city in quarantine alludes to a more sinister villain. In the final moments of season 5, vol. 1, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) discovers her long-lost sister Kali/Eighth (Linnea Berthelsen) held captive in the base’s own lab. Vol. 2 reveals that the nefarious Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) has been systematically drawing her blood. She refers to the vicious military doctor as a vampire, nodding to Bram Stoker’s seminal Dracula in which a Transylvanian count sustains himself by drinking human blood. 

Though disturbing enough, Kali’s continued story reveals Dr. Kay’s horrific plan. Momentarily free, Eight stumbles upon a restrained pregnant woman begging for help, then wanders through a series of rooms, each containing a similarly imprisoned mother-to-be. She realizes that the militant doctor has been transfusing these women with her unique blood, hoping to restart Dr. Brenner’s program and create a new batch of powerful children. But with Kali’s blood only causing illness, Dr. Kay is desperate to find Eleven and harvest a substance more closely aligned to Henry’s own DNA. 

As Kali explores this maternity ward turned torture chamber, slasher fans may be reminded of a similarly unnerving scene from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection, which also happens to star Winona Ryder. 200 years after the death of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), a team of scientists led by Dr. Wren (J.E. Freeman) has used recovered blood samples to clone the heroic warrant officer. Known as Ripley 8, an eerie nod to Kail’s own numerical name, the horrified woman discovers an equally ominous laboratory filled with the monstrous corpses of seven failed clones, predecessors to her own successful resurrection.

We also learn that, like Dr. Kay, Dr. Wren is not actually concerned with the women themselves, but the creatures that grow inside them. The original Ripley died while impregnated with the embryo of a xenomorph queen, and the entire cloning experiment has been designed to extract this powerful creature and use it as a biological weapon. Kali’s similar discovery is not only a moment of disturbing pregnancy horror, but a reminder of the dehumanizing experiments stemming from Dr. Brenner’s time at Hawkins Lab. 

Stranger Things kicked off its inaugural season with references to two of Stephen King’s most iconic novels. The Party and their trusty bikes nod to the Losers’ Club from the 1986 novel It, while Eleven is a spiritual successor to Charlie McGee, the pyrokinetic protagonist of King’s sci-fi classic Firestarter. But season 5 makes a fascinating visual reference to the Master of Horror’s magnum opus. The Dark Tower is a sprawling series that follows a noble gunslinger called Roland Deschain on an interdimensional quest to save the titular tower, the nexus of all universes. 

The second of the series’ eight novels, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, catches up with the injured gunslinger on a desolate beach teeming with monstrous creatures. As he trudges down the seemingly endless shore, Roland encounters a series of three freestanding doors, each opening into a different era of New York City. Max and Holly encounter a similar passageway suspended midair in a field from Holly’s memories. Upon crossing the threshold, the girls seem to disappear without a trace, but they’ve actually been transported into another memory. The Dark Tower series also introduces the concept of ka-tet, a group of ostensibly disparate people whose fates intertwine on a hero’s journey. Roland draws his own ka-tet through these mysterious doors, mirroring not just Max and her alliance with Holly, but the larger Party’s noble quest to defeat Vecna and save the world. 

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. (L-R) Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna and Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

While Max’s mind is trapped in “Camazotz,” her body is stuck in Hawkins Memorial Hospital. Believing her to be in a coma as a result of Vecna’s attack, Lucas has been playing Max’s favorite song, hoping to provide a mental bridge back to life. Having discovered her assistance in Holly’s escape, the vengeful monster threatens Max by sending a horde of vicious Demodogs rushing to her hospital bed. Fortunately, Will and Eleven are able to combine their powers and warn Lucas before the deadly creatures arrive. He carries his unconscious girlfriend to the hospital’s basement laundry room, where they cower behind a washing machine.

As the Demodogs approach, we’re reminded of a similar scene from Steven Spielberg’s iconic Jurassic Park. Trapped in a theme park overrun with dinosaurs, a terrified brother and sister use an industrial kitchen to hide from a pair of approaching raptors. Director Shawn Levy reflects the action in the laundry room’s corner mirror, solidifying this visual reference while revealing how close our heroes have come to certain death.

As season 5 nears its endgame, Darabont makes a visual reference to one of the U.S. Military’s most horrific tales. While searching Hawkins Lab for the source of a fleshy wall running through the Upside Down, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) notice a strange phenomenon as they approach the roof. Walls and doors have seemingly begun to melt, and the building appears to be slowly dissolving. What’s worse, a handful of soldiers were caught up in the destruction, and their corpses are now lodged in the hallway itself. These unsettling bodies feel eerily reminiscent of the Philadelphia Experiment, a rumored government program designed to render military vessels invisible. But rather than disappearing the USS Eldridge, an attempt to bend time and space is said to have momentarily transported the naval destroyer to Norfolk, Virginia, rendering the humans onboard permanently fused to the ship.  

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. (L to R) Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler and Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

While searching the building’s lower floors, Dustin stumbles upon the key to this strange occurrence. The translucent mass Jonathan and Nancy discover just above the building’s roof — presumably the cause of those melting walls — is an element known as exotic matter. Created by Dr. Brenner, this dangerous sphere is stabilizing the Upside Down itself. Upon this discovery, Dusten explains that this dark and shadowy realm is not an alternate dimension at all, but a wormhole connecting Hawkins to the Abyss, a nightmare world home to the Mind Flayer, Demogorgons, and Vecna himself. 

Many genre fans were first introduced to the concept of wormholes in the 2001 film Donnie Darko. Richard Kelly‘s cult classic follows a troubled teen tormented by daytime hallucinations of a monstrous rabbit predicting the end of the world. As this ominous date approaches, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) must choose between protecting himself and saving the people he loves. Considering her discovery at the military base, Kali presents a similar choice to Eleven as they prepare for the party’s final showdown. Convinced others will follow in Dr. Brenner’s footsteps, she explains that the only way to prevent more of Vecna’s chaos is to not only kill their brother but also destroy any remnants of his existence, including the blood flowing through Eleven’s veins. 

Kali insists that once the bridge between worlds has been severed, she and Eleven must stay in the Abyss to rid the world of Henry’s curse. Though Eleven hasn’t shared this theory with her boyfriend Mike (Finn Wolfhard), he seems to sense that something is wrong and reminds her of plans they’ve made for their future. Mike reminds his girlfriend that they have the power to write their own ending, nodding to one of horror’s most beloved final girls. Wes Craven’s Scream ends with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) reclaiming control of her narrative and refusing to be a pawn in someone else’s plan.

With just one episode remaining in Stranger Things’ unprecedented run, we’re left to wonder if Eleven will follow Kali down a path to self-sacrifice or dare to take control of her own story. 

Stranger Things draws to a close when the series finale releases on December 31.

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. (L to R) Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

The post The Many Horror References Lurking in ‘Stranger Things 5’ Volume II [Spoilers] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The dystopian survival thriller is directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine) and written by JT Mollner (Strange Darling).

Set in a near-future dystopia, the film follows a group of young men forced into a brutal, televised endurance competition where the rules are unforgiving: keep walking – or die. As the miles wear on and survival grows increasingly uncertain, the walk becomes a relentless test of will, morality, and human endurance.

Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) and David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus) lead an ensemble that includes Garrett Wareing (“Manifest”), Tut Nyout (“The Witcher: Blood Origin”), Charlie Plummer (The Clovehitch Killer), Ben Wang (Karate Kid: Legends), Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit), Jordan Gonzalez (“Pretty Little Liars: Origin Sin”), and Joshua Odjick (“IT: Welcome to Derry”).

Mark Hamill (The Life of Chuck), Judy Greer (Halloween), and Josh Hamilton (“The Walking Dead”) also co-star.

Lawrence produces with Roy Lee (IT, Doctor Sleep), Steven Schneider (Insidious, Paranormal Activity), and Cameron MacConomy (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Despite an unwavering eye on the dour and ruthless death march and all its grotesqueries, it’s the pervading camaraderie and heart, as well as a tremendous cast, that solidifies this as one of the best King adaptations yet.”

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We’re used to the prolific horror author releasing multiple books per year, and 2025 was no different, with Never Flinch and Hansel and Gretel, a collaboration with the late illustrator Maurice Sendak, both hitting Bestseller lists. But we’re not usually treated to so many different titles from King’s massive body of work reimagined and visualized for the screen.

While the shocking death of beloved director Rob Reiner has Constant Readers revisiting his masterful Misery and Stand by Me, the year has seen a record number of adaptations hit theaters and streaming services, including films based on a pair of novellas written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

From murderous monkeys and killer clowns to dystopian game shows and adolescent heroes — not to mention the return of Stranger Things, which continually references the author’s earlier work — 2025 has been a cinematic Stephen King renaissance the likes of which we’ve never seen.  

*Keep up with our ongoing end of the year coverage here*

The Monkey

Beginning in July of 2024, genre auteur Osgood Perkins brought a trio of nerve-shattering horror films to the screen. Nestled between Longlegs and Keeper is The Monkey, a gruesome horror comedy based on one of King’s earlier short stories.

First published in 1980, then collected in 1985’s Skeleton Crew, “The Monkey” centers on a wind-up toy possessing the power to kill with the clap of its jangling cymbals. Perkins slightly modifies the animal, presenting a sinister simian who raises a seemingly innocuous drumstick with the ominous tension of cocking a gun. Its paw descends in a deadly drumroll, unleashing random carnage on those within its mysterious range of influence. 

Theo James stars in a dual role as the lonely Hal and his estranged twin Bill, who both live in fear of the Monkey’s destruction. Flashbacks follow Christian Convery as the younger twins, who must contend with a series of appalling deaths that turn their lives upside down. More of a conceptual adaptation, Perkins’ film has little in common with King’s original tale. But the writer/director draws on his own painful history to present a nihilistic story about finding connection in the midst of tragedy. Both hilarious and touching, The Monkey is a grim reminder that “everybody dies,” so we might as well dance while we’re still alive.  

The Institute

Stephen King has a knack for creating powerful kids. From Danny Torrance (The Shining, 1977) and Charlie McGee (Firestarter, 1980) to the quasi-telepathic Ellie Creed (Pet Sematary, 1983) and members of the Losers’ Club (It, 1986), many of King’s earlier novels follow kids overcoming insurmountable odds. Yet as his own children have aged and the author’s work has evolved with time, King’s child protagonists have grown fewer and farther between.

The 2019 novel The Institute signaled a return to form with a circle of kids adept at wielding psychic powers. Director Jack Bender brings Benjamin Cavell’s adapted teleplay to the small screen in a crowd-pleasing series for MGM+. 

We follow a young genius named Luke (Joe Freeman) who awakens in a bedroom nearly identical to his own. But outside the door, he finds himself trapped in an industrial facility run by the deceptive Mrs. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), who insists he’s been tapped to help save the world. Luke and his similarly imprisoned friends are tortured with medical experiments designed to kickstart their psychogenic powers before “graduating” to the building’s dreaded Back Half, where they’re transformed into mindless remote assassins.

Freeman leads a cast of likeable young protagonists while Parker brings a complex villain to life, managing to make us feel for a woman who torments kids after systematically murdering their parents. Bender and Cavell alter the novel’s ending to open the door for season 2, set to premiere in 2026. 

Life of Chuck

Constant Readers know that while Stephen King is known as the Master of Horror, he’s well-versed in other genres as well. Published in the 2020 collection If It Bleeds, “The Life of Chuck” is a prime example of the author’s power to tug at our collective heartstrings.

The story begins in a world slowly falling apart. Frightened citizens of a nondescript town are bombarded with farewell messages to someone named Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) before the story takes a surprising turn. As the preeminent adaptor of King’s fiction, Mike Flanagan pens a faithful script, demonstrating his skill in capturing the author’s emotional undercurrent. The film premiered in 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of a nationwide release in 2025. 

Hiddleston stars as the adult Chuck Kranz while Nick Offerman narrates reflections on a happy life, told in three distinct chapters. An all-star cast of Flanagan regulars brings each element of the story to life, including Mark Hamill, David Dastmalchian, Mia Sara, and Matthew Lillard. Flanagan’s poignant script asks audiences to reflect on the fleeting beauty of life, mirroring King’s coming-of-age drama “The Body,” later adapted in Reiner’s powerful Stand by Me. A pair of dance sequences also form a striking parallel to Perkins’ The Monkey, reminding us that our existence will someday come to an end, so we should enjoy each moment while we can. 

The Long Walk

One of the author’s most emotional adaptations is not based on a Stephen King story at all. Concerned that he was overproducing, the author spent his young adulthood simultaneously writing under his own increasingly famous name and the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Arguably, the best of the so-called Bachman Books is The Long Walk, a dystopian novel following a group of teen boys who volunteer for a disturbing game.

The nation watches 100 contestants walk at a brisk 4 miles an hour until only one remains. Should they slow down three times within an hour, a nearby soldier will shoot them to death. The winner receives a lifetime of wealth and fulfillment of a single wish, while the other 99 become discarded corpses along the road. 

Francis Lawrence adapts this famously touching novel with a powerful script from JT Mollner that wisely focuses on characterization. After all, King’s story is essentially a string of conversations as the boys traverse Maine country roads, punctuated by each walker’s brutal death.

