If you recall, the Losers are counting down Stephen King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best in 2026. For this past September’s installment, the Losers turned the key on killer cars, returned to Mid-World for the third time this list (maybe fourth), rode the lightning, and got all tied up. Spoilers? Mayhap, mayhap not.

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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Below, you can catch up with the entire run…

The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #22-17 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Flanagan’s Carrie adheres to the basic brushstrokes of King’s classic, but only barely. This vision of Carrie White, played endearingly by Summer H. Howell, is a doe-eyed sweetheart more outgoing than her previous counterparts. Her devoutly religious and misanthropic mother, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan), isn’t a monster but a victim herself. Here, it’s her overly protective, motherly instincts while navigating a modern world that lead to missteps. A tragic construction site suddenly thrusts the sheltered Whites into society, where Carrie finds herself navigating the hierarchy of high school. 

It’s here that Flanagan dedicates his focus; Carrie spends a lot of time with not just Carrie’s peers but the Ewen High School faculty as well. Flanagan explores the nuances of teaching during a volatile time, where social media wreaks devastating havoc upon the lives of students and teachers alike. Rita Desjardin (Amber Midthunder) isn’t just the supportive teacher attempting to protect the vulnerable Carrie from her callous peers. She’s also a young woman trying to find her footing in a new career and new town. Matthew Lillard endears as the earnest principal trying his best while dealing with unruly parents, though it’s Tim Bagley who shines as a beacon of warmth as Ewen’s unwaveringly kind guidance counselor.

While Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) becomes a more fully realized, morally complex protagonist more adjacent to Carrie’s story, it’s popular mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) who receives the biggest narrative transformation. Thornton is incredible at humanizing one of King’s most vicious bullies, helped by a troubled home life. Though Flanagan affords sympathy for this villain, it’s also one of the series’ biggest missteps. It’s a tall ask of viewers to witness prolonged torment inflicted over eight episodes, and Chris is suitably nasty. It’s understandable why the catty mean girl is lashing out, but it didn’t soften this viewer to her cruelty in any way. Not helping is just how effective Howell is as the unwaveringly pure and disarming is as Carrie; the iconic shower scene becomes even more barbarous in the age of social media.

As a Constant Reader and constant King adaptor, Flanagan also expands on the telekinesis thread teased by the novel’s ending. Likely banking on subsequent seasons, though, this important subplot is relegated mostly to the background as a mystery driver that only fully roars to life in the season’s rushed final two episodes. So much time is spent with these characters that Carrie nearly forgets to wrap up, rushing through the prom to deliver important developments for the series’ future. 

Carrie is at its best and most compelling when focused on exploring the very human failures of adults and institutions. Carrie is put through the wringer, ensuring no shortage of heartbreak and drama, but Carrie paints a persuasive picture of a bustling town full of people so caught up in their own baggage that kids easily slip through the cracks. But in doing so, Carrie White winds up losing even more agency than before, making her calamitous story all the more painful to see unfold.

Telekinetic subplots involving mystery players and the fervent desire to explain her bully’s motives dangle Flanagan’s overarching vision, but by season’s end Carrie feels more passive puppet than tragically empowered. The cast is incredible, but Carrie‘s parts are stronger than its not quite cohesive whole.

This new adaptation saves its most radical departures for last, setting up a bizarre continuation not earned by the eight-ep first season. Flanagan’s trademark earnestness and empathy, combined with his talented cast and crew, ensure deep rooting interest in Ewen’s residents despite an inevitable outcome, but it’s not (yet) as radical a departure as expected. It’s way more effective as a teen drama than a horror show, though, and there’s no tangible sense of peace or closure after enduring an entire season of Carrie’s torture.

Carrie begins streaming on Prime Video on October 7.

The post ‘Carrie’ Review: Mike Flanagan’s Series Modernizes Stephen King’s Classic With Mixed Results appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The streaming platform is kicking off spooky season October 1 with the return of Halloween Hits, featuring a deep lineup of horror favorites available to stream free on demand throughout the month, alongside dedicated channels and special programming across the platform.

Double Feature Fridays premieres Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Pluto TV Spotlight, with titles subsequently available on demand. The horror double features begin on October 9, but there’s no shortage of horror to watch all month long, streaming 24/7.

