Editorials
From Book to Screen: A Guide to Joe Hill’s “NOS4A2”
The road to bringing Joe Hill’s sprawling bestselling novel NOS4A2 to life has been as long and winding as Charlie Manx’s travels to and from Christmasland, his distorted hellish world where Christmas is never-ending. The television series adaptation of the more than 700-page novel was first announced in 2015, and is set to premiere on Sunday, June 2, 2019, on AMC.
Hill serves as executive producer on the inaugural 10-episode season, alongside creator/showrunner Jami O’Brien (Fear the Walking Dead) and Tornante Television co-president Lauren Corrao. With just weeks to go before the series premiere, we revisit the novel that started it all to help prepare you for the emotionally devastating journey ahead; the novel that Hill has referred to as his “Master’s Thesis in Horror Writing.”
Who is Joe Hill?
Born Joseph Hillstrom King, author Joe Hill was raised in a literary family full of celebrated authors- his parents are Stephen and Tabitha King. He’d been writing on a steady basis since the age of 12 and knew he wanted to pursue a career in writing, but he didn’t want to be published simply based on his father’s name. He wanted to get published based only on the quality of his work. Thus, his pen name Joe Hill was born. That pen name gave him freedom to dabble in the genre he loved but one so synonymous with his father’s work.
The road to getting published wasn’t easy, but Hill found some success in the world of comic books. Still he was persistent in his goal, and eventually, his short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, sold and was released in 2005. Then came comic series Locke & Key with illustrator Gabriel Rodriguez, haunted Heart-Shaped Box, and romantic dark fantasy Horns, which received its own film adaptation in 2013. That year also brought the release of his largest novel yet in NOS4A2, an expansive story spanning years with numerous characters and subplots, something he’s said that, in some ways, is his conversation and rewrite of his dad’s epic novel It.
What is NOS4A2?
Set from 1986 to 2012, NOS4A2 weaves two core stories; the immortal Charlie Manx who feeds off the souls of kidnapped children to retain his youth via his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith (the license plate, of course, is NOS4A2), and the reluctant heroine Vic McQueen, an artist with the unique power to locate missing things by riding her bike through the Shorter Way Bridge. It’s because of Vic’s gift that she discovers Manx’s penchant for kidnapping kids as well as his lair as a teen, and barely escapes with her life when she confronts him; though not before setting his house on fire. He’s captured by the police, and Vic attempts to get her life back on track.
Years later as an adult, Vic is a successful children’s book series creator and mother to son Bruce Wayne Carmody. Yet, she still receives ominous phone calls from the creepy children of Christmasland, causing those around her to question her sanity- including her son’s father Lou. When her son is kidnapped, it’s Vic who becomes the main suspect. Yet only she can save her son from the evil clutches of Manx, and stop the immortal once and for all.
Heartbreak, familial strife, gripping action, and a surprisingly touching story drenched in terrifying nightmares makes NOS4A2 a modern horror classic.
Inscapes: The Shorter Way Bridge and Christmasland
Christmasland, Manx’s special, hellish vision of a Christmas world to keep and feed from his kidnapped children exists in a place only accessible to people with unique abilities like him. Just as Vic’s Shorter Way Bridge only exists for those with unique abilities- the actual bridge it’s modeled after collapsed long ago. These places are referred to as “inscapes” or inner worlds created by the minds of gifted people, and the world of NOS4A2 is filled with them.
Because these inscapes are creations of the mind, the toll it takes on persons able to navigate these inscapes can be physically catastrophic. Every time Vic uses the Shorter Way Bridge, it causes devastating migraines -beginning with stabbing pain behind her left eye- and leaves her extremely sick for days. For Vic’s ally Maggie Leigh, a quirky librarian with an inscape inside her scrabble bag, which provides answers to any question asked via scrabble tiles, her ability comes with the price of slowly losing her speech with every use of her inscape.
Late in the novel, the police come upon a unique map, “United Inscapes of America,” that looks like a skewed view of the U.S. and doesn’t list cities but other locations of inscapes. A place north of Boston called Lovecraft Keyhole (Locke & Key), a place called Pennywise Circus near Derry, Maine (It), the Treehouse of the Mind (Horns), and more connect Manx and McQueen’s world with other literary characters from King and Hill’s works. Though this is more for fun than an intent to crossover stories.
The connections to other King works don’t stop at the inscapes either.
The Key Players
Vic McQueen is the reluctant heroine with a personal stake in her ongoing battle with the over-a-century old soul-sucking vampire Charlie Manx, and her fight is compounded by her own troubled relationships. She has a volatile relationship with her mother, Linda McQueen, and blames her for her father Chris McQueen’s abandonment of them. Though harsh truths eventually place a strain on her relationship with her father as well. Her deep-seated family issues translate well into adulthood, placing emotional strains on her relationships with her lover Lou and son Wayne.
Then there’s Maggie Leigh, the aforementioned librarian that Vic meets in her childhood on a trip through the Shorter Way. Maggie remembers the evils of Charlie Manx long after Vic has grown up and blocked it out of her memory.