Cooper Hoffman leads the talented cast as the everyman protagonist Ray Garraty, while David Jonsson steals each scene as the eternally optimistic Peter McVries. A handful of other young actors fill out the walkers’ ranks while Mark Hamill makes his second King appearance of the year as the stern yet bloodthirsty Major, barking dehumanizing encouragement from behind mirrored sunglasses.

Lawrence and Mollner dramatically reverse King’s cryptic ending in a shocking commentary on our current political landscape. It’s a change on par with Frank Darabont’s famously nihilistic The Mist, which elevates the source material while demanding we reconsider our understanding of right and wrong.  

The Running Man

In an interesting coincidence, The Long Walk was followed two months later by another Richard Bachman adaptation that exists in the same dark universe. While Lawrence’s film is a harrowing yet contemplative study of male friendship in a brutal world, The Running Man is an action-packed satire filled with anger and aggression. The story follows another deadly game show in which a chosen contestant must “run” for 30 days from an elite band of assassins dedicated to tracking him down. The chase will end either with the contestant receiving a life-changing monetary prize or being executed on live TV. 

Edgar Wright brings this story to the screen in a script co-written by Michael Bacall, hewing much closer to King’s original story than the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger spectacle. Glen Powell stars as the angry Ben Richards, who begrudgingly accepts this dangerous role, hoping to access a better life for his wife and child. But once he sees the Network’s egregious deception, Ben vows to tear the system down.

Josh Brolin co-stars as the shark-like Killian, a Network producer who will stop at nothing to increase his own power, while Lee Pace emerges in a bombastic conclusion that reframes our understanding of hero and villain. Wright’s frenetic film is both an action-adventure tinged with brutal death and an endearing story of grassroots activism. In another parallel to The Long Walk, Wright extends King’s famously bleak ending, offering catharsis, hope, and empowerment.  

It: Welcome to Derry

The year concluded with a bang as the long-awaited prequel series It: Welcome to Derry premiered to record numbers on HBO. Co-created by Jason Fuchs along with Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the show reimagines one of three deadly flashbacks chronicled in King’s bestselling novel.

Set in 1962, one generation before we meet our beloved Losers’ Club, the season brings to life the harrowing fire at the Black Spot speakeasy, a devastating hate crime led by Derry’s prominent leaders. As this horrific mass murder nears, we meet a group of intrepid kids, not unlike the Losers themselves, who find themselves tasked with battling the shape-shifting monster known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). 

The eight-episode season opens with a grisly bait and switch, proving that no one is safe in this dangerous world. Skarsgård reprises his role as the sinister clown, debuting both the human source of his Pennywise persona and a blood-soaked monster in the series finale. An eerie opening sequence set to “A Smile and a Ribbon” by Patience and Prudence previews upcoming seasons in quaint illustrations of the horrific violence featured in King’s terrifying novel.

Constant Readers who thought they knew what to expect were dazzled by the show’s blend of terrifying sequences and infectious heart, not to mention exciting ties to the author’s larger connected universe. Most exciting of these is the inclusion of the fan-favorite Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), first introduced in the pages of The Shining. Shocking revelations in the powerful season finale throw our expected timeline into the wind and promise exciting developments yet to come. Though a second season has not been confirmed, the show’s massive fanbase all but ensures we will soon be returning to King’s dangerous town. 

Perhaps it’s fitting that a year of real-world terror should see a record number of releases drawn from the work of the unrivaled Master of Horror. Thanks to these six adaptations, we’ve channeled our existential dread by dancing through the pain of death and combating a predatory dystopia while leaning on friends along the way. The year may be drawing to a close, but with Flanagan’s Carrie adaptation nearing release and King’s third Talisman novel on the horizon, this exciting King renaissance shows no signs of slowing down. 

The post Best of 2025: Why This Year Marks a New Stephen King Renaissance appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The author was an angry young man living in the midst of turbulent times and trying to find his way in an unforgiving world. Writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King created a dystopian 2025 in which the wealthy enjoy unthinkable luxury while the poor struggle to merely survive. Many turn to dangerous game shows offering cash rewards for ridiculous risks.

Desperate to buy medicine for his young daughter, Ben Richards (Glen Powell) finds himself cast on The Running Man, the all-powerful Network’s premiere series in which a contestant must evade a clan of highly-skilled assassins sent to murder him on live TV. 

Published in 1982, The Running Man is an outlier in King’s massive body of work. It stands alongside The Long Walk (also named for a violent game show) as a deft satire on the economic gap and a corrupt government determined to cannibalize its citizens. Needless to say, the story feels eerily prophetic now that we’ve reached the year in which it was originally set. While our 2025 feels in some ways different from the industrial hellscape Ben must navigate, other elements of the story could be ripped from current headlines or social media posts.

The Running Man is now available to buy or rent, along with over two and a half hours of bonus content. To celebrate this exciting digital release, Bloody Disgusting sat down with genre icon Edgar Wright to chat about co-writing and directing this action-packed film and bringing King’s haunting predictions to the screen. 

L-r, Katy O’Brian, Colman Domingo, Glen Powell and Martin Herlihy star in Paramount Pictures’ “THE RUNNING MAN.”

Bloody Disgusting: What’s your Stephen King origin story, and what drew you to the Running Man?

Edgar Wright: Well, I guess even before reading him, growing up, I was certainly aware of that name on the front of paperbacks. That meant horror. The first film adaptation I saw … I want to say it was Cujo, probably on TV. But the first books I read were the short story compilations Night Shift and Skeleton Crew when I was about 12 or 13.

I first read The Running Man when it was part of The Bachman Books [collection], which came out in the mid-80s. I probably read it when I was 14, before I’d seen the 1987 film. So when I saw that Arnold Schwarzenegger film, even though I enjoyed it, I was well aware that it was radically different from the book.

BD: Was there any part of you that was tempted to lean towards Paul Michael Glaser’s version, or did you want to do a more faithful adaptation of the original novella?

EW: The 1987 movie is its own thing, and there wasn’t really any need to remake it. I feel like the best remakes are ones that do something different. In this case, it wasn’t so much doing something different from that 1987 film as just doing a more faithful adaptation of the book. I thought, actually, the whole reason for doing it was because I knew there was a whole novel’s worth of material that hadn’t been adapted before.

BD: Any Stephen King film is going to have its share of Easter eggs, and The Running Man includes one of the best I’ve ever seen. In the locker room, when Ben finds out what show he’s been cast on, other lockers are labeled with the names of actors from previous King adaptations like Walken, Nicholson, Spacek, and Katt. I was so excited to catch those references! Are you a fan of any other Stephen King adaptations, and did you draw inspiration from previous films for The Running Man?

EW: Yeah, absolutely. I think my favorite one is actually the first one, which is Carrie. I absolutely adore that film. And obviously, there are so many other ones. You know, The Shining, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Christine. R.I.P. Rob Reiner, who directed two of the best in Stand By Me and Misery. Obviously, Shawshank Redemption is amazing. There are many that I enjoy.

I don’t know if any of them specifically influenced this film because the books he wrote under the name Richard Bachman were usually in different genres from horror. And this one is. It’s quite unusual in his whole canon because it is more of a dystopian future action suspense book. There’s nothing really like it in the rest of his books. So there wasn’t really anything in terms of direct inspiration from the other adaptations.

BD: There is a stark difference. As a fan of that novella, I know how bleak it is. My biggest question going into the film was, how is it going to end? I love the way you approached King’s original ending because I read your conclusion as hopeful. Was hope and empowerment your intent?

I think, very early on, it wasn’t even a question. The ending of the book has some unfortunate real-life parallels to an event that happened after the book was written and published. So we weren’t gonna go there because I think it would have been in bad taste. The ending in the book is famously nihilistic and bleak, but also has an element of revenge. So we thought, well, what if we lost the fire but kept the spark of revolution? So it still has a revenge element, just in a different way.

Glen Powell stars in Paramount Pictures’ “THE RUNNING MAN.”

I love how you tied it into the zine culture as well, because it really feels like a grassroots movement that’s building up. The original story was written in the 70s in the era of game shows like Press Your Luck and Dialing for Dollars, but your adaptation feels more informed by reality TV. I particularly loved the concept of the three contestant archetypes. Are you a fan of competition reality television?

I guess at a certain point, in the last 25 years, they’re unavoidable. I think when they first started, I did watch more, because especially in the U.K. — and I know it’s exactly the same in the States — they’re just completely ubiquitous. Obviously, the States have formats that are still going, like Survivor and American Idol. In the U.K., there are some formats like Big Brother that are still on the air 25 years later. The thing that was fun about writing this is that, unlike the book, we had 25 years of reality TV and talk shows. I guess it wasn’t just reality TV, it’s all the combative talk shows as well. I think in more recent years, people have started to understand how those shows are made. There have been quite a few peeks behind the curtain.

One of the things I think is wildly pressing about the book is that Stephen King was able to predict the future in terms of the way that TV would go. I had the chance to talk to him, and I asked him what it was like in 1973 when he first wrote the book, although it wasn’t published until 1982. What did you see that gave you the inspiration for what was going on behind the scenes in the C-suite of TV? Obviously, there were game shows on TV then, but he said that Big Time Wrestling gave him the idea because obviously, there’s an element of fabrication. It’s not real. There’s a narrative, and somebody has to be the villain. But then I think also, reality shows have a formula, and they’ll cast members of the public to fit into those archetypes. When Bradley (Daniel Ezra), who’s the super fan who has his wild conspiracies about the show. He’s watched the show and can say, “Hey, this is the way it works.”

You also have The Americanos, too, which feels more like the Bravo side of reality television. I particularly loved that Ben kind of begrudgingly finds himself sucked into that story. How does that style of reality television fit into this world?

We like the idea that in this sort of retro, futuristic 2025 in the movie, everybody has a state-mandated 65-inch plasma. It’s the TV that you can’t turn off, so people are just forced to watch this. There are several points in the movie where, if he’s being strategic, he’s just hiding out, but having to watch hours of this show that he hates.

Michael Cera stars in Paramount Pictures’ “The Running Man.”

I want to ask about Ben, because I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Glen Powell so angry! How does he embody the Ben Richards character, and what kind of energy did you envision?

That was straight from the book. Ben Richards is a very angry man in the book. I think when Stephen King wrote it in his late 20s, early 30s, he was an angry young man at the time. It obviously comes from a sense of righteous fury and frustration, his place in the world, and being punished for doing the right thing.

When we first talked to Glen about it, I said to him that I needed Bad Mood Glen. He’s such a nice and charming guy that it was actually kind of hard for him to tap into, I wouldn’t say a darker side, but an energy where he’s the guy that stands up to bullies. It’s obviously a tough future where you’re not given any medals for doing the right thing. In fact, you’re punished for it.

I think on the opposite end of that spectrum, we have Michael Cera as Elton Perrakis, who has been building this entire resistance system. Then, when it actually comes down to the moment where he has to make a choice, it’s almost like he can’t help himself, and he has to gleefully push the button.

That was a really fun idea and one of the changes from the book. In the book, Victoria (Sandra Dickinson), his mom, is the one who pushes the emergency button. It was actually a note from Mike Ireland, the former head of Paramount, who said after the first draft, that between Bradley and Elton, who are both people helping him in the underground. He gave the greatest studio note ever. He said, “One of these guys has got to screw him over.” And we were like, huh, interesting. We thought, well, we don’t want Elton to be a baddie, but what if he’s a massive liability? It was one of our favorite changes from draft to draft, the moment where Michael’s character can’t help but call the cops. We’ve set up this idea that he wants revenge, and I think the fun thing is that Elton is one of the heroes, but he’s a wild card.

Well, no spoilers, but the ending of the story has to do with whether or not to accept a lucrative deal. And then we also have Evan McCone (Lee Pace) on the other side of that equation, who is a larger presence in your film than he is in the original story. Why did you want to build out McCone’s character, and are you making a statement about complicity and compliance?

I think it was an idea that maybe in the first season, somebody had come too close to winning, and that wasn’t necessarily going to be good for the show, so rather than create this idea that The Running Man is too easy, they gave him a way out, but that way out wasn’t necessarily an answer. Without giving too much away, as Lee Pace’s character explains it, this is not a happy ending either. In fact, this could be your hell on earth. I think it’s similar to the book in that you’re not giving Ben Richards any easy solutions at the end, and complicity with the Network is something he’s not willing to do. Even in his final seconds, that’s still who he is. To come in and take the money would be complicity, and he would very much be on the wrong side of history.

One of the things that I was stunned by was, considering when the original novella was written, some of Ben’s messages are things I’m hearing today. Why is now a good time to tell this story?

Well, I think you just answered your own question. [Laughs] Weirdly, I would say that things became even more prescient as we were making the movie. We started on the script in early 2022, and obviously, we were filming it until spring of this year. There’s a point where news moves so fast that the fiction part of the science fiction is starting to fade away. But we didn’t necessarily see that as a negative. We felt like, if it feels like you’re looking five minutes into the future, then maybe that’s a good thing.

The Running Man is available to buy or rent now on digital with over two and a half hours of bonus content from Paramount Home Entertainment.

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This was a great year for horror in all forms, but if you like your horror on the page, it was an especially exhilarating 2025. Many of the best horror writers in the game produced amazing books this year, some of them outright masterpieces, while indie and debut authors delivered fantastic writing that pushes the genre’s boundaries with every page. 

There were many, many great horror books this year, but for me, these rose to the top. In alphabetical order by author, here are the best new horror books I read in 2025.  