This year’s collection spans major franchises, box-office hits, cult classics and horror favorites. Highlights include:

October 1
#211
10 Cloverfield Lane
2001 Maniacs
247 Degrees Fahrenheit
The ABCs Of Death
The ABCs Of Death 2
After Midnight (1989)
After.Life
Alone (2020)
Alone In The Dark
Ambulance, The
Amityville 3-D (1983)
Amityville II: The Possession
Amityville: The Awakening
Amityville: Where The Echo Lives
Among The Shadows
Amulet
And Soon The Darkness (2010)
Angel Heart
Anna And The Apocalypse
April Fool’s Day
Audrey Rose
Barrens
The Bay
The Believers
The Belko Experiment
Below
Beyond Reanimator
Black Christmas (2006)
Black Sabbath
Blacula
Bless The Child
The Blood On Satan’s Claw
Body Cam
Bones And All
The Boogeyma (2005)
Boogeyman 2 (2008)
The Boogeyman 3 (2009)
Breach
A Bucket Of Blood
Bug
The Burning
Burnt Offerings
Cabin Fever
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever  (2007)
Candyman III
Candyman: Day Of The Dead
Carrie (2002)
Cellar Dweller
Chained
Children Of The Corn 666: Isaac’s Return
Children Of The Corn II: The Final Sacrifice
Children Of The Corn III: Urban Harvest
Children Of The Corn V: Fields Of Terror
Children Of The Corn: Genesis
Children Of The Corn: Revelation
Children Of The Corn: The Gathering
Clive Barker’s Lord Of Illusions
Cloverfield
Come To Daddy
Cooties
The Cottage
Crawl
Crawlspace
Cube
Cube 2
Cube Zero
Cujo
Cursed
Dark Circles
The Dark Half
Darkness
Day Of The Dead: Bloodline
Dead Bodies
Dead End (2003)
The Dead Zone
Death Of Me
Deepstar Six
Dentist 2, The
Dentist, The
Devon
Diabolic
Disturbing Behavior
Dolls
Don’t Look Now
Down A Dark Hall
Dracula 3000
Dreamkatcher
The Dunwich Horror
Eden Lake
Escape Room
Evil Dead (2013)
The Evil Next Door
The Eye (2008)
The Faculty
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1960)
Fangoria: Blood Drive
Fangoria: Blood Drive II
Fear Clinic
Feast
Feast II: Sloppy Seconds
Feast III: Happy Finish
Fertile Ground
Flatliners (1990)
Flesh And Bone
Flight 7500
The Fog (1980)
Frankenstein  (2004)
Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell
Friday The 13th (1980)
Friday The 13th – Part II
Friday The 13th – Part III
Friday The 13th Part – IV:The Final Chapter
Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Friday The 13th Part VI : Jason Lives
Friday The 13th Part VII:The New Blood
Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Frogs
From Beyond
From Dusk Till Dawn
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter
The Front Room
Gallowwalkers
The Gate
The Gathering (2002)
George A. Romero’s Diary Of The Dead
Ghoulies
Ghoulies IU
The Gift (2000)
Ginger Snaps
Ginger Snaps 2
Ginger Snaps 3
Godsend
Goodnight Mommy
Gothic
Gretel & Hansel
The Grudge 3  (2008)
Hannibal Rising
Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters
Hatchet
Hell Fest
Hellbenders 3D
Hellraiser
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)
Hellraiser: Revelations
Hereditary
Heretic
Hex (2022)
High Tension
His Name Was Jason
Hollow Man
Horns
The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959)
House Of 1000 Corpses
House Of The Dead  (2003)
House Of The Long Shadows
How It Ends (2018)
Howling Ii: Your Sister Is A Werewolf
I Still See You
I, Frankenstein
Idle Hands
In Fear
It Follows
Jack Brooks Monster Slayer
Jessabelle
John Dies At The End
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word
Joy Ride
The Keep
Kill Theory
Kristy
The Lair Of The White Worm
The Last House On The Left (1972)
The Last Rite
Leprechaun
Leprechaun 4: Lost In Space
Leprechaun II
Leprechaun III
Leprechaun Origins (2014)
Leprechaun V: In The Hood
Let Me In (2010)
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death
Leviathan
Lifeforce
Like Minds
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane
The Little Mermaid
Lords Of Salem
The Loved Ones
Man-Thing
Mara (2017)
Martyrs (2015)
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The Masque Of The Red Death (1964)
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Maxxxine
May
The Messengers 2 (2008)
The Messengers (2007)
Mid-Century
Midsommar
Mimic
Mimic 2
Mimic 3: Sentinel
Monkey Shines: An Experiment In Fear
Monster Squad, The
Most Beautiful Island
Mother’s Day (2012)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
My Bloody Valentine (2009)
New Year’s Evil
The Night Listener
Night Of The Comet
Night Of The Demons
Night Of The Living Dead 3D  (2006)
Night Of The Living Dead: Resurrection
Night Train (2009)
No One Lives
Only Lovers Left Alive
Open Water 2: Adrift (2006)
Open Water 3: Cage Dive (2017)
Overlord
P2
Pandorum
Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity 2
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 4
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Parents
Patrick: Evil Awakens
Pearl: An X-Traordinary Origin Story
Pet Sematary (1989)
Pet Sematary (2019)
Phase IV
Piranha 3dd
Pit And The Pendulum
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Poltergeist III
The Possession Of Hannah Grace
The Poughkeepsie Tapes
Pretty Boy
Prey (2007)
Pulse (2006)
Pulse II: Afterlife
Pulse III: Invasion
Quarantine
Quarantine 2: Terminal
A Quiet Place Part II
The Rage: Carrie 2
The Reading
Repentance
Repo: The Genetic Opera
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Return Of The Living Dead III
Return Of The Living Dead: Necropolis
Return Of The Living Dead: Rave To The Grave
The Ring
The Ring Two
Rise (2007)
Rogue (2007)
The Ruins
Scared Stiff (1953)
Scissors
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse
Scream (1996)
Scream (2022)
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scream 4
Scream, Blacula, Scream!
Seance: The Summoning
Secret Window
Shivers
Silent Hill
Silent Hill: Revelation 3d
Silent Night (2012)
Sinister
Sleepaway Camp
Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers
Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland
Sleepwalker
Sleepy Hollow
Smile
Solstice
Sorority Row
Species
Species II
Species III
Species: The Awakening
Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet
Stephen King’s Sometimes They Come Back
Stephen King’s Thinner
Stigmata
Strangeland
Student Bodies
Succubus
Supernova
Suspect Zero
Talk To Me
Tamara
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
The Thirst (2006)
Toolbox Murders
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977)
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
Troll
Troll 2
Urban Legends: Bloody Mary
Vacancy (2007)
Vampire In Brooklyn
Vampire’s Kiss
Vampires Of The Velvet Lounge
The Vanished
The Vatican Tapes
Warhunt
Warm Bodies
Waxwork
Waxwork II: Lost In Time
We Are What We Are (2013)
We Summon The Darkness
What Lies Beneath
When A Stranger Calls (2006)
While She Was Out
Wicker Man (1973)
Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey
Wishmaster
Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies
Wishmaster 3: Sword Of Justice
Wishmaster 4 The Prophecy Fulfilled
Wolf Creek
Wolf Of Snow Hollow, The
The Woman In Black
The Woods (2006)
World War Z
The Wraith (1986)
Wrong Turn (2021)
X (2022)
You’re Next

