Editorials
Top 10 Stephen King Stories in Need of an Adaptation
The Man in the Black Suit (Collected Within Everything’s Eventual)
Dream Director: Alexandre Aja (Horns, Mirrors)
“The Man in the Black Suit” might be one of King’s shorter stories, but it’ll stick with you almost as much as Gary’s encounter with the titular character would haunt him for the rest of his life. Basically, a young Gary (he’s narrating the story as an old man, recounting the incident) wakes up in the woods and encounters the villainous Man in the Black Suit. King spends an exceptional amount of time on describing this horrifying man, whether its his burning eyes, razor-sharp teeth, or his smell of burnt match heads. Just as much time is spent on the insults that the Man flings at young Gary, telling him that his father plans to molest him and that his mother is dead. Gary clues in that this Man is in fact the Devil, and while he manages to escape him, the encounter never leaves his mind for the rest of his life. It’s one thing to outsmart the Devil and beat him based on merit, but this is simply luck on Gary’s case and he’s not sure he’ll have as much if he happens to encounter the Man again. Not to mention the complete random nature of the Devil’s appearance.
Granted, “The Man in the Black Suit” has seen an adaptation via a short film courtesy of Nicholas Mariani, but a full-length feature that digs even deeper into this rich story would highlight King’s work in a whole other way. Seeing Gary having to encounter The Man in the Black Suit a second—or several more times—could add a whole new dimension to things. The sort of adolescent, naïve quality to the story is not unlike the work found in Alexandre Aja’s adaptation of Joe Hill’s (Stephen King’s son) Horns. Aja channeling that sort of atmosphere here, while indulging in his Haute Tension and Mirrors sensibilities would mix perfectly here.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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