Bat-Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

Bat-Eater is an absolute stunner. Part meditation on the anti-Asian racism of the COVID pandemic response, part serial killer drama, part ghost story, Kylie Lee Baker’s latest is funny, furious, and full of moments of raucous horror. There’s no other book like it on the shelves right now, and it cuts to the core of the unique horrors of 2020 in New York City. 

When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

A struggling actor’s unexpected encounter with a boy on the run sets off one of the most unpredictable werewolf novels I’ve ever read, from the author of Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings. This book moves like a freight train, and just when you think you understand how the monster works, Cassidy swerves on you, delivering an emotional gut punch and a fascinating reveal all at once.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

A fast-moving, supernatural, incredibly dark force moves through American media, poisoning the minds of anyone in its path, while a few unharmed family members try to fight through the chaos. No, it’s not a nonfiction book about America in 2025, but Chapman could not have possibly known when he wrote this book just how hard it would hit when it landed in January. A true American horror story that’ll drop your jaw.

Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin

A film archivist gets her hands on a holy grail of lost films, a phantasmagoric wonder long thought destroyed by the Nazi regime. Soon, her life spirals as the film’s secrets, sights, and apparent curses begin unspooling in her world, driving her to madness. Gretchen Felker-Martin’s latest is terrifying on a visceral level, yes, but it’s also terrifying on an existential one, as she confronts not just the idea of cursed art, but censorship as a cog in the machine of fascism. 

The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene

Some of the best minds in horror came together this year to create this phenomenal doorstopper of a book, unveiling new stories from across the timeline and universe of The Stand. It’s a massive, and massively ambitious tome, and against all odds, there is not a single weak link among the three dozen writers who contributed to this vast tapestry. The year’s best anthology in a walk. 

Mother-Eating: A Documentary by Jess Hagemann

Sometimes a book’s concept strikes you right between the eyes and forces you to investigate further, and that’s exactly what happened with Jess Hagemann’s latest. The story of Marie Antoinette, if she’d grown up as a key figure in a religious sex cult in modern-day Austin, this book’s opening ante is one of the most disturbing things I read all year, and it only ups the stakes from there. This is a stunning book from a rising star. 

Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

One of horror’s most reliably entertaining voices returns with this riff on The Amityville Horror, the story of a New York-based influencer who finally has to confront the supernatural story and publicity machine of her family’s past. Rachel Harrison’s great gift lies in sketching out distinct voices for each of her books, and then tapping into a universal sense of empathy while also delivering an absolute page-turner. Play Nice is another showcase of that gift, and a perfect jumping-on point if you haven’t dug into Harrison’s body of work yet. 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

If you asked me to pick a single book to put in the hands of every reader in America this year, it would be The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and I wouldn’t even have to think about it. Part historical vampire tale, part reckoning with a tragedy that befell the Blackfeet people, all masterpiece, Stephen Graham Jones‘ novel will move, disgust, and thrill you, sometimes all at once. 

We Are Always Tender with Our Dead by Eric LaRocca

Eric LaRocca has built a reputation among extreme horror fans as one of those writers who’ll never hold anything back, and that’s still true with his most ambitious book yet. The first in the still-in-progress Black Sparrow trilogy, We Are Always Tender with Our Dead takes us to a small New England town run by secretive elders, where corpses are left as permanent monuments, and the dead move the living in unexpected, terrifying ways.

Puppet’s Banquet by Valkyrie Loughcrewe

If you’re looking for an indie author to watch, Valkyrie Loughcrewe has the goods. They released two excellent books this year, including this descent into body horror madness as a woman discovers her partner’s been subjected to absolutely horrific experiments. Loughcrewe’s knack for jaw-dropping imagery is apparent on every page, but what really makes their work special is a sense of poetry in their prose, the ability to strip and reassemble language like a weapon. 

Good Boy by Neil McRobert

The debut novella from the creator of the Talking Scared podcast, Good Boy, tells the story of a man and his loyal canine companion as they navigate encounters with a monster in the north of England. McRobert’s sense of place as he writes about his homeland is unparalleled, and Good Boy emerges as both a creepy folktale riff and one of the year’s most emotionally satisfying horror stories.

A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper

Perhaps the gutsiest conceptual leap from a major horror writer this year, Hailey Piper’s latest novel is a riff on Robert W. Chambers’ revered collection The King in Yellow, a foundational weird fiction book that gets an unexpected expansion through A Game in Yellow. The book follows a lesbian couple in a BDSM relationship whose limits are tested when they read pages from a mysterious play that’s said to drive you mad, and even beyond the ties to cosmic horror history, it’s a phenomenal showcase in character study from one of the best horror writers working right now.

The Unkillable Frank Lightning by Josh Rountree

This book gets you in the door by asking the question “What if Frankenstein’s monster was in a Wild West show?” and then keeps you reading through lean, evocative prose, great characters, and a truly moving journey of love, regret, and redemption. I read this book in one sitting, not because I planned to but because I just couldn’t stop, and if you love horror mashed up with Westerns, you’ll probably end up doing the same.

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

The author of the Fever House duology returns with a ’70s road horror novel that reads like Salem’s Lot meets Near Dark and The Hitcher, with a whole lot of Elmore Leonard thrown in. Rosson’s writing blends the hardboiled and the horrifying in dizzying, engrossing ways, and his books just keep getting better.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

A knight, a magician, and a ratcatcher, three women united by their existence in the same siege-starved castle, must question everything they thought they knew when a group of majestic Saints stroll through the castle gates, offering food in exchange for worship. A beautifully orchestrated, sapphic, horror-fantasy nightmare, The Starving Saints is one of those books I simply did not want to leave.

The post The Best Horror Books of 2025! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Join Losers Michael Roffman, Jenn Adams, Justin Gerber, and Dan Caffrey as they rank all 12 stories within King’s 2024 collection — from the hard-hitting novella Two Talented Bastids to the harrowing Cujo sequel “Rattlesnakes” to the soul searching sendoff “The Answer Man”. You’ll see why they call this King’s best work of the last decade and change.

Note: This episode was recorded in May of 2024 is being released to them main feed..

Stream the episode below, then stay tuned in January as they officially catch up on the beam with this year’s Never Flinch. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon), which includes their spinoff series Talkin’ Hawkins, CrichtonCast, and Dark Tower Detour.

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To close out the first quarter of this century, the Halloweenies have hit the archives to revisit all the horror movies released between 2000 to 2025. After careful consideration, they’ve made their lists, checked them twice, and given them to Santa Gerber to collate them all into a bonafide top 25.

Last week, the gang shared their picks from 25 to 11, and today they’re rounding the event out with their top 10. Granted, your powers of deduction likely predicted a handful of these horror hits, but we’re confident at least a third of these will send you into a frenzy. Let us know in the comments below!

Stream both episodes below. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, Alien, and the Universal Monsters. Next year? Hellraiser!

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Re-Animator, Darkman), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Manhunter), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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The post The Top 25 Horror Movies of the Last 25 Years Pt. 2 [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Cabin Fever VHS from Lionsgate

Alongside the new Steelbook 4K UHD, Cabin Fever is returning to VHS exclusively from Lionsgate Limited.

Priced at $29.99, the unrated version of the 2002 horror comedy is due out on January 13.

For five friends barreling down a mountain road toward a remote cabin, adulthood looms and one last summer of decadence awaits. But when a stranger stricken with a flesh-eating virus shows up at their door, the infection spreads, terror erupts, and friend is pitted against friend in a paranoid nightmare of contagion and survival.

Eli Roth (Hostel, Thanksgiving) made his feature directorial debut from a script he co-wrote with Randy Pearlstein.

Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent, Joey Kern, Arie Verveen, and Giuseppe Andrews star.

The Running Man Steelbook 4K UHD from Paramount

The Running Man will be released on Steelbook 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 3 via Paramount.

Based on the 1982 dystopian novel by Stephen King, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) directs from a script he co-wrote with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street).

Special features:

• Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Edgar Wright, Actor Glen Powell, And Writer Michael Bacall
• The Hunt Begins Featurette
• The Hunters and The Hunted Featurette
• Welcome to The Running Man: Designing the World Featurette
• Surviving the Game: Shooting The Running Man Featurette
• The Running Man Commercials
• The Running Man Show
• The Runners – Self Tapes
• Speed The Wheel
• The Americanos
• The Apostle
• Stunts Compilation
• Hair, Makeup and Costume Test
• Deleted And Extended Scenes
• Trailers & Digital Spots

In a near-future society, a man joins a game show in which contestants, allowed to flee anywhere in the world, are pursued by “hunters” hired to kill them.

Glen Powell stars with William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin.

Stephen King Print by Dismay Design

Dismay Design illustrated Stephen King artwork that’s perfect for any constant reader’s library.

Priced at $29, the signed and numbered 18×24 matte prints comes with a free “Books are the best company” bumper sticker.

Alien Pops from Funko

Funko has revealed new Alien Pop figures, which are due out in March.

The line includes a light-up Chestburster ($29.99), Kane with Facehugger along with a Chestburster variant ($14.99), and an Alien Pop VHS Cover with Ripley ($24.99).

Silent Night, Deadly Night Vinyl from Terror Vision

The original Silent Night, Deadly Night soundtrack is getting an expanded 3xLP vinyl pressing in early 2026 from Terror Vision.

It includes the complete score composed by Perry Botkin, all of the Christmas carols performed by Morgan Ames, and an additional 14 previously unreleased tracks, all newly mastered from the original session tapes.

Priced at $39.98, color variants include Christmas Splatter Sparkle, Iridescent Wintergreen, Garland & Blood, Silver Bells, Candy Cane, and black (limited to 50).

The album is housed in premium trifold packing with full-color inner sleeves and liner notes by Ice Nine Kills frontman Spencer Charnas.

Stranger Things Sweatshirt from Netflix

Netflix has released a replica of the “Beam Me Up This Place Sucks!” sweatshirt worn by Robin in Stranger Things Season 5.

Priced at $36.95, it’s available in navy blue and dark heather.

3615 Code Santa Claus Novelization by Christian Francis

Echo On Publications has published 3615 Code Santa Claus, an official novelization of the 1989 French Christmas horror thriller also known as Deadly Games.

Based on the screenplay by René Manzor, the book is written by Echo On editor-in-chief Christian Francis, who has authored such novelizations as In the Mouth of Madness, Wishmaster, and Tremors.

It follows Thomas, a 9-year-old genius who still believes in Santa Claus. Hidden under the dining room table on December 24th, Thomas waits to catch a glimpse of the man in red… but he doesn’t know he’s about to face the most frightening night of his life.

Silent Hill Prints by Sam Wolfe Connelly

Moor-Art Gallery has released Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill 4: The Room posters by Sam Wolfe Connelly.

Limited to 150, the 16×24 hand-numbered fine art pigment print set costs $205 and is expected to ship in March.

Sisu: Road to Revenge Steelbook 4K UHD from Sony

Sisu: Road to Revenge will be released on Steelbook 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 17 via Sony.

Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports) returns to direct the gory action sequel to 2022’s Sisu.

Special features:

• Upping the Ante
• Alternate Ending

Returning to the house where his family was brutally murdered during the war, “the man who refuses to die” dismantles it, loads it on a truck, and is determined to rebuild it somewhere safe in their honor. When the Red Army commander who killed his family comes back hellbent on finishing the job, a relentless, eye-popping cross-country chase ensues.

Jorma Tommila reprises his starring role, joined by Richard Brake and Stephen Lang.

For more merch madness, peruse the Killer Collectibles archives.

The post 9 New Must-Have Horror Collectibles, Including ‘Cabin Fever’ VHS & ‘The Running Man’ Steelbook 4K appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Constant Readers and fans of Stephen King’s 1986 novel It know that “no one who dies in Derry ever really dies.”

That’s the eerie aphorism shared with Losers’ Club member Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) as she sips tea with the deceptively monstrous Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson) in the story’s modern timeline. King’s terrifying novel follows Beverly and her friends on a quest to destroy a shapeshifting child-killer known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). Every 27 years, this creature emerges from the sewers to feast on the frightened children of Derry before returning to sleep in Its subterranean lair.

After watching the finale of Andy Muschietti’s prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, perhaps we can expand on Mrs. Kersh’s ominous warning to say that nothing in Derry ever truly ends. Season 1 takes place in 1962, one cycle before the events of King’s book, and we think we know how the overall story will end. But an ominous interaction with the monster Itself calls an ostensibly solid timeline into question. 

Season 1 has been building to the horrific fire at the Black Spot speakeasy while following a military quest to free Pennywise from a metaphysical cage confining him within the town. With a key pillar of this perimeter missing, a de facto Losers’ Club has formed to bury a powerful artifact and essentially close the gate again. Desperate to save Will (Blake Cameron James) — and scores of other kids — trapped in the monster’s hypnotic Deadlights, Marge (Matilda Lawler) and her friends confront Pennywise on a river strangely frozen by a monstrous mist. As It prepares to devour Marge, he taunts the frightened girl with information about her future and reveals that her married name will be Margaret Tozier. This confirms the fan theory that Marge is the mother of Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard, Bill Hader), a member of the Losers’ Club that finally manages to kill the clown. 

Photo courtesy of HBO

Though admittedly exciting, this revelation opens the door for larger horrors. While Marge cowers on the ice, Pennywise toys with the idea of killing her, thus preventing Richie from ever existing. But It seems amused by the situation and waxes poetic on the nature of time. As an eternal being, It notes that past, present, and future are all the same and his end will also be a beginning.