Pluto TV is also breaking down their massive horror catalog into easy-to-find categories that include:

LIGHTER HAUNTS
Horror-comedies and lighter scares include:

• Scary Movie
• Scary Movie 2
• Scary Movie 3
• Scary Movie 4
• Scary Movie 5
• A Haunted House
• A Haunted House 2
• Shaun of the Dead
• Warm Bodies
• Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
• Cooties
• Vampire in Brooklyn
• The Monster Squad
• Idle Hands
• Anna and the Apocalypse

$100M BOX OFFICE HITS
Some of horror’s biggest theatrical successes streaming this October include:

• World War Z
• A Quiet Place Part II – Available October 11
• The Ring
• Smile
• Sleepy Hollow
• Paranormal Activity
• Scream (1996)
• Escape Room
• The Woman in Black
• Pet Sematary (2019)
• 10 Cloverfield Lane
• Resident Evil
• And more…

The post Pluto TV Unleashes Massive Halloween Hits Catalog Packed With Horror Movies This October appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Flanagan’s project, though, is heading in a different direction, as he’s adapting King’s first published novel, Carrie. The story was brought to life as a movie in 1976, which earned the sequel The Rage: Carrie 2 in 1999, as well as a TV adaptation in 2002, and then a big-screen remake in 2013. The Prime Video series marks the longest adaptation yet, as the events of the story will unfold over eight episodes. And that’s just for starters; Flanagan claims he has an even bigger plan in mind for the narrative.

The first season of the series will seemingly only be the start of a longer narrative, as Flanagan confirmed to Collider that he envisions his series running for three seasons. The filmmaker explained, “In my dream scenario … I think it’s three seasons. In my dream scenario, I think Carrie has a wonderful three-step arc. It’s a trilogy, really.”

These remarks raise a lot of questions about the potential of the concept. The original novel and multiple adaptations have quite definitive conclusions, despite the fact that The Rage was ultimately released. This could mean that things don’t wrap up quite as cleanly as other versions of the narrative, or significant new elements are introduced.

One thing we do know, however, is that Flanagan aims to put more emphasis on other characters who have similar telekinetic abilities, which is a realm other adaptations have ignored.

