Editorials
“Nightmares & Dreamscapes” – Revisiting TNT’s Stephen King Horror Event Series from 2006
Whether measured by quality, quantity, or any other conceivable metric, Stephen King is virtually unparalleled in the literary world. When it comes to translating his work to the screen, on the other hand, the results are uneven to say the least. With multiple films and TV series based on his writing being produced each year – to the point where his books are optioned before they’re even published – it’s no surprise that some adaptations slip through the cracks.
Following the success of their 2004 Salem’s Lot miniseries, TNT returned to the world of King with Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King. Filmed in Melbourne, Australia, the eight-episode anthology series aired as a four-week event – two episodes each Wednesday night – in the summer of 2006 before hitting DVD in time for Halloween that year. As with any anthology, the installments are hit or miss, but the unpredictability is part of the fun. Several name actors and notable filmmakers were involved, including some King alumni.
Five of Nightmares & Dreamscapes‘ episodes – “Crouch End,” “Umney’s Last Case,” “The End of the Whole Mess,” “The Fifth Quarter,” and “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” – are based on stories from King’s 1993 short story collection of the same name, while “Battleground” comes from 1978’s Night Shift and “The Road Virus Heads North” and “Autopsy Room Four” are in 2002’s Everything’s Eventual.
Presented without any dialogue, “Battleground” is an intrepid choice to kick off the series – but it’s also the strongest of the eight episodes. Like a darker take on Small Soldiers, a hitman (William Hurt, A History of Violence) finds himself being attacked by little green army men toys and their weapons of war after killing a renowned toy manufacturer. Hurt’s wordless, solo performance carries the episode, with the ever-present score by Jeff Beal (House of Cards, Monk) helping to shoulder some of the weight.
The special effects are surprisingly strong for a network TV show at the time, but that should come as no surprise upon the realization that it’s directed by Brian Henson (The Muppet Christmas Carol), who harnesses the powers of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Writer Richard Christian Matheson (Three O’Clock High) sneaks in a nod to another famous killer toy: the Zuni fetish doll from 1975’s Trilogy of Terror, penned by his father, the great Richard Matheson. The episode earned Emmy awards for Outstanding Music Composition and Outstanding Special Visual Effects.
“Crouch End” is King’s tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, but director Mark Haber (Alien Cargo) and writer Kim LeMasters prove unable to render the cosmic dread on screen. Honeymooning in London, newlyweds Doris (Claire Forlani, Mallrats) and Lonnie (Eion Bailey, Band of Brothers) find themselves lost in Crouch End, a notorious area built on a place of ritual sacrifice that now serves as a portal to another dimension. It’s the only episode that goes full-bore into horror, but it’s a painfully generic genre outing even if you overlook the unflattering aesthetic and cheesy CGI.
One of King’s many stories about authors, “Umney’s Last Case” is a love letter to Raymond Chandler’s pulpy detective stories. It’s about a hard-boiled gumshoe circa 1938 whose world is upended when the author of his life reveals himself. William H. Macy (Fargo) plays both roles, earning himself an Emmy nomination for the dual performance. Director Rob Bowman (Reign of Fire) and writer April Smith embrace the Chandler pastiche, with King’s clever twist on the material subverting the tropes.
In “The End of the Whole Mess,” Howard Fornoy (Ron Livingston, The Conjuring) recounts the unbelievable story of his genius younger brother, Bobby (Henry Thomas, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), whose discovery achieves world peace before yielding dire consequences. Director Mikael Salomon (who helmed the aforementioned Salem’s Lot miniseries) successfully builds intrigue and emotion, save for the questionable choice to turn September 11th into a plot catalyst.
Instead of journal entries like in the original story, fearless King adaptor Lawrence D. Cohen (who also tackled Carrie (1976 and 2013), It (1990), and The Tommyknockers) turns Howard into a filmmaker documenting the story. It’s a smart approach for the visual medium, though it’s ultimately underutilized – the copious flashbacks are just that, rather than footage shot by Howard – and the impact of King’s written ending is missed.
“The Road Virus Heads North” is yet another story about a writer. King uses aging horror author Richard Kinnell (Tom Berenger, Platoon) as a conduit for his grievances about life in the spotlight before getting to the meat of the story. After purchasing a menacing painting at a yard sale, Kinnell soon discovers that it changes each time he looks at it, reappears when he tries to destroy it, and kills anyone that gets in its way. Director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Battlestar Galactica) and writer Peter Filardi (The Craft, Flatliners) deliver an interesting, if familiar, setup that lacks a satisfying conclusion.
“The Fifth Quarter” plays like one of the many Tarantino-esque crime thrillers produced in the wake of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, which isn’t a bad thing. Jeremy Sisto (Wrong Turn) stars as a newly released convict whose dying friend tells him about a map that reveals the location of $3.5 million. Despite a desire to stay straight for his wife (Samantha Mathis, Broken Arrow) and son (Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Road), he goes on a dangerous quest for the money. Bowman directs again, this time from a script by Alan Sharp (Rob Roy), crafting an engaging tale of crime and greed.
Perhaps the most compelling episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes, “Autopsy Room Four” draws inspiration from Louis Pollock’s 1947 short story “Breakdown.” The plot concerns a man (Richard Thomas, who starred as the adult version of Bill in 1990’s It) who has been pronounced dead but is still conscious as he’s brought into the morgue for his autopsy. Trapped inside his own mind, he’s completely immobile but able to think – and feel. Thomas narrates the character’s inner monologue, piecing together the events leading up to his presumed death. Salomon directs from a script by Smith, embracing a dark sense of humor without sacrificing tension.
“You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” features a classic setup that brings to mind The Twilight Zone (which is name-checked in the episode) and King’s own Children of the Corn. A husband (Steven Weber, who boldly assumed the role of Jack Torrance in 1997’s The Shining miniseries) and wife (Kim Delaney, NYPD Blue) on a road trip find themselves in a seemingly idyllic small town that harbors a secret: it’s inhabited by dead musicians. From Janis Joplin and Elvis Presley to Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix, the impersonations are fun, but writer-director Mike Robe (Return to Lonesome Dove) is unable to elevate the ordeal beyond the one-note gimmick.
Each episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King runs about 45 minutes sans commercials, which proves to be a good length; it affords enough time to develop characters and establish stakes without having to pad the runtime. The show is not available to stream or purchase digitally – a lack of access that does no favors to its reputation – but the DVD set remains readily available for around $10. It may not be essential King, but I’d encourage any constant reader of his work to give Nightmares & Dreamscapes a shot.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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