Early episodes have shown that the entity known as Pennywise is an interdimensional being who arrived on Earth within a star, crash-landing in a forest that would one day form the town of Derry. He will later call himself a “god” and an “eater of worlds,” implying that his existence transcends our understanding of time and space. Pennywise is ultimately prevented from devouring Marge, momentarily frozen by a mental distraction. But she’s haunted by this interaction and what it could mean for her future safety. 

With the dust still settling on their victory, Marge discusses this disturbing conversation with her friend Lilly (Clara Stack). Not only does she now know the name of her future son, but that he will be partially responsible for killing It, which places her own existence in danger. What she does not know is that Will’s future son Mike (Chosen Jacobs, Isaiah Mustafa) will also be part of this group and similarly pivotal to the monster’s destruction. As the only Loser to stay in Derry, the future town librarian will bide time between the monster’s cycles by compiling a dark town history, writing the very Interludes upon which It: Welcome to Derry is based. He will also be responsible for calling the adult Losers back home in order to stop the monster once and for all.

Muschietti’s Richie is an integral member of the Club that finally kills the clown, but King’s source material gives him an even more important role. While embarking on the Ritual of Chüd, a telepathic battle of wits, an adult Bill misses his grip and it’s Richie who manages to save the day. Though they are two of a seven-person team, Richie and Mike are absolutely essential to the Losers’ Club’s victory and ridding Derry of the monstrous clown. Marge worries that if this interdimensional creature has the ability to see forward in time, perhaps It can travel backwards as well. Lilly assures her that this will be someone else’s fight, alluding to cycles past and future, but Marge’s existential worry presents a horrific possibility: if Pennywise is indeed eternal and has the ability to travel through time, could he find a way to murder the ancestors of the Loser’s Club, negating their heroic actions before they begin?  

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Muschietti stops short of pulling on this thread, instead choosing to wrap the series on an emotional beat. But these conversations cast new light on the expected events of seasons 2 and 3. Written in 1986 and twice adapted for the screen, King’s story is a closed loop in which the adult Losers defeat the evil entity, nearly destroying Derry in the process. Based on four literary Interludes, It: Welcome to Derry will likely chronicle earlier cycles of death, leading up to mass casualty events.

The 1935 cycle will end with the massacre of the Bradley Gang, an outlaw family attempting to hide out in Derry. Previous episodes have featured flashbacks to the 1908 cycle in which the monster adopts his Pennywise persona, sparking a deadly obsession in  Ingrid Kersh (Emma-Leigh Cullum, Madeleine Stowe). This earlier cycle will end with a devastating explosion at the Kitchener Ironworks during a town-wide Easter Egg hunt. This disturbing event is referenced along with the Bradley Gang shootout in the series’ eerie opening sequence. 

Marge’s fears of a time-travelling killer clown seem to reference James Cameron’s Terminator franchise in which a murderous cyborg arrives in the past to kill a prominent military leader before he can rise to power. But King has provided precedent for this mind-boggling theory in a subsequent Derry novel. 11//22/63 follows Jake Epping, a teacher from the 21st century who travels back in time to prevent the Kennedy Assassination via a portal located in Southern Maine. The invisible tunnel Jake calls a rabbit hole leads him to the neighboring town of Lisbon Falls circa 1958, the year of King’s first literary cycle. On his way to Dallas, Jake makes a stop in Derry and interacts with Losers Beverly and Richie in the aftermath of their first battle with It. Perhaps there are other portals surrounding the monster’s hunting ground linking travelers to the deadly cycles of 1935 and 1908?

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

While Pennywise would be unable to use a portal located outside Derry’s protective perimeter, his human familiars could. King sets precedence for this as well. In the novel’s adult timeline, Pennywise assists the sinister Henry Bowers (Teach Grant) in breaking out of the Juniper Hill asylum and attempting to kill the returning Losers before they can enter It’s subterranean lair. We also know that Mrs. Kersh has been luring children to Pennywise, hoping to catch a glimpse of her long-lost father, the original dancing clown. Having been caught in the Deadlights in the previous episode, her mind appears to have been destroyed by the evil entity and reprogrammed to do Its bidding.

Or, now that she knows the truth about her father’s murder and assimilation, perhaps Mrs. Kersh will use a rabbit hole to save her father’s life, thus preventing the Entity from killing Robert Gray (Skarsgård) and adopting the clown persona altogether. Marge and her friends could also use this passageway to travel backward or forward in the Derry timeline, providing assistance to their children — or parents — as they also attempt to defeat the clown.

And there is one additional option. We’ve assumed that It: Welcome to Derry follows the human experience, backtracking through linear time. But if this universal constant is actually malleable, perhaps we’ve been experiencing events from Pennywise’s point of view. If It truly has the power to bend time and space, maybe his near death in 1989 and defeat in 2016 (1958 and 1985 in King’s source material) has sparked the eternal monster’s defense mechanism. This end at the hands of the Losers’ Club could be the beginning of a new attempt to survive. Instead of traveling back in time, perhaps It is reliving the 1962 timeline after the events of 2016 and each trip backwards in human time is a subsequent attempt to stop the Losers’ Club from ever existing.

If Pennywise has the power to adopt any shape or form, maybe It can transform time as well. After all, if no one ever really dies in Derry, doesn’t that extend to the monster too?

For more coverage of It: Welcome to Derry, check out episode by episode coverage on The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

The post ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: Pennywise Opens the Door to Time Travel in Season 2 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Both the original two-part miniseries and the truncated international theatrical cut have been newly restored in 4K with Dolby Vision and original lossless mono audio.

Disc 1 – Miniseries Version:

• Two viewing modes: Play as miniseries in two parts or as extended movie
• Audio commentary by film critics Bill Ackerman and Amanda Reyes (new)
• Audio commentary by director Tobe Hooper
• Alternate TV footage – Commercial bumpers and original broadcast version of the antlers death
• Original shooting script gallery

Disc 2 – Theatrical Version:

• Audio commentary by film critic Chris Alexander (new)
• King of the Vampires – Interview with Stephen King biographer Douglas Winter (new)
• Second Coming – An appreciation by author Grady Hendrix (new)
• New England Nosferatu – Interview with filmmaker Mick Garris (new)
• We Can All Be Heroes – Featurette with film critic Heather Wixson (new)
• A Gold Standard for Small Screen Screams – Featurette with Horror Queers podcast hosts Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman (new)
• Fear Lives Here – Locations featurette (new)
• Trailer
• Image gallery

Also Included:

• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
• Perfect-bound booklet with new writing by critics Sean Abley, Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, and Richard Kadrey, plus archival interviews with director Tobe Hooper and actors Lance Kerwin and Julie Cobb
• Double-sided foldout poster featuring two original artwork options
• Salem’s Lot town sign sticker

Author Ben Mears returns to the town of Salem’s Lot after 25 years to write about the Marsten House, an old mansion with a bad reputation that has haunted the writer since childhood. But the sleepy town of Ben’s youth is beginning to change.

There’s an antiques store about to open, run by the mysterious Richard Straker and his unseen partner Mr. Barlow, and they’re living in the Marsten House. A series of deaths and disappearances leads Ben to believe that a vampire is feeding on the town. But how can he stop them, and will anyone believe him?

Master of horror Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Poltergeist) directs from a script by Carrie producer Paul Monash.

David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, and Reggie Nalder star.

The post Tobe Hooper’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ Heads to 4K UHD with 2 Cuts from Arrow Video appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With more than seventy novels and novellas to his name, not to mention 200 short stories, the Master of Horror’s expansive catalogue is a tempting sandbox for horror creators. But the success rate is comparably low. What may seem conceptually straightforward — a murderous clown, haunted hotel, or killer car — depends on strong characterization and a believable world. Many directors become sidetracked by supernatural elements or shocking moments of violence and gore while forgetting the emotional engine that drives the story.

Despite his reputation for terrorizing readers, King’s work is surprisingly warm, with powerful sentiment permeating each page. It takes an equally empathetic director to capture the author’s signature blend of horror and heart.  

The son of prominent comedians, Rob Reiner came from a background in improv and won national fame as Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the iconic sitcom All in the Family before stepping behind the camera for the 1984 satire This Is Spinal Tap. Two years later, he set out to tackle one of King’s most tender stories. Stand by Me, an adaptation of the third novella in the 1982 collection Different Seasons, The Body, follows four boys on a quest to locate the corpse of Ray Brower (Kent W. Luttrell), a kid rumored to have been hit by a train. As they traverse the railroad tracks of southern Maine, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O’Connell) let down their guards and express the pain of transitioning into young adulthood. King based the story on childhood memories, calling The Body his only “nakedly autobiographical story.” 

Jerry O’Connel and Wil Wheaton in Stand By Me

Though Stand by Me shares DNA with other ’80s adventure films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies, Reiner builds his horror from stark reality. Gordie and his friends do not find themselves flying their bikes into the night sky, nor do they evade gangsters in subterranean pirate ships. Instead, they face more relatable danger like a vicious junkyard dog trained to attack and a pond full of blood sucking leeches. The film’s most famous sequence sees the boys dashing across a high trestle to avoid being struck by an oncoming train. Even the body they find is presented with unflinching realism.

This disturbing scene’s horror does not come from graphic special effects or visceral gore, but the inescapable fact of death. The boys stare down at this unremarkable corpse, knowing they will one day find themselves in his shoes.   

Many directors who try to adapt King’s work find themselves bogged down in faithfulness to the text, but Reiner makes a few key alterations. Most prominent is the choice to center the story’s young narrator, Gordie, a clear proxy for King himself. Describing this shift, Reiner said, “In the book, it was about four boys, but…once I made Gordie the central focus of the piece then it made sense to me: this movie was all about a kid who didn’t feel good about himself and whose father didn’t love him.”

The burgeoning writer must navigate the recent loss of his older brother and the knowledge that his parents wish he had died instead. Gordie shares this devastating fear while weeping on the shoulder of his best friend, Chris, who consoles him with a prediction that he will one day be a great writer. Describing this touching moment, the world-famous author remembers, “That weeping boy was me. It was Rob Reiner who put it on the screen.”

River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton in Stand By Me

Reiner was nervous to show King the film, wary of altering such a personal story. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Reiner remembered the author excusing himself for 15 minutes after the credits rolled on a private screening. King returned and gave the director a hug, noting, “That’s the best film ever made out of anything I’ve written, which isn’t saying much. But you’ve really captured my story.” Audiences agreed, and Stand by Me remains a classic coming-of-age drama, often listed among the best works of both creators. 

Based on the success of Stand by Me, Reiner founded Castle Rock Entertainment, named for the setting of The Body and a number of King’s more prominent works. Dedicated to fostering creative freedom, Reiner followed this adaptation with a trio of films under the Castle Rock banner that would each come to exemplify their respective genres. While The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, and A Few Good Men may have little in common by surface standards, each succeeds on the strength of their well-drawn characters and Reiner’s knack for finding humor and heart in the most outlandish situations.

It’s this ability to unearth the emotional core that makes him such a good match for King’s source material. After all, The Body is less about the search for Ray Brower and more about four friends learning to support each other in one of life’s most painful transitions. Another of Reiner’s creative decisions — titling the film Stand by Me — reflects this infectious empathy. While undoubtedly practical, referencing Ben E. King’s emotional ballad shifts the story’s tone from death to life and the beauty of true friendship. 

Rob Reiner, Kathy Bates, and James Caan behind the scenes of Misery

Reiner would go on to repeat this success with a much more overt horror story that nonetheless hides a complex emotional center. Based on King’s 1987 novel, Misery is an intimate story of obsession and abuse captured in an isolated mountain farmhouse. Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a romance writer who’s just completed his first “serious work” in years when his car slides off a mountain road in the midst of a heavy blizzard. He’s rescued by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), a former nurse who just happens to be Paul’s biggest fan. At first, this seems too good to be true until he realizes that the unstable woman has no intention of letting him go. Annie holds her favorite author prisoner and forces him to write the next installment in her beloved series of Misery novels.  

Bates is breathtaking as the monstrous Annie, earning one of horror’s few Academy Awards. In a single scene, she careens from gently feeding Paul his lunch to screaming about a childhood frustration, then quickly apologizing for her outburst. Annie becomes increasingly violent as Paul’s injuries begin to heal. She smashes his mangled legs with a ream of typing paper when he dares to ask for a different brand and demands he burn his new manuscript as punishment for killing off her favorite character. And who can forget the famous hobbling scene in which Annie shatters Paul’s feet as punishment for leaving his room?

One of the most painful moments in horror history, the scene represents another significant change to King’s story. In the novel, Annie cuts off Paul’s foot with an ax before quickly cauterizing the stump. Reiner’s version of the character bashes his feet with a massive sledgehammer, while insisting it’s all for his own good. In a marvel of practical effects, we watch as Paul’s foot simply flops to the side. In fact, the impact is so effective that Reiner doesn’t show us the second blow, cutting instead to Caan’s agonizing screams and trusting that our minds will make up the difference. This change reinforces the emotional abuse Annie inflicts on Paul throughout the story while allowing him to survive intact. From the outside, the author appears to be healing, but this brutal scene represents the horror of Annie’s captivity. Her rhapsodic, “God, I love you,” as she basks in Paul’s misery, speaks volumes about the sadistic nurse.