“The story of Carrie alone has been told now several times,” the filmmaker shared with Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. “The thing that’s never been delved into is Carrie’s a part of this larger community of women and she never gets to know that. We have a book that fits perfectly into a 90-minute format. We’re talking about a series. Expansion’s essential. So if that’s the mission, how can we earn it? And that was the crux of it. Let’s understand that this is the story about gifted women. Let’s understand that this is a story about young women, in particular, learning their place in the world and coming into their power — and all the pitfalls that come with that.”

The new Carrie series premieres on Prime Video on October 7. There’s no official word on whether Prime Video will renew the series.

Would you like to see the series expand into a trilogy? Let us know in the comments below!

The post ‘Carrie’: Mike Flanagan Hopes His Stephen King Reboot Runs for Three Seasons appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Stephen King tweets, “The Institute Season 2 premieres on MGM Plus November 8th. The kids are done running. Mark your calendars.” Check out two brand new first-look images below.

In Season 1, “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.”

Season 2 will pick up after the Season 1 finale, in which the survivors discovered similar facilities all over the world. 

Set free but hunted, new dangers await the escapees from the Institute…

The MGM+ series hails from director/executive producer Jack Bender (From, Mr. Mercedes), writer/executive producer Benjamin Cavell (Justified, The Stand), and MGM+ Studios. Both filmmakers are no strangers to the world of Stephen King.

Mary-Louise Parker (Ms. Sigsby), Ben Barnes (Tim Jamieson), Joe Freeman (Luke Ellis), Simone Miller (Kalisha), Fionn Laird (Nick), Hannah Galway (Wendy), Julian Richings (Stackhouse), Robert Joy (Dr. Hendricks), and Martin Roach (Chief Ashworth) star, with Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones,” The Predator) joining the second season.

The post Stephen King’s ‘The Institute’ Season 2 Sets November Premiere Date on MGM+ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With Flanagan’s previous King adaptations Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck, he proved how faithful he could be to the source material, no matter how challenging it was to realize in live-action. Even though the original novel and multiple adaptations took place in the ’70s, Flanagan opted not to pursue that perspective and instead set the show in contemporary times. Despite his track record of faithfully honoring source material, there were very specific reasons why he shifted the series’ timeline.

Speaking with Radio Times, Flanagan explained, “The themes we are exploring are relevant to today’s teenagers in such a profound way that wasn’t true when I was that age, much less when Stephen was, and just doing a period piece adaptation would have felt like re-reading.”

He added, “This wasn’t about nostalgia and doing something again, it was about telling a story that was vital to today; speaking to the unique experience of teens today, told through a new version of Stephen’s characters.”

Arguably one of Flanagan’s biggest challenges as a filmmaker was Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. The major issue is that, in The Shining novel, the Overlook Hotel exploded, while the big-screen adaptation avoided that element. This meant Flanagan was tasked with somehow honoring both the original narrative while also embracing the legacy of Stanley Kubrick‘s 1980 movie.

With Carrie, shifting the timeline to present day wasn’t just out of logistical concerns, but also of thematic opportunities.

“Today, kids deal with a level of anxiety at school that I couldn’t have contemplated when I was growing up and the horror of being a teen today is so different from 1976, and this was a wonderful opportunity to explore that,” Flanagan confessed.

Carrie is set to premiere on Prime Video on October 7.

Are you looking forward to the new adaptation? Let us know in the comments below!

The post ‘Carrie’s Mike Flanagan Explains Why He Changed the Timeline From Stephen King’s Book appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But rarely do we get to see these children into adulthood. Though King’s 1986 masterpiece It sees our beloved Losers all grown up and Doctor Sleep features Danny Torrance as an older man, King leaves most of his young heroes in their adolescence. However, Constant Readers know that the author has been following one fictional child for the majority of his career. Other Worlds Than These gives us the final chapter in the story of Jack Sawyer, a singularly powerful child often tasked with saving the world.

In 1984, King collaborated with famed horror author Peter Straub on The Talisman, a fantasy adventure that sees twelve-year-old Jack traverse an alternate reality known as the Territories on a quest to save his dying mother. Without a twinner, or counterpart in the other realm, Jack has the unique ability to flip between worlds.

Seventeen years later, King and Straub would reunite to write Black House, a sequel story which sees an adult Jack as he struggles to make sense of his unbelievable past while solving a grisly string of child murders. Now twenty-five years later, King provides a conclusion to Jack’s story as he must defend the world against encroaching evil. Other Worlds Than These presents Jack with his greatest adventure yet while connecting multiple entries in King’s universe.

At first glance, readers might be confused to see Straub’s name gracing the cover of this new novel, particularly considering the accomplished author died in 2022. While The Talisman and Black House were equally written by both genre titans, Other Worlds Than These is a different sort of collaboration.