Charlie Manx also has help in the form of Bing Partridge, Manx’s right-hand man who plays a cruel role in the kidnapping of Manx’s child victims; Bing rapes the mother before brutally murdering her and any other adult. Bing’s sole desire in life is to get to live in Manx’s Christmasland, not quite aware of the truth behind its existence.
The Television Series
The 10-episode inaugural season will only cover a fraction of the novel; the rest will be covered in future seasons (assuming viewership allows for more, so be sure to tune in!). Based on casting news, and the premiere episode we caught at SXSW (Review), we can expect that this season will only cover Vic’s story through her high school years building up to her first major confrontation with Charlie Manx.
The world of NOS4A2 is rich, complex, and real; Vic is a grounded character full of heartbreak and fortitude. Charlie Manx, Christmasland, his sidekick Bing, and what happens to the kidnapped children all make for some truly creepy characters and moments that will bring the horror. Christmas has never looked so ominous before.
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Joe Hill, this series is about to change that. Tune in Sunday, June 2, 2019 on AMC for the start of an epic journey.
The home video market used to be a chaotic industry wedged neatly between theatrical releases and television productions. It was where indie filmmakers could experiment with and profit from low-budget bangers while big studios could also squeeze extra money out of beloved properties without necessarily investing in blockbuster sequels.
There were plenty of cinematic duds during this time, and you never really knew whether you had just picked up a legitimately fun low-budget endeavor or a quick cash-grab from the rental store, but I’d argue that the good outweighed the bad because these flicks were allowed to be weirder than their big-budget counterparts – especially where sequels were concerned.
In honor of these home video hidden gems, today I’d like to recommend five underrated direct-to-video horror sequels that are still worth tracking down!
For the purposes of this list, I’ll be defining direct-to-video productions as films that were exclusively released on video/DVD, so no limited theatrical releases or TV movies that later made it big on home video. That means avoiding popular recommendations like Curse of Chucky and Wrong Turn 2 in order to focus on less-discussed horror flicks.
That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite sequels if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
The success of Ron Underwood’s original Tremors was lightning in a bottle that can’t ever be replicated, so as much as I understand the love for the second film and its campy thrills, Tremors 4 remains my personal favorite sequel simply because it dares to do something different with the franchise.
Directed by series co-creator S.S. Wilson, The Legend Begins is a surprisingly effective prequel that tells the story of how the town of Perfection earned its name after a terrifying 1889 encounter with the graboids. This horror western may not live up to the original, but it doesn’t really have to, with the period aesthetic and fresh story making it one hell of a standalone adventure.
4. Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
There are those who argue that there are no good Children of the Corn films, but I think the series has something to offer for every kind of horror fan if you’re willing to deal with low budgets and strange creative decisions. In fact, I’m of the opinion that the initial trilogy of Children films only got better over time, with the third entry being the most entertaining despite having the least to do with Stephen King’s original story.
In this urban horror romp, we follow a pair of siblings who enter foster care after their abusive father is transformed into a scarecrow by He Who Walks Behind the Rows. What follows is an effects-heavy descent into madness as the kids bring their particular brand of religious fury to 90s Chicago – with deadly results.
If that’s not enough to convince you to give this flick a try, you should know that this is the only entry in the series that King himself has admitted to liking. Not only that, but it also marks Charlize Theron’s feature film debut.
3. Boogeyman 2 (2007)
Jeff Betancourt had his job cut out for him when he was first contacted to helm the sequel to 2005’s Boogeyman. Not only was the first film a critical bomb, but the sequel was set to be produced for a mere $4.5 million – less than a fourth of the budget of the original flick.
Yet, Jeff decided to use this direct-to-video sequel as an opportunity to improve on the generic aspects of the flick’s predecessor by making the monster more uncannily human and focusing more on the script than elaborate set pieces. The best part is that Boogeyman 2 isn’t limited by a PG-13 rating, meaning that the deaths are more interesting in spite of the lower budget.
2. Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
The original Maniac Cop is a legitimately entertaining slasher even if it can’t compete with some of the other great franchises from the 80s, but fans know that the direct-to-video sequel is way more fun to revisit despite its shoddy production value and rushed script.
In fact, this rental store hit features more elaborate death sequences while also exploring more of what it means for a community when a police officer goes rogue. Director William Lustig also looks back on this project fondly, claiming that he considers it his personal favorite film of his career and a “terrific B-movie”.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
1. Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)
More of a middle part of a sprawling trilogy than a standalone horror romp, Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies II is still the pinnacle of the auteur director’s vampire series and a great example of why it was often worth diving into the bargain bin in order to pick up a Full Moon Features VHS tape.
This fast-paced sequel takes place immediately after the events of the 1991 original, meaning that Subspecies II wastes no time in getting to the lovable practical effects that likely motivated you to purchase the flick in the first place. Nicolaou and Anders Hove (who plays Radu, the iconic vampire) are also much more sure of themselves in this sophomore effort, and that’s why I’d argue that it’s worth watching even if you’re not a fan of the first movie.
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