Misery

Balancing this gruesome horror, Reiner again adds humor and heart to King’s dark subject matter with Sheriff Buster (Richard Farnsworth) and his wife, Virginia (Frances Sternhagen). Slowly putting the pieces together, the laid-back lawman confronts Annie about Paul’s disappearance while he lies sedated on the basement floor. But along the way, this elderly couple flirt and joke at every turn, providing a sharp contrast to Annie’s toxic devotion. Her infatuation with her favorite writer is an evil funhouse mirror to Virginia’s and Buster’s respectful romance. King has also praised the comedic elements of Bates’ performance, specifically her mispronunciation of Dom Pérignon. “[I]t’s both funny and touching: This woman has never had anyone to teach her the correct pronunciation,” King wrote. “Rob caught that perfectly.”

This would be the last time Reiner would direct a Stephen King adaptation, though Castle Rock would be responsible for a few other hits. In 1987, Frank Darabont was an up-and-coming director with a screenwriting credit on the fan-favorite A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. He’d previously had success directing a low-budget adaptation of King’s most personal text. “The Woman in the Room” is an early short story based on the author’s experience watching his mother die. Darabont approached King about adapting the first Different Seasons novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, securing the rights for $5,000. Skeptical that it could be done, King nonetheless approved Darabont’s request and would eventually send back the uncashed check. Darabont spent years reworking the story from a black comedy about a prison escape to a touching parable about hope and redemption. 

Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption

Upon completion, Darabont approached Castle Rock with the screenplay, and producer Liz Glotzer was so impressed that she threatened to quit if the company didn’t take on the project. Though Reiner initially wanted to direct, Darabont insisted on helming his own screenplay, hoping to make a name for himself in the industry. Reiner served as a mentor, encouraging him to lean into the characterization that worked so well for his previous King titles. The Shawshank Redemption opened in 1994 to disappointing box office numbers, but an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture raised its profile, leading to a much more successful home video run and cultural reappraisal.

Darabont’s film currently holds the #1 spot on IMDb’s overall rankings and remains one of the most universally beloved movies of all time. The director would go on to adapt The Green Mile (1999) and The Mist (2007), other King stories centering on complex human beings trapped in horrific situations. Alongside these cinematic successes, Castle Rock would also produce Seinfeld, one of the most highly regarded and influential sitcoms of the 20th century, which also happens to be entirely character-driven. 

We’re currently in the midst of another Stephen King renaissance with the dual popularity of Andy Muschietti’s It franchise and Stranger Things, which pulls heavily from the author’s early work. Both of these coming-of-age horror stories can trace their inspiration directly back to The Body and Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me.

In an emotional tribute to the late director, King remembers watching the adaptation for the first time. “I marveled at what a good story the truth could make in the right hands.” Though known for his work in the horror sphere, King has built a genre-bending empire on beloved characters who find heartfelt truth in harrowing fiction. Over the years, Reiner and his equally cherished films demonstrate a similar talent for emotional storytelling. It’s difficult to overstate his influence on the cinematic landscape and his unparalleled ability to capture the heart of Stephen King. 

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” – Stand By Me

The post Rob Reiner Always Found Heart in the Horror of Stephen King appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Master of horror Stephen King, actor/comedian Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer), Australian film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation) each discuss their experiences with the 1974 genre-defining classic.

By crafting a dialogue between contemporary footage and never-before-seen outtakes while delving into personal impressions triggered by distinct audiovisual formats, the documentary goes to the heart of how a low-budget independent film wormed its way into our collective nightmares and permanently altered the zeitgeist.

The festival favorite is directed by Alexandre O. Philippe (The People vs. George Lucas, Memory: The Origin of Alien).

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review, “Chain Reactions is a love letter to Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its grander impact on horror and film. It’s also such a glowing celebration of the power of cinema and its ability to open minds and bring people to new worlds, as glib as that may seem.”

Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will also join Shudder on January 9.

The post ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Documentary ‘Chain Reactions’ Streams on Shudder in January appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After seven thrilling episodes, It: Welcome to Derry concludes its inaugural season with “Winter Fire,” a powerhouse finale that effectively wraps up the town’s 1962 cycle of death and destruction while peppering in shrewd connections to Stephen King’s larger body of work.

With Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) unbound by the protective Pillars previously used to confine him to Derry, the monster has emerged from his subterranean lair, seemingly ready to skip his traditional 27-year hibernation and continue to feast on children’s fear. This shift coincides with a mysterious fog that spreads through town, bringing out-of-season ice and snow while providing cover for the clown’s sinister deeds. Constant Readers will undoubtedly be reminded of another tiny Maine town overtaken by a deadly haze. 

King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew opens with “The Mist,” a novella in which a heavy summer storm is followed by dense clouds spreading through Bridgton, Maine, sparking chaos among the frightened survivors while cloaking a variety of massive beasts.  Co-creator Jason Fuchs has stated that the mist permeating Derry is not the same phenomenon that decimates Bridgton, but comparisons are nonetheless eerie. The Bridgton disaster is reportedly caused by a dangerous experiment at a nearby military base and the mysterious Project Arrowhead, reminiscent of General Shaw (James Remar) and his reckless Project Precept. Anyone familiar with King’s harrowing “The Mist” — not to mention Frank Darabont‘s devastating 2007 adaptation — will no doubt see this mist rolling through town and worry that Derry may be headed for a similar fate. 

Photo courtesy of HBO

After watching the weather turn from their lofty clubhouse, Marge (Matilda Lawler), Lilly (Clara Stack), and Ronnie (Amanda Christine) descend the stairs to find the walls of the Standpipe covered with Missing posters emblazoned with the images of Derry’s kids. Most upsetting is a flyer featuring Will (Blake Cameron James), who was pulled into Pennywise’s Deadlights in the final moments of episode 7. These bulletins nod to one of co-creator Andy Muschietti‘s more sinister visual frights in his 2017 adaptation It. After entering the house on Neibolt Street, Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard) is confronted with a Missing poster featuring his own smiling face. Determined to save their friend and still reeling from the deadly Black Spot fire, Marge insists, “I wanna kill that fucking clown,” paraphrasing Richie’s explicit call to arms in Muschietti’s It and It: Chapter Two. 

Disoriented by the freezing mist, the girls follow a trail of blood into the woods. But with just one bike between them, they’re unable to move fast enough. Fortunately, Marge commandeers an abandoned delivery truck after spying a milkman lying dead nearby, cleverly nodding to two of King’s most bizarre short stories. Skeleton Crew also features a pair of entries reworked from snippets of an abandoned novel. “Morning Deliveries (Milkman No. 1)” and “Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman No. 2)” are unsettling vignettes following Spike, a milkman and suspected serial killer who delights in delivering deadly ingredients like poisoned gas and venomous spiders hidden inside his bottles of milk. When Marge mentions learning to drive a truck by watching her uncle, Constant Readers may also remember another story collected in Skeleton Crew. “Uncle Otto’s Truck” is an eerie Castle Rock tale following a man plagued by guilt that takes the form of an abandoned truck creeping immeasurably closer to his bedroom window. 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Among those still left to battle the clown, none has been terrorized quite like Dick Hallorran (Chris Chalk). While using his telepathic powers to locate the Entity, Pennywise was able to infiltrate Dick’s mind and release a host of ominous spirits previously trapped in a mental lockbox. Terrorized by visions of the dead, Dick accepts a potent tea from Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), who promises it will help silence their voices.

This concoction is made from Maturin root, used as a hallucinogenic in Muschietti’s It: Chapter Two. Both inclusions of this mysterious plant reference an interdimensional turtle named Maturin who serves as a benevolent counterweight to the relentless evil of Pennywise. (For more information on Maturin, see our recap of episode 1). Rose explains that ingesting this root will connect Hallorann “to all things in the realm this evil came from.” Though she does not use the explicit term, Rose is referencing Todash Space, a liminal void between other worlds from which Pennywise – along with the aforementioned Bridgton monsters — likely originates. This tea not only allows Dick to quiet the dead and locate the Entity, but he’s also able to hijack Pennywise’s own consciousness and create a mental distraction while the kids attempt to rebury the Pillar. This metaphysical ruse sets up a similar tactic that Hallorann’s protege, Danny Torrance, will use to battle the True Knot in King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep. 

While this reference is admittedly thematic in nature, Muschietti wraps up Dick’s time in Derry with an overt nod to his origin story. Once Pennywise has been subdued, Hallorann plans to leave the military and try his hand at a new career. While saying goodbye, he mentions accepting an opportunity to cook at a friend’s hotel, foreshadowing his time as Head Chef at the sinister Overlook Hotel, first introduced in King’s 1977 novel, The Shining. Inside, he will be confronted with more visions of the dead, which seem to feed on his strange abilities. Hallorann quips, “How much trouble could a hotel be?” an ominous precursor to the horrors he will face in another of King’s most terrifying tales. 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

In the midst of this episode’s jaw-dropping climax, Marge also gets a window into her own future. Having cornered the frightened girl away from her friends, Pennywise refers to her as Margaret Tozier, before noting that this is not her name … yet. After weeks of fan theories and speculation — sparked by the character’s thick glasses and affinity for impressions which heavily mirror Richie’s own persona — this name drop confirms that Marge is the future mother of Losers’ Club member Richie Tozier, forming a direct link between her survival and It’s demise. We don’t yet know who Richie’s father will be, but considering the events of episode 7, we can now assume that Marge will name her son after Rich Santos (Arian S. Cartaya), the brave boy who died to save her life. 

Marge turns this encounter over in her mind, wondering about the limits of the Entity’s power. Revealing that her child will one day cause It’s death, the trickster clown also alludes to the cyclical nature of time itself and warns that this end will also serve as a birth. Marge worries that It has the power to target her ancestors in previous cycles, potentially wiping out the Losers’ Club and their hard-won victory before it begins. Lilly calms her fears, noting that this will be “someone else’s fight,” simultaneously referring to the events of King’s novel and the remaining two seasons of It: Welcome to Derry, which promise to chronicle earlier Interludes. As the final credits roll, eagle-eyed viewers will note a subtle addition to the script. “Chapter One” not only mirrors the conclusion of Muschietti’s It, but promises a return to this troubled town. 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Also wary of the monster’s resurgence, Rose believes she’s found a new generation of guardians. Devastated by her nephew’s death, she offers to sell her farm to the Hanlons and, along with it, the task of monitoring Derry to make sure the Pillars stay in place. Though the Hanlons initially balk at this invitation, Charlotte (Taylour Paige) convinces her husband Leroy (Jovan Adepo) to stay, mirroring her grandson’s role in future cycles. After battling the shapeshifting nightmare as kids, members of the Losers’ Club scatter to the winds, growing wildly successful in their respective fields. But Mike Hanlon stays behind, dedicating his life to keeping the watch. While waiting for the monster to arise, he begins researching the town’s history, compiling his findings into four literary Interludes which will become the basis of It: Welcome to Derry. 

Despite this heartwarming conclusion, Muschietti is not yet done with the terror. A post-credits scene takes us inside Juniper Hill, a hospital for the mentally ill, where we see a disturbed Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) ranting about the murderous clown. Muschietti then fast forwards to 1988, the year before the Losers’ Club forms. Joan Gregson reprises her role as the elderly Mrs. Kersh, nodding to her unsettling appearance in It: Chapter Two (see our recap of the Mrs. Kersh lore). 

The unnervingly cheerful woman hears sobbing from an open room and patters down the hall to take a peek. Inside, another patient named Elfrida Marsh has finally succeeded in dying by suicide. Standing in the doorway, Ingrid ignores the woman’s dangling body to focus on her grieving daughter. Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) attempts to console her abusive father before turning to lock eyes with Mrs. Kersh, who promises that “no one who dies in Derry ever really dies.” She will later echo this ominous phrase as a warning to an adult Beverly (Jessica Chastain) as she returns to Derry, intent on killing Pennywise once and for all.

This connection also brings the episode’s title full circle. “Winter Fire” not only describes the icy fog overtaking the town, but references a line from a romantic poem sent to Beverly from a secret admirer, revealed to be fellow Loser Ben Hanscomb. This connection draws a direct line between Mrs. Kersh and her future victim while reminding us that both evil and good exist side by side within the borders of King’s infamous town.

For more on It:Welcome to Derry, check out episode by episode coverage from Bloody FM’s The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

The post ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: The Stephen King Connections & References in Season One’s Finale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Running Man arrives on Digital on December 16 with over two hours of bonus content.

In a near-future society, ‘The Running Man’ is the top-rated show on television—a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing a greater cash reward.

Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards is convinced by the show’s charming but ruthless producer to enter the game as a last resort. But Ben’s defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite—and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall.

Glen Powell stars with William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin.

Wright co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street), based on the 1982 novel by Stephen King.

As for what’s included with the Digital release…

Bonus Content:

Over two and a half hours of extras plus filmmaker commentary take you inside Edgar Wright’s film.

• Commentary By Writer/Director Edgar Wright, Actor Glen Powell, And Writer Michael Bacall

• Featurettes:

  • The Hunt Begins: Jump into the chase with Glen Powell, Edgar Wright, and the team as they rebuild Stephen King’s classic into a big, bold, break-the-system thrill ride for today.

  • The Hunters And The Hunted: Meet the cast and the unforgettable characters that power this anything-goes game show of survival, strategy, and spectacle.