King remembers discussing this conclusion with Straub in the later years of his life, informally mapping out the final chapter of Jack’s strange journey. Though King fully authored this new novel, he recreates the previous chapters’ elaborate prose mixed with dynamic set pieces, extensive destruction, and occasional dips into outright terror. Straub can be felt on every page as King writes to honor his long-time friend. 

Fans of Black House know that we leave our heroic Coppiceman on a deadly cliffhanger. Years after this devastating injury, we reunite with an aging Jack who must spend most of his time in the Territories. Just a few days spent “America-side” and Jack’s body will begin to decompose, the precursor to a gruesome death.

He supports himself by running errands to our reality for the amusement of a childish warlord. But on his latest jaunt to Hemingford County, Nebraska (a fun Easter Egg for dedicated Constant Readers), Jack learns about a pair of delinquent runaways terrorizing the area who may have murdered his dear friend Dale Gilbertson. These teenage killers seem to have found a passageway between worlds and are laying waste to both realities. 

Though their crimes bring to mind Bonnie and Clyde, King names a different reference. The fictional Roy Kinneston and Tara Lynne Speckhoffer are directly inspired by Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, who went on a similar killing spree in 1957-58. King has long been fascinated with this teenage serial killer, and the duo’s murderous spree has inspired much of the author’s work, most notably the grim novella 1922 and Rage, the only novel King has pulled from publication. But this threat transitions from a pair of delinquent murderers to something else altogether.

Kinneston and Speckhoffer not only seem to be possessed by the spirits of Starkweather and Fugate, but their particular brand of corruption rapidly spreads through the Territories, with teenagers roughly dying their hair and massacring anyone who crosses their path. This coincides with the expansion of a black hole-like force which threatens to consume the very fabric of reality. 

Rather than the central nature of Black House, which takes place mostly in western Wisconsin, Other Worlds Than These mirrors the structure of The Talisman. Tasked with defending both worlds, Jack embarks on another epic journey as he follows a wide path of destruction carved by the killer couple and their acolytes.

We revisit the Blasted Lands with its infamous Slow Mutants and remember beloved friends lost on Jack’s first epic journey. But these are not the adventures of a wide-eyed boy on a thrilling trip. This Jack is a hardened and lonely traveler, remembering his glory days while finding the courage for one last battle. King punctuates the story with journal entries that fill in the gaps of this sprawling story, making it accessible for newer readers. 

In addition to this treacherous trip down memory lane, King makes frequent connections to more famous fantasy series. Considering its title — pulled from the shocking conclusion of The Gunslinger, the first book in The Dark Tower series — readers expected Other Worlds Than These to merge both epic sagas. While Black House lays out this connection with its talk of Breakers and the Crimson King, the newest installment becomes the lynchpin for holding King’s massive universe together.

Parallels and connections are fully fleshed out, and we revisit beloved characters from both literary worlds. It’s the closest King has ever come to confirming what Constant Readers have long suspected — the Master of Horror truly is writing one interconnected story. 

When describing his own inspiration, King admits, “I wanted to go back to Mid-World, which was always the Territories by another name.” We can feel this longing as King relaxes back into familiar ground. We’re treated to sweeping descriptions of the countryside on both sides of the reality divide and luxuriant stretches of warm conversation as Jack connects with new friends. True to form, King peppers the story with moments of dark humor and gruesomeness.

The Speckhoffer gang may be some of the author’s most sadistic villains, and he doesn’t hold back when describing their horrific kills. Other moments highlight the terror of this unpredictable world as new monsters rear their ugly heads. 

As Jack builds a second ka-tet to save the world, we’re reminded of another gunslinger’s epic journey. What begins as an older man hellbent on stopping a pair of teen murderers transforms into a poignant examination of the nature of chaotic evil. Some readers will be frustrated with a nebulous conclusion while others will find joy in the winding journey. Once again, King is less concerned with delivering a definitive ending than with pondering the cyclical nature of life itself.

Echoing some of his earlier work, like The Stand, Needful Things, and The Dark Tower, King reminds us that the true shape of evil never dies and the world can’t be saved by a singular battle. We must constantly be on our guard against new iterations of malevolence. 

While Other Worlds Than These won’t be for everyone — Dark Tower haters need not apply — King’s latest novel provides a satisfying final chapter for one of his most relatable characters, pulling Jack Sawyer out of the shadows and into the spotlight once again. It’s a mature novel from a creator who is entering the final stages of a long and storied career. Intensely reflective and meta-textual, we feel King saying goodbye to Straub while revisiting his own literary life.

Disguised as a road trip adventure story, Other Worlds Than These is a gorgeous meditation on the beauty of life and the friends we love and lose along the way.

Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub publishes on October 6.

The post ‘Other Worlds Than These’ Book Review: Stephen King Finds Joy and Terror In Mid-World’s Final Journey appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

You can see the new poster for Carrie below.

Prime Video describes the new series, “Misfit high‑schooler Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.”

Also starring in Carrie are Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard.

With any new reboot or remake, there’s going to be questions about how faithful the adaptation will be and what new perspectives a filmmaker will lean into, but for anyone concerned about whether Mike Flanagan will fully unleash Carrie’s wrath, this poster confirms just how powerful Carrie will become. Still, Flanagan confirmed that the new series will explore things that the previous adaptations of the material have failed to fully dive into.

“The story of Carrie alone has been told now several times,” the filmmaker shared with Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. “The thing that’s never been delved into is Carrie’s a part of this larger community of women and she never gets to know that. We have a book that fits perfectly into a 90-minute format. We’re talking about a series. Expansion’s essential. So if that’s the mission, how can we earn it? And that was the crux of it. Let’s understand that this is the story about gifted women. Let’s understand that this is a story about young women, in particular, learning their place in the world and coming into their power — and all the pitfalls that come with that.”

Carrie premieres on Prime Video on October 7.

Are you looking forward to the new remake? Let us know in the comments below!

The post ‘Carrie’ Lifts Off in All-New Poster for Prime Video’s Stephen King Reboot appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Some have given us genuine camp classics like Paul Michael Glaser’s The Running Man (1987) while others, like Rob Reiner and Frank Darabont, have created some of history’s most beloved films. But since the turn of the 21st century, one director has taken the reins as the preeminent director of Stephen King’s work. Cut from similar creative cloth, Mike Flanagan has a knack for capturing the author’s powerful blend of emotion and fear. From Gerald’s Game (2017) to the upcoming Carrie (2026) miniseries, the earnest director has found a way to translate some of King’s trickiest texts for the big and small screen. 

King’s influence can be felt throughout the span of Flanagan’s career. A lifelong Constant Reader — the moniker King has bestowed upon his dedicated fans — Flanagan does not just set out to scare us to death, but to make us feel along the way. This talent for character-driven horror reflects King’s own narrative strategy. In Danse Macabre, his 1980 treatise on the genre, King notes, “I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”  

Flanagan’s debut feature, Absentia, may center an insectile creature from another dimension who snatches runners off the street. But this tender story could also be read as a metaphor for the pain of addiction and the toll it takes on those we love. Later films like Before I Wake and the 2016 sequel Ouija: Origin of Evil— which is much better than it has any right to be — use horror as the framework for a larger exploration of grief in the wake of a loved one’s death.

Both creators understand that a story must have emotional stakes if we are to be frightened at all. 

Oculus

Flanagan’s second film, Oculus (2013), is a harrowing story of a family torn apart by a malevolent antique mirror. As children, siblings Kylie (Annalise Basso, Karen Gillan) and Tim (Garrett Ryan, Brenton Thwaites) watch this mirror, the Lasser Glass, slowly poison their suburban home. As adults, they reunite for an elaborate plot to prove its supernatural capabilities before destroying the object once and for all. An expanded version of Flanagan’s 2006 short Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan, Oculus (2013) parallels one of King’s most haunting stories.

Featured in the 1985 collection Skeleton Crew, “The Reaper’s Image” introduces the Delver Glass, an antique mirror with a sinister past. While most simply see their own vaguely distorted reflection, a fraction of those who look in this mirror see a cloaked figure standing behind them and invariably go missing shortly after. 

While these stories bear no outright connection, their similarities are unmistakable. Both “The Reaper’s Image” and Oculus include grisly histories of the mirrors and their many victims. But Flanagan’s Lasser Glass does not cause its prey to disappear. Extended time in the mirror’s presence sparks wildly distorted perceptions, eventually leading to extreme acts of violence. Caught in the mirror’s sinister deception, their father Alan (Rory Cochrane) begins neglecting his kids while torturing his wife in the upstairs bedroom. His transformation from a flawed, yet loving father into a callous family annihilator is not unlike the story of Jack Torrance, the human villain of King’s The Shining. It’s also impossible to hear young Kaylie and Tim vow to destroy the mirror as adults without remembering It’s beloved Losers’ Club. 

Hush and Gerald’s Game

In many ways, Flanagan’s third feature, Hush, feels like a spiritual adaptation of King’s 1992 novel Gerald’s Game. The intimate story follows Jessie, an unhappy housewife on a romantic getaway with her boorish husband Gerald. When an ill-advised sex game goes disastrously wrong, Jessie finds herself handcuffed to the bed while Gerald lies dead on the floor. With no way to call for help, Jessie must use the few objects within her limited reach to free herself before she dies of dehydration. A fan of the harrowing novel, Flanagan has admitted to carrying a paperback copy of Gerald’s Game to industry meetings, pitching an adaptation as his dream project.  

But before he would get the chance, Flanagan directed the slasher-home invasion hybrid Hush, co-written with his wife Kate Siegel, who also stars. The stylish film follows a deaf and mute writer named Maddie (Siegel) whose isolated house is invaded by a masked serial killer known only as The Man (John Gallagher Jr.). Filmed largely without dialogue, Maddie must dissect her situation as if it were the plot of her latest novel, meticulously working through survival scenarios. Like Gerald’s Game, Hush follows an isolated woman who must use her limited resources to fight for her life while sustaining unthinkable injuries. 

Following the success of Hush, Flanagan finally secured his dream project. Released on Netflix in 2017, Gerald’s Game manages to capture a story many considered unfilmable. Except for childhood flashbacks and a polarizing denouement, the 300-page book takes place almost entirely in Jessie’s bedroom as she’s shackled in place on the bed. Most of the story’s dialogue comes from manifestations of women from her past: Ruth Neary, Jessie’s headstrong college roommate, and the Goodwife, a symbol of domestic oppression. 

To streamline the story and bring out its themes, Flanagan makes a few narrative changes. With Bruce Greenwood playing a slightly more likeable version of Gerald, Flanagan recasts these interior voices as manifestations of Gerald and Jessie (Carla Gugino), explaining, “This is a movie about a marriage. I want to hear from a married couple.” Like an angel and devil perched on her shoulders, these two metaphysical characters spar with each other while helping Jessie piece together memories from her traumatic past.

Meanwhile, a stranger creeps into the darkened room while Jessie sleeps. She awakens to find the hideously gaunt Moonlight Man (Carel Struycken) silently watching her from the corner. Cloaked in shadows, Jessie cannot tell if this man — whom King calls the Space Cowboy — is an intruder meaning to do her harm or a specter of oncoming death. Flanagan cleverly plays with shadow and light to recreate one of King’s most frightening characters. 

But the adaptation’s crown jewel is a faithful reconstruction of what is arguably the Master of Horror’s most gruesome passage. Hopelessly trapped by the military-grade cuffs, Jessie must essentially strip the skin from her hand to fit it through the steel bracelet. With jaw-dropping special effects, Flanagan presents the infamous “degloving scene” in excruciating detail, forcing us to stay with Jessie through her pain. Combining terror, horror, and disgust — King’s own delineation of fear — Flanagan explores the depths of Jessie’s mind, bringing her intimate experience to the screen. 

Doctor Sleep

Flanagan’s next King adaptation is somehow even more ambitious. Thirty-six years after publishing his iconic novel The Shining, King reconnected with Danny Torrance in the 2013 sequel Doctor Sleep. After surviving the notorious Overlook Hotel, an adult Danny battles a group of psychic vampires to protect a little girl named Abra who possesses psychic gifts even more powerful than his own. 

Like Gerald’s Game, this novel also includes extensive metaphysical scenes. The beguiling villain, Rose the Hat, can project her consciousness while meditating hundreds of miles away. Danny also manages to use his telekinetic powers to “turn the world,” mentally trading places with Abra to see, speak, and fight by controlling her body. Once again, Flanagan manages to capture the unfilmable, showing Rose gracefully gliding through a representation of Abra’s mind. He’s also able to keep track of the complex narrative, much of which occurs in his characters’ heads.

However, a larger concern would be marrying disparate source material. While revered as one of history’s greatest films, Stanley Kubrick took so many narrative liberties with his 1980 adaptation of The Shining that King is notably not a fan. In addition to numerous plot details, one version of the story ends with the Overlook standing and the other sees it burned to the ground. Anticipating a cinematic Doctor Sleep (2019), Constant Readers didn’t know whether Flanagan’s film would be a sequel to King’s or Kubrick’s story. 

But Flanagan manages to pull off the impossible, blending both sides of this terrifying tale. In recreations of Kubrick’s iconic Overlook, the sensitive director weaves in pieces of King’s original novel that were excised from Kubrick’s adaptation. Themes of addiction, sobriety, and forgiveness finally break through as Flanagan transforms tender elements of King’s The Shining into new and original sequences. King has stated that the director’s additions, including a scene in which Danny (Ewan McGregor) comes face to face with his troubled father, helped him make peace with Kubrick’s celebrated film. 

Midnight Mass and The Life of Chuck

Alongside these two adaptations, Flanagan turned to other genre authors for a string of miniseries adaptations. The Haunting of Hill House is based on Shirley Jackson’s celebrated novel, while The Haunting of Bly Manor was inspired by Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. His The Midnight Club is a semi-anthology series based on the young adult horror of Christopher Pike, while The Fall of the House of Usherweaves together several of Edgar Allen Poe’s most chilling tales.

But nestled in the middle of this successful run is a series that nods to Stephen King. 

Midnight Mass follows the residents of a small New England town who fall victim to an ancient vampire infiltrating their lives through the Catholic Church. What first appears to be a blessing from God soon becomes a soul-crushing disease. While the story is entirely original, several elements feel directly inspired by King’s sophomore novel Salem’s Lot. Released in 1975, the terrifying story sees a tiny Maine town crumble with the arrival of a charming vampire. King expertly makes the town itself a character, providing a salacious look at its many scandals and secrets. While Flanagan’s story is not nearly so salacious, Midnight Mass uses vampires as a springboard to tell a nuanced story about small-town life and the complex nature of community. Filled with poignant monologues and gorgeous symbolism, the series sees Flanagan take inspiration from King to create a masterpiece all his own. 

For his next feature film adaptation, Flanagan joined the ranks of Rob Reiner and Frank Darabont in adapting one of King’s non-horror tales. Collected in the 2020 release If It Bleeds, “The Life of Chuck” is a tear-jerker novella that sees King make peace with the mystery of death. Told in three distinct chapters, the story begins with an entire world on the brink of collapse. Next we meet Chuck Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) on a joyous day in which he delights a random crowd by dancing with a stranger to a busker’s drums. This mirrors the third, and final vignette in which a young Chuck (Benjamin Pajak) learns to dance in an afterschool club. We eventually learn that these stories are pieces of the man’s memory slowly fading away as he dies from cancer. 

Flanagan’s story is a relatively straightforward retelling of this nebulous novella, skillfully highlighting the story’s emotional core. Flanagan captures the heart of this poignant tale, offering a lovely meditation on the reality of death. Though they differ in every conceivable way — including their ties to King himself — The Life of Chuck and Midnight Mass allow the director to confront the horrors of disability and terminal illness, themes King has explored in his later career. 

Carrie and beyond

Though The Life of Chuck is a fairly deep cut, Flanagan’s upcoming project is as iconic as it gets. The seasoned director will next take a crack at his own interpretation of Carrie, King’s debut novel about a bullied girl. First adapted by Brian De Palma, 1976’s Carrie has become a genre staple and an early example of Good For Her horror.  We watch Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) seek bloody revenge for a lifetime of horrific abuse by telekinetically destroying her senior prom along with a gym filled with her tormentors. 

Flanagan’s version of the story promises to modernize the 1974 novel, infusing social media, cancel culture, and sexual predation while offering more nuanced depictions of King’s original characters. Flanagan also endeavors to connect his Carrie (Summer H. Howell) to King’s expansive legacy of psychic kids with a network of powerful young women who recognize her as one of their own. This ambitious reimagining cements a deal with Amazon Prime that will hopefully lead to more King adaptations. Flanagan has also announced plans to adapt The Mist, King’s 1985 novella about a grocery store overrun with interdimensional beasts. 

But perhaps even more exciting, Flanagan is currently working through pre-production on a long-awaited adaptation of the Dark Tower saga. King’s eight-part western fantasy — including the coda novel The Wind Through the Keyhole — follows the gunslinger Roland Deschain on a quest to protect the mythical tower said to support the very threads of reality. Blending time, space, genre, and history, this sprawling saga has daunted an impressive list of directors and spawned one disappointing adaptation, The Dark Tower (2017). But if anyone can bring this massive story to life, it’s the man who gave us Gerald’s Game and reconciled the legacy of Doctor Sleep.

In addition to filming King’s most nebulous work, Flanagan’s signature blend of emotional horror meshes well with King’s own narrative style. Considering his impressive track record and the lengthy list of King titles still on the shelf, it’s likely that Mike Flanagan’s best work is yet to come.

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Speaking with Collider, Flanagan provides an update on that project.

“I’m writing it right now,” Flanagan tells the outlet. “I was working on it on the airplane here.”

Flanagan also notes that he’s turning the screenplay in around Halloween.

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 promised that his adaptation will very much be its own thing.

Flanagan promised 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 continued 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 doubled 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 noted. “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.

Stephen King’s The Mist has of course already made its way onto the big screen with Frank Darabont’s acclaimed feature film adaptation as well as the small screen with a short-lived series.

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Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan has offered a