  • Welcome To The Running Man: Designing The World: A look at how the team crafted the movie’s retro-futuristic style—from gritty street corners to the over-the-top Free-Vee studio set pieces.

  • Surviving The Game: Shooting The Running Man: Step onto the set for a closer look at the stunts, fights, and shoot days that kept the energy high and the cast moving.

• The Running Man Commercials: In-world commercials for the show you definitely shouldn’t audition for—but can’t stop watching.

  • Let Them Run

  • Hey You! Tough Guy!

  • Watermelons

  • Fate And Destiny

  • Quadcopter

• The Running Man Show: Dive deeper into the show with its hardest hits, signature opening titles, and the official rules every contestant has to face.

  • Hardest Hits

  • Opening Titles

  • Rules Of The Run

• The Runners – Self Tapes: Raw, unfiltered self-tape submissions from the show’s desperate, overconfident, and occasionally unlucky contestants.

  • Ben Richards

  • Jenni Laughlin

  • Tim Jansky

  • Hopeless Dude

  • Negative Dude

  • Final Dude

• Speed The Wheel: A satirical in-world game show where running for your life is just another studio challenge.

• The Americanos: Meet America’s richest, boldest, most chaotic family in their hit reality series—glossy, ruthless, and always watching.

  • Title Sequence

  • Episode

  • Promo 1

  • Promo 2

  • Promo 3

  • Promo 4

• The Apostle: Clips from the in-world series that expands the TV universe of The Running Man.

  • The Apostle 1

  • The Apostle 2

• Stunts Compilation: A full-throttle look at the hits, falls, wire work, wipeouts, and perfectly timed chaos that fuel the film’s biggest moments.

• Hair, MakeUp And Costume Test: Watch the cast get locked into their final looks before stepping into the arena.

• Deleted And Extended Scenes: Additional moments cut from the final film.

• Trailers & Digital Spots: A curated lineup of the campaign’s boldest cuts and hardest-hitting promos.

The post Edgar Wright’s ‘The Running Man’ Heads to Digital Tomorrow appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Serving as a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s IT films based on Stephen King‘s classic novel, the series goes back to 1962 to trace the origins of the murderous, shape-shifting entity known as Pennywise the Clown.

Special features:

• Inside Derry – 3 extended behind-the-episode featurettes
• Fear the Other – Featurette exploring the societal dynamics of 1962 Derry, Jim Crow, the Red Scare, and the government trespassing on indigenous lands that wreak terror in this tiny New England town

The limited edition Steelbook also includes six Derry postcards.

Muschietti directed four episodes and developed the show with Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs. Fuchs serves as co-showrunner alongside Brad Caleb Kane (“Crystal Lake”).

Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, starring with Jovan Adepo (“The Stand”), Taylour Paige (The Toxic Avenger), Chris Chalk (“Gotham”), James Remar (“Dexter”), Stephen Rider (“Daredevil”), Madeleine Stowe (12 Monkeys), and Rudy Mancuso (The Flash) star.

Alixandra Fuchs (Boogeyman Pop), Kimberly Guerrero (“Reservation Dogs”), Dorian Grey (Star Trek: Discovery), Thomas Mitchell (Spiral: From the Book of Saw), BJ Harrison (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Peter Outerbridge (Saw VI), Shane Marriott (“Fargo”), Chad Rook (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City), Joshua Odjick (The Long Walk), and Morningstar Angeline (“Echo”) round out the cast.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “The cast is as tremendous as the production design, and the ’60s setting inspires new angles to exposing the rot beneath Derry’s Norman Rockwell-like facade. But there’s an almost empty artifice to it all, just fresh window dressing on a familiar story we’ve already seen and know how it ends, especially as the horror takes its time to escalate.”

The post ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Season 1 Floats Onto Physical Media in May 2026 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Horror fans love a killer clown. HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry has taken the world by storm with a deft blend of heartstopping terror and comforting nostalgia surrounding a solid emotional core.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) returns to terrorize the children of Derry, Maine, this time matched by a group of intrepid kids and a handful of familiar adult faces. Set in 1962, season 1 of a planned three-chapter run brings to life the fire at the Black Spot, one of the most disturbing sections of Stephen King’s 1986 novel, It.

Over seven jaw-dropping episodes, creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti, along with showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane, have resurrected fan-favorite characters from King’s connected universe, concocted fascinating origin stories, and dazzled us with a series of horrific sequences as we watch the shapeshifting monster go to work. But as we approach the season one finale, five burning questions begin to take shape.  

Will Leroy escape?

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

One of the more surprising storylines this season follows General Shaw (James Remar) and Operation Precept. Commander of the Derry Air Force Base, Shaw has recovered memories of his own childhood in the sinister town and returned to capture the nightmarish beast that once tried to kill him in the woods. Or at least that’s what we think. Episode 7, “The Black Spot,” reveals the true nature of his plan.

Well aware of the Entity’s shapeshifting power, Shaw plans to free Pennywise and use the fear It inspires to control a rapidly changing nation. Ostensibly kind, Shaw has been using Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) and his psychic gifts to locate the mysterious monster, and he’s summoned Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) to the Base because of the airman’s peculiar strength. Thanks to a brain injury suffered during combat, Leroy is incapable of fear, making him impervious to Pennywise’s manipulative power. 

With these factors at play, episode 7 ends with a game-changing showdown. Upon locating one of thirteen Pillars — pieces of the star in which Pennywise arrived that now contain him to a small hunting ground — Leroy prepares to move the precious stone further in, reducing the size of Its metaphysical cave. But Colonel Fuller (Thomas Mitchell) orders the Pillar brought to the Base, where it can be “studied.” Having nearly lost his son Will (Blake Cameron James) to this frightening beast, Leory knows this is a terrible idea and storms the Base with his service weapon drawn. He demands to take possession of the Pillar so he can rebury it before the creature escapes. Shaw reluctantly reveals his true motivation and orders Leroy to return to his barracks.

But moments after the airman departs, Shaw instructs Fuller, “Don’t let that man leave the Base.” The General’s callous regard for the children of Derry — not to mention the larger U.S. population — shows that he will not hesitate to kill anyone who jeopardizes his dangerous plan. Will Leroy manage to escape the Base, and can he stop Shaw before it’s too late?

Can the Losers rescue Will?

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Unfortunately, Leroy is not the only Hanlon in jeopardy. After the horrific Black Spot fire, Pennywise returns to his subterranean lair and prepares to sleep for another 27 years, thus fulfilling another deadly cycle. We see the murderous clown nearly submerged in blood, surrounded by the dismembered bodies of his previous meals. But now that Shaw has removed one of the Pillars, the clown’s options have dramatically changed.

Home alone, Will answers a call from his crush, Ronnie (Amanda Christine), but stares at the phone in horror when her words become increasingly vulgar. He realizes that he’s talking to Pennywise himself before discovering that the call is coming from inside the house. 

Will turns around to find the fiend — soaked in blood from the nose down — perched atop his refrigerator. Before he can fight back or flee, Pennywise unhooks his cavernous jaws and traps Will in the Deadlights, powerful beams used to stun and subdue his prey. Constant Readers know that Will must survive this startling encounter so that he can grow up to father Mike Hanlon, who will wage a similar war with the clown as a child in 1989 and again 27 years later. But this attack puts everyone else in danger.

We can assume that the Entity will bring Will to his lair and that the child’s friends will come to his aid. The loss of Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) in episode 7 proves that anyone else in this de facto Losers’ Club can die, and Will’s capture places Ronnie, Lilly (Clara Stack), and Marge (Matilda Lawler) in imminent danger. 

Will Dick Hallorann be able to close the Lockbox?

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

While Pennywise is known for preying on children, this interdimensional monster is dangerous to adults as well. Hallorann has been using his Shining to locate the Entity and the thirteen Pillars that keep him contained — at a high cost to his own mental health. Episode 5 follows Fuller and his men on a disastrous mission into the sewers, where they’re decimated by the shapeshifting beast. Though he survives the ill-advised plan, Hallorann is pulled into a metaphysical space and forced to relive his painful past.

In a disturbing childhood memory, the ghost of Dick’s abusive grandfather uses Pennywise’s power to pry open a mental lockbox used to trap dangerous spirits. Outside the sewers, Hallorann sees the body of one of the airmen just killed by Pennywise’s deception, indicating Hallorann’s new vulnerability. After years of locking spirits away, It has managed to set them all free. 

Though unnerving to see mangled ghosts wherever he goes, Dick has thus far been able to evade their awareness. But in order to escape the Black Spot fire, he must ask one of the dead for help. Though Sesqui (Morningstar Angeline), leader of the indigenous tribe that first battled It, leads Hallorann to safety, this interaction draws the attention of every ghost in the area. Dick may survive the harrowing fire, but the spirits of his fallen friends swarm him in the aftermath, screaming their confusion and pain in his ears. Unable to help or drown them out, Hallorann has no choice but to accept the cacophony.

Constant Readers know that he will go on to teach a young Danny Torrance this mental lockbox trick within the pages of Doctor Sleep, but will he be able to help when his friends wage war with Pennywise? And what will he be required to do in order to trap these spirits once again? 

What lies in store for Mrs. Kersh?

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

In a season filled with revelations and connections to King’s larger catalogue, one of the most shocking has been the story of Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe). The kindly housekeeper first meets Lilly at Juniper Hill, a hospital for the mentally ill, but becomes a trusted confidant and advisor as the girl battles the clown with her friends. But recent episodes have unveiled her darker connection to the shapeshifting monster. We learn that Ingrid is the daughter of Robert Gray (Skarsgård), the original Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Flashbacks reveal that the once-human circus performer was targeted by It, who sets his eyes on Gray’s appealing stage persona. Desperate to reconnect with her missing father, Ingrid has spent years luring children to the predator’s feeding ground and consoling herself with glimpses of the familiar clown. But a confrontation outside the burning Black Spot leaves Mrs. Kersh in mortal danger. 

As Pennywise prepares to sleep for another 27 years, Ingrid calls the creature back, demanding to know what really happened to her father. The Entity delivers the devastating news while approaching with murderous curiosity. But rather than eating the daughter of his stolen human form, It sweeps Ingrid up into the Deadlights. The next day, we see paramedics cart the catatonic woman away on a stretcher, but a sly dart of her eyes reveals something more menacing.

We know that Mrs. Kersh will go on to terrorize Beverly Marsh in King’s adult timeline, also chronicled in It: Chapter Two. What we don’t know is how the woman transforms from a grieving and unstable daughter to an outright monster capable of Its shapeshifting powers. Will Ingrid become a resident of Juniper Hill or find herself trapped alongside her father in Pennywise’s metaphysical menagerie? 

Can Pennywise be contained?

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

With charming characters, shocking reveals, and of course a bevy of horrifying deaths, It: Welcome to Derry has fleshed out some of the sprawling novel’s more mysterious lore. We’ve learned that Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) and a committee of indigenous protectors have been monitoring It for centuries, containing the beast to the woods where the otherworldly fiend can do minimal damage. But General Shaw arrives in town, determined to undo their life-saving work. He’s used Hallorann to locate and remove one of the tribe’s protective Pillars, leaving the cage door open for Pennywise’s escape. 

In addition to King’s creature mythology, the novel makes no mention of these thirteen Pillars, nor do either of Muschietti’s cinematic adaptations, leaving containment an open question. We know that Pennywise will awaken in 1989 to torture and eat the children of Derry and that he will target the Barrens, a wooded creek where the Losers’ Club forms. What we don’t know is whether future cycles will see him caged or if he’ll be able to hunt in a larger area. Will they be able to force Pennywise back into the box, or will he find a way to terrorize more of the town’s most vulnerable citizens? 

It: Welcome to Derry seasons 2 and 3 will probably be set in previous cycles, bringing to life the Bradley Gang massacre of 1935 and the 1908 Kitchener Ironworks explosion, both teased in the show’s deceptively wholesome opening sequence. This timeline regression means we’re likely to get answers to most of these questions as the anthology-esque series transforms to showcase earlier eras. But what does that mean for our beloved 1962 characters? Part of what sets It: Welcome to Derry apart from a crowded field of horror TV is a willingness to kill fan-favorite characters, mirroring King’s own ability to shatter our hearts by blending terror and devastation.

As we approach the finale of season one, perhaps our most unsettling question should be who will survive and what will be left of them when the dust settles on the Master of Horror’s infamous town.

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

The post Five Burning Questions Ahead of the ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Season Finale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Fans of Stephen King‘s 1986 novel It know that in a town plagued by an interdimensional shapeshifting creature who delights in torturing and eating children, the human monsters are arguably worse.

King’s sprawling novel is punctuated by a series of four Interludes chronicling Derry’s violent history. Collected by Derry Librarian and Losers’ Club member Mike Hanlon, these four chapters tell stories of violence and hate, which conclude each of the beast’s feeding cycles. After spending the summer feasting on the children of Derry, It gorges itself in one massive event and then returns to sleep for another 27 years. Though Pennywise the Dancing Clown usually makes an appearance in one of Its many forms, these Interludes are usually caused by all-too-human hatred that explodes into violence. 

HBO’s hit series It: Welcome to Derry is based on these stories, which precede the events of King’s novel and director Andy Muschietti‘s own dual adaptations. Created along with Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, season 1 takes place in 1962, the cycle before the Losers’ Club forms. Set in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, this season centers on King’s second Interlude, a devastating hate crime known as the fire at the Black Spot. Though markedly different from King’s source material, this harrowing event follows a group of Maine racists who set fire to a speakeasy frequented by the Black servicemen of the Derry Army Air Corps Base. 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Mike first hears the story of the Black Spot fire from his father in 1958, the same year he and his Losers’ Club friends wage war against the sinister clown. While chatting after dinner one night, Will begins the story by recounting his time at the Derry Base. Stationed there in 1930 (for more information on this timeline change, see our recap of episode 1), Will was assigned to Company E, an all-Black unit housed in a rundown barracks with an unreliable wood furnace and no insulation. After installing a series of storm windows to protect themselves from the brutal Maine cold, the men of Company E were sent out of town on a special assignment and returned to find each window busted out. To further explain the town’s vicious racism, Will tells his son another horrific story about being abducted by a white soldier named Wilson and forced to spend hours digging, then refilling, then digging, then refilling a hole in the ground. 

Will explains that due to widespread segregation, Black servicemen were not allowed in the base’s NCO club and began to frequent bars in town, drawing attention from the Derry chapter of the KKK (who fancy themselves the Maine League of White Decency). The five men of the Derry Town Council complained to DAACB Major Fuller, who found a handy — if insulting — solution: the use of an old requisition shed. Will remembers, “It was dark and smelly, full of old tools and boxes of papers that had gone moldy. There were only two little windows and no electricity. The floor was dirt. George Brannock, who was also killed in the fire that fall, said: ‘Yeah, it’s a hell of a black spot, all right.’ And the name just stuck.”

The men of Company E begin to fix up the ramshackle structure, installing a makeshift kitchen and bar. It soon becomes a popular hangout for Company E and invited guests, but it’s not until the men cobble together a Dixieland combo that Derry citizens begin to take notice. When word gets out about the exciting new speakeasy, people begin travelling from miles around. The place is packed every Friday and Saturday with the doors essentially standing open from 7:00 p.m. until 1 a.m. Men of the Derry Town Council again take notice when this affects business from the town’s whites-only bars. But rather than simply complaining to Major Fuller, the Legion takes matters into its own hands. 

It: Welcome to Derry episode 5. Madeleine Stowe and Stephen Rider. Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Set in 1962, Muschietti’s timeline is significantly different, weaving together multiple subplots. Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) is just a child battling Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) with his own club of Losers who find themselves caught in the adult crossfire. Local projectionist Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) has been arrested on concocted evidence for the deaths of three children in the movie theater massacre that opens the season. A Black man, he’s hesitant to share his alibi — an affair with a white woman named Mrs. Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) — for fear that he will be lynched rather than wrongfully convicted. After escaping from a prison bus headed to Shawshank Penitentiary, he’s been holing up in the Black Spot’s back room.

But an anonymous tip, revealed to have been called in by Ingrid herself, leads former Police Chief Clint Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) to his hiding place. Clint and four other men pull on cheap Halloween masks and barge through the doors of the Black Spot, demanding the hand of Hank. Wearing the faces of a vampire, wolfman, and Frankenstein’s monster (among others), each mask nods to a persona It uses to terrorize children in the pages of King’s novel, directly linking this egregious attack to the Entity’s evil influence and Derry’s overall corruption.

Photo courtesy of HBO

These faux “enlightened” men of the north need to dress their attack up in righteousness, but King’s version is much more straightforward. One November Saturday night, a handful of men approach the Black Spot dressed in white sheets toting homemade torches. Will muses, “Maybe they only meant to scare us. I’ve heard it the other way, but I’ve heard it that way, too. I’d rather believe that’s how they meant it, because I ain’t got feeling mean enough even yet to want to believe the worst… It could have been that the gas dripped down to the handles of some of those torches and when they lit them, why, those holding them panicked and threw them any whichway just to get rid of them.”

But regardless of their intention, the impact is the same. A fire breaks out in the kitchen of the Black Spot, currently filled with some 200 guests.

Several years later, while dying of cancer, King’s Will tells his son Mike the rest of the story. With the band raging and the dancefloor packed, the fire has time to build. When someone opens the kitchen door, flames shoot into the larger room, quickly spreading throughout the shed. Panic ensues, and a stampede forms as everyone rushes to the doors. The shed’s only exits are by the kitchen, where the fire began, and a pair of front doors that must be pulled from the inside. As terror spreads, frightened patrons rush the entryway, creating a jam that makes the doors impossible to open. 

Photo courtesy of HBO

The series’ version of the fire leans into the hatred displayed by this deliberate act. Clint and his masked men barge into the Black Spot with shotguns raised, demanding the “fugitive” Hank Grogan. When Dick and his men raise guns of their own, the cowards make a hasty retreat. Outside, they immediately barricade the doors and throw Molotov cocktails to light it on fire. They position themselves around the building and begin shooting the people trapped inside. This intentionality is important in a series set 32 years after the novel’s original Interlude. While overt racism was culturally accepted in King’s Maine of 1930, multiple characters in It: Welcome to Derry note the town’s progressive attitude towards discrimination. But this hate-fueled murder shows that racism is alive and well even when cloaked in dog-whistle calls for law and order. 

Initially caught in the stampede, Will is saved by fellow serviceman Trev Dawson, who extends a hand and pulls the young man to his feet. (Muschietti mirrors this moment when Pennywise extends a hand to a frightened young woman, promising to lead her to safety. He’s later seen devouring her face.) Here, King makes an exciting connection to his 1977 novel The Shining with the inclusion of Dick Hallorann. When the fire breaks out, the future Head Chef of the Overlook Hotel is a 19-year-old member of Company E. Though King stops short of mentioning the man’s clairvoyant powers, Dick has uncanny knowledge of the deadly door jam and guides his friends to a nearby window where they’re able to escape mostly unharmed.  

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Muschietti’s iteration of Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is similarly heroic, using his psychic powers to escape the blaze. Guided by ghosts only he can see, Hallorann breaks through floorboards warped by a leaking icebox to create a tunnel under the kitchen, inverting the source of King’s literary fire as a means of escape. This allows them to bypass Bowers and his armed men, who are shooting anyone who escapes out a window. Unfortunately, attracting the attention of one ghost causes every spirit in the vicinity to notice his presence. Moments later, he’s swarmed by ghosts, he’d previously been able to lock away (see our recap of episode 5).

This eerie moment may have been inspired by a haunting passage from King’s novel. Watching from outside, Will remembers, “nothing but shimmers shaped like men and women in that fire … Some of em had their arms held out, like they expected someone to save them. The others just walked, but they didn’t seem to get nowhere.” 

Once outside, Trev jumps into action, gaining a tiny bit of catharsis in the terrible scene. Seeing the blaze, Wilson has arrived and attempts to give orders, though they’re drowned out in the chaos. Trev demands the keys to his cargo van and, along with Will, knocks the man out when he will not comply. Trev climbs behind the wheel and rams the side of the shed, eventually knocking down the wall. Survivors immediately stream out, some of them on fire. Watching in horror, Will remembers, “The last one was a woman. Her dress had burned off her and there she was in her slip. She was burnin like a candle. She seemed to look right at me at the end, and I seen her eyelids was on fire.” 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

All told, King’s version of the massacre accounts for 60 deaths, many more than Muschietti’s 16, though his sequence is equally disturbing. Moments after Clint and his friends retreat, the 30 or 40 Black Spot patrons begin to panic when they realize the doors have been barricaded shut. Fire soon rampages through the building as bullets pour in through the windows. We watch in horror as a man tries to break out, only to have a bullet tear through his head. Chaos ensues, and it becomes nearly impossible for survivors to tell what’s going on around them, let alone find a way out. 

Of course, this terror draws the attention of Derry’s supernatural threat. While Hallorann struggles to find an exit, we see a familiar silhouette emerge from the flames. Taking advantage of the chaos, Pennywise begins feasting on the panicked survivors, cheerfully gnawing on a woman’s face while taunting those he has not yet devoured. King’s monster makes a similar appearance, but in a much different form. After escaping through the window, Will notices several “ghosts” running to the forest, eventually realizing that they are the sheet-clad racists who started the fire. But one is grabbed by a mysterious monster, and it takes Will a moment to gather his courage before he can tell Mike what he saw. “‘Twas a bird… Right over the last of those runnin men. A hawk, maybe. What they call a kestrel. But it was big. Never told no one. Would have been locked up. That bird was maybe sixty feet from wingtip to wingtip… But I seen … seen its eyes … and I think … it seen me.”

Will describes the monstrous creature hovering over the flaming shed to pick off those fleeing the scene. Horrified, Mike recognizes the bird from his own battle with It in the summer of 1958 when he was terrorized near the Kitchener Ironworks, leading his father to an ominous clarification. “‘It didn’t hover,’ he said. ‘It floated… There were big bunches of balloons tied to each wing, and it floated.'” Constant Readers and It fans alike will recognize this as Pennywise’s signature phrase, “you’ll float too,” indicating either bodies submerged in his sewer dwelling or those caught in his terrible Deadlight beams.

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

After telling his son this harrowing story, Will notes that Derry came together in the wake of the tragedy. Hospitals treated victims free of charge, and people showed up in droves for the funerals of victims, Black and white. Though the perpetrators were never punished, the fire effectively ended the Derry chapter of the KKK. Of course, none of this support brings back the sixty lost souls, nor does it excuse generations of racism that laid the groundwork to light the match. But it does signal that Pennywise has gone to ground and the town’s heightened hostilities have begun to abate.

We’ve yet to see Derry react to the fire in Muschietti’s world, but an egregious radio announcement sets an ominous tone. The event is described as an electrical fire at an illegal speakeasy on the outskirts of town. The deceased servicemen are blamed for it all, and the racist murderers who started the blaze have been reframed as concerned citizens helping the wounded. Both versions of this tragic sequence show the very real cost of racism and hatred, rivaling the story’s supernatural villain. After all, humans caused this horrific fire, with Pennywise only planting the seeds.

King has famously stated his belief in evil, insisting, “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” One of the most upsetting chapters in the Master of Horror’s catalog, the fire at the Black Spot bears this point out, with human hatred proving to be much more dangerous than a child-eating clown.

For even more on It: Welcome to Derry, check out episode by episode coverage from The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

The post ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: The Black Spot Inferno Differs from Stephen King’s Novel appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In all of Stephen King‘s works, few occurrences are as upsetting as the fire at the Black Spot. 

Chronicled in the Second Interlude of his 1986 novel It, this story follows a group of Black servicemen stationed at the Derry Air Force Base who turn a decommissioned storage shed into a popular speakeasy to combat the Whites Only policy in Derry’s other establishments. Jealous of the location’s popularity, members of the Maine Legion of White Decency (a fancy title for the KKK) descend on the Black Spot and burn it down, accidentally trapping dozens of patrons inside. King’s horrific description of this roaring fire rivals anything else in his vast catalogue, blending racist cruelty with painful gore. Perhaps the Interlude’s sensitive nature is why nearly four decades and two adaptations later, we’ve never seen the fire at the Black Spot committed to screen.

But episode 7, “The Black Spot,” of It: Welcome to Derry pulls us into this devastating vignette while exploring the forces responsible for striking the match. 

Due to the altered timeline (see our recap of episode 1), creator Andy Muschietti‘s version plays out slightly differently. Originally set in 1930, King’s literary racists set a small fire in the kitchen, perhaps intending to simply damage the building. Yet, the hundreds of dancing patrons become trapped inside, leading to sixty deaths and many more injuries. Though perhaps difficult to capture a massacre of this scale on screen, Muschietti instead leans into intentionality.

Photo courtesy of HBO

Demanding the fugitive Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) come out, a gang of Derry racists barricade the doors and use torches to set the building ablaze, shooting in the windows and picking off anyone who happens to escape. King’s Interlude follows several instances of blatant discrimination in the heavily segregated military barracks, laying the groundwork for this egregious hate crime. But, set in 1962, Muschietti’s fire takes place in a different world. Previous episodes have noted Derry’s northern enlightenment, and this purposeful crime shows that racism can be just as deadly when not spoken out loud. 

Just moments before, several of Derry’s prominent citizens, led by former Police Chief Clint Bowers (Peter Outerbridge), barged into the Black Spot demanding Hank. Each wears a different Halloween mask referencing faces It wears in King’s novel. A vampire, wolfman, and hobo are all among the many forms the shapeshifting monster takes to terrorize its prey. This moment also nods to another of King’s lesser-known villains: Andre Linoge (Colm Feore). Based on one of the author’s rare screenplays, Storm of the Century is a 1999 miniseries set on the quaint Little Tall Island. When a brutal nor’easter rolls in off the water, a madman begins terrorizing the town. This mysterious demon causes acts of unspeakable violence, promising more if citizens do not submit to his will. “Give me what I want, AND I’LL GO AWAY,” he vows, while demanding one of the Island’s children to serve as his evil protege. Muschietti doubles down on Clint’s villainy by using this phrase to capture Hank. 

Muschietti takes us inside this deadly inferno in a jaw-dropping and emotional action sequence. Yet, in the midst of this terror, Constant Readers may notice a deft inversion and subtle reference to King’s original source material. While the literary fire begins in the kitchen, Muscietti’s Dick (Chris Chalk) uses the small enclosure as a means of escape. Stomping through floorboards rotted by a leaking icebox, he’s able to create a tunnel under the blaze. This appliance proves beneficial for Marge (Matilda Lawler) as well. In a heartbreaking twist, Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) convinces her to climb inside to shield herself from the deadly smoke, sacrificing himself for the girl of his dreams. This tender moment references two more sinister iceboxes found elsewhere in King’s literary canon. 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

In one of Its more disturbing vignettes, the literary Beverly Marsh stumbles upon Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter lighting farts with friends in the otherwise deserted junkyard. Alone, Patrick gives Henry a handjob and offers oral sex, to which Henry responds by punching him in the face. He proceeds to threaten Patrick with revealing the truth about the “secret fridge” Patrick has been using as a torture device. The budding psychopath traps small animals inside and then leaves them to die. Worried, Patrick attempts to dispose of the evidence, but opens the icebox door to a supernatural horde of flying leeches. These disgusting creatures drain him of blood before Pennywise appears to drag him away. Though horrific, by this point in the story, we’ve seen Patrick murder his infant brother, and his gruesome death will undoubtedly save an unknown number of future victims. 

Another sinister icebox rears its head in King’s 1972 story “The Mangler,” also referenced in episode one. When an industrial speed ironer becomes possessed by a demon, detective John Hunton hears a similar story about a mysterious refrigerator in the town dump. This icebox is constantly filled with the corpses of birds and rodents, suspected of harboring a similar demon. The dump overseer finally removes the door when a neighborhood child is found dead inside. 

Drawn by the fire’s suffering and pain, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) appears inside the blaze, feasting on those untouched by the flames. Well-fed, he emerges for one last victim — the town’s cruel butcher Stanley Kersh (Larry Day) — before returning to sleep for another 27 years. With little regard for her murdered husband, Ingrid (Madeleine Stowe) begs his killer to stay, believing It to be her long-lost father. The episode opens with a flashback to 1908 and a human performance from the notorious clown. 

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

Charming and kind, Robert Gray (Skarsgård) takes the stage as Pennywise the Dancing Clown to delight an audience filled with kids. Muschietti can be seen looking on with approval while grinding the organ behind the crowd. Backstage, Gray has a tender moment with young Ingrid (Emma-Leigh Cullum) in which he graces her with the name Periwinkle, an homage to her late mother’s stage persona. But a sinister figure watches in the distance.

Later that night, Robert Gray (holding a handkerchief monogrammed with the initials R.G.) is drinking on the edge of the carnival perimeter when a creepy boy approaches asking for help. Though he balks at first, Robert enters the forest with the sinister child, never to be seen again. Wearing this innocent disguise, the Entity mutters, “The children seem drawn to you,” confirming a long-held fan theory that the shapeshifting monster killed Robert Gray and appropriated his likeness as a default persona. 

It will also confirm this while taunting Ingrid outside the burning Black Spot. Finally seeing through his monstrous disguise, she demands to know where her father is. Pennywise cruelly states that he ate Robert Gray, but can still feel him reaching to her from inside his inhuman form. The horrified woman then finds herself caught in the clown’s powerful Deadlights (see our recap of episode 3), perhaps explaining her witchy appearance when meeting with an adult Beverly Marsh. Stemming from interdimensional space, these powerful beams are known to cause death or insanity, but something different may be happening here.

As paramedics clear the scene, we see them cart a catatonic Ingrid away. But just moments before she’s loaded into an ambulance, the silent woman darts her eyes toward the surviving kids. Has she been infiltrated with the Entity’s evil or somehow fallen under Its spell? With only the season finale remaining, Ingrid’s fate may hang in the balance until Beverly pays her a visit 54 years down the road. 

For more on It:Welcome to Derry, check out episode by episode coverage from Bloody FM’s The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.

Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

The post ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: The Many Stephen King Connections & References in Episode Seven appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry has captivated audiences by amplifying one of the most recognizable texts in genre history. Stephen King‘s 1986 novel It, follows the Losers’ Club, a group of seven unpopular tweens who find themselves hunted by an interdimensional monster. Commonly known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård), It lurks in the sewers, emerging every twenty-seven years to terrorize its young prey by shifting into the form of the child’s greatest nightmare.

King’s novel unfolds in dual timelines as the Losers’ Club battles this shapeshifting entity both in childhood and as adults. Interspersed between these segments are chapters titled Interludes that chronicle other disturbing events in Derry’s dark history. 

Created by Andy and Barbara Muschietti along with showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane, each season of It: Welcome to Derry centers on one of the monsters’ feeding cycles, but seaon one’s episode 6, “In the Name of the Father,” fleshes out one of the novel’s more mysterious chapters. After returning to Derry as adults, the Losers, save for Mike, must recover their memories via “walking tours” throughout the town to reacquaint themselves with their frightening past.

Beverly Marsh finds herself walking towards her childhood home, hoping for — or dreading — a reunion with her abusive father, Alvin. But when she knocks on the apartment door, she meets someone even more dangerous. Mrs. Kersh appears to be a friendly old woman, but she’s hiding a horrific secret. For years, Constant Readers have speculated about the identity of this peculiar woman, wondering if she could be the monster’s daughter. Named for this cryptic relationship, “In the Name of the Father” clarifies her connection to the shapeshifting beast. 

Madeleine Stowe as Mrs. Kersh in “It: Welcome to Derry.” Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO

King’s original version of this encounter is a nightmare wrapped in a fairy tale. When an elegant older woman answers the door, Beverly realizes that she’s misread the name over the bell, mistaking Marsh for Kersh. The new occupant of her childhood home reluctantly informs Bev that her father is dead before inviting the stunned woman in for tea. King describes a tall woman in her late seventies with hair that is “long and gorgeous, mostly white but shot through with lodes of purest gold. Behind her rimless spectacles were eyes as blue as the water in the fjords her ancestors had perhaps hailed from. She wore a purple dress of watered silk. It was shabby but still dignified. Her wrinkled face was kind.” 

Wandering through the suite of rooms, Bev is surprised to find a much sunnier dwelling than the one she shared with her lecherous father. Her old bedroom has been turned into a sewing studio, and she marvels at an ornate cedar trunk engraved with the letters R.G. While preparing snacks, Mrs. Kersh explains that she immigrated from Sweden in 1920 at the age of fourteen and worked at the local hospital. Her husband made a series of successful investments, allowing her financial security in her twilight years. Yet, sitting down to tea, the handsome old woman begins to change. Beverly first notices the woman’s yellowing and jumbled teeth, far from the pearly whites she noticed at the door. As her hostess gulps her tea, Bev notices that her eyes have also begun to change from deep blue to a sinister yellow, tinged with dashes of red. 

As she slowly transforms into a shrunken hag, Mrs. Kersh begins to taunt Beverly with her family connection. Referencing her “fadder,” she explains, “His name is Robert Gray, better known as Bob Gray, better known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. However, that was not his name, either. But he did love his jokes, my fadder.” She will go on to insist that she was born from the monster’s “asshole“ and that they are “the last of a dying race … the only survivors of a dying planet.“ She and Pennywise “are one“ and have been looking forward to feasting on the returning Losers. Later, we will learn that the entity known as It is indeed from another dimension and has been tormenting Derry since before the dawn of modern man. 

Joan Gregson as Mrs. Kersh in It: Chapter Two

As the woman begins to grow more monstrous, her apartment also begins to change. A wooden table now appears to be made of fudge while the floorboards transform into gooey chocolate bars. Mrs. Kersh has become the witch from Hansel and Gretel and threatens to push Beverly into her human-sized oven, an interesting reference considering the author’s newest publication is Hansel and Gretel, a horrifying children’s book chronicling the famous fairy tale. Bev remembers being terrified by the story’s cannibalistic plot before noticing that the creature has shifted once again. Her father, Alvin, now screams from within Mrs. Kersh’s purple dress, voicing previously unspoken threats of sexual abuse. He will go on to transform into the recognizable clown and chase Beverly out of the apartment. Sprawled on the sidewalk, she’s shocked to find the building boarded up and abandoned. This disturbing encounter has been an illusion. 

Intentionally vague, this chapter has tantalized Constant Readers for decades. Who is this mysterious Robert Gray/R.G., and is his daughter a human being or another manifestation of the entity? The most commonly accepted theory is that Robert Gray was once a human circus performer known for dazzling the local children. Taking note of this talent, It likely ate Mr. Gray and appropriated his clown character as a default persona. But what of Mrs. Kersh? Was she, too, a real person, eaten and absorbed alongside her father? Considering her transformation, the literary Mrs. Kersh does seem to have supernatural powers or at least the ability to syphon off Its transformative skill.

Further complicating the matter, later chapters reveal that It is not only female, but pregnant. Taking the form of a giant spider — the closest our human minds can come to picturing this otherworldly beast — the adult Losers scramble to destroy dozens of eggs that It has laid in the sewer system. Perhaps Mrs. Kersh is one of these babies, hatched from eggs laid in a previous cycle. 

Muschietti revisits this frightening sequence in his 2019 adaptation It: Chapter Two, which follows the adult Losers’ return to Derry. While substantively similar, Muschietti adds a bit of visual flair and certainty to King’s vague narrative. This Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson) is a bit more unkempt, but also invites Beverly (Jessica Chastain) in for tea. However, we see her moving with inhuman jerks in the background as her guest tours her pleasant home. Sitting down to chat, Mrs. Kersh mentions growing uncomfortably hot and fans her collar to reveal blistered and melted flesh beneath. As she excuses herself to bring out some cookies, Bev asks her about family photos lining the walls.

From the darkened kitchen, Mrs. Kersh tells Beverly about her “fadder“ who came to America as an immigrant before joining the circus. As she drops this bit of unsettling information, Bev notices an ominous portrait. A tall man in a suit stands with a frowning little girl in front of a stage wagon emblazoned with the words, “Pennywise the Dancing Clown.“ His strangely sinister grin resembles the murderous monster we’ve come to know and fear. 

As Beverly digests this revelation, Mrs. Kersh — now naked and monstrous — launches an attack. A gangly and still-growing banshee, she chases Beverly from the apartment and into a maze of crumbling halls. At the far end, Beverly sees a door slowly open, and the man we assume to be Robert Gray (Skarsgård) shows his face. After soaping white makeup onto his skin, he claws the iconic red slashes down his cheeks, transforming into Pennywise before her eyes. He screams to her about saving the others, referencing her harrowing vision of the Losers’ Club’s destruction. Though Muschietti does not explicitly reference Robert Gray or R.G, this scene confirms Its use of the once-human circus performer’s iconic face. 

Set two cycles before this interaction, It: Welcome to Derry provides an origin story for this sinister encounter. We first meet a younger Mrs. Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) in 1962 as a kind housekeeper at the Juniper Hill asylum. Lilly (Clara Stack) turns to the compassionate woman for advice on how to navigate the dangerous events plaguing the town. On her latest trip to Ingrid’s house, she wanders into the woman’s attic. Thumbing through a family photo album, Lilly sees the grinning circus performer that will one day grace the walls of Beverly’s childhood home. But as she embraces the mysterious woman, she sees a more damning portrait. Hidden behind other decorations is a framed portrait of Robert Gray in full costume. His elaborate white shirt and pants are identical to those worn by the murderous clown, yet rather than an oblong and cracked forehead, he wears a bald cap outfitted with stylized red hair. 

Photograph courtesy of HBO

Noting the girl’s unease, Mrs. Kersh realizes that Lilly has seen her “fadder“ and insists this connection has “brought him back.“ A flashback to 1935 shows a younger Ingrid (Tyner Rushing) working at the hospital. She leads a little girl named Mabel (Madeleine Cox) into the boiler room for a clandestine meeting with a mysterious friend the girl calls Pennywise. Equipped with his eerie red balloon, It does appear and makes momentary pleasantries before chasing them both through the industrial room. Mrs. Kersh is unable to save Mabel and screams in terror as the child’s blood pools under the steel door. But moments later, the murderous clown has transformed into her father. Beckoning to his “pumpkin“ through the glass window, Robert Gray convinces Ingrid to open the door. 

Back in 1962, Mrs. Kersh explains to Lilly that she believes she’s finally found her long-lost father, and his strange behavior can be explained away by “whatever he’s been through or wherever he’s been.“ Further flashbacks imply that she’s been luring children towards the monster, hoping with each sighting to free her father from whatever spell he’s fallen under. Once called Periwinkle, we learn that Ingrid has been donning her own clown costume and menacing children throughout the town. Lilly’s glance at her cottony-white wig reveals that she is the clown we see sitting near the freak show entrance in 1908, and she’s been lurking outside the Hanlon home. It’s Ingrid who was photographed in the cemetery, explaining why her image doesn’t disappear along with the other ghostly apparitions. The episode ends with Mrs. Kersh ominously donning the Periwinkle costume, foreshadowing more danger for the children of Derry. 

While this chapter gives us a satisfactory backstory for the frightening Mrs. Kersh, her future remains a mystery. Terrified by these revelations, Lilly gashes Indgrid’s hand with a ceremonial knife fashioned to battle the entity. Mrs. Kersh smears blood on Lilly’s back, indicating her current humanity, but we’ve yet to see how she will become the humanoid monster who terrorizes Beverly more than 50 years in the future. Has she been trapped in It’s deadlights, a hypnotic force known to cause insanity? Will she suffer the same mysterious fate as her long-lost father and become another of Its transformative faces?

Just two episodes remain in the first season of It: Welcome to Derry, promising answers to these disturbing questions. 

The post ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: Is Mrs. Kersh Pennywise’s Daughter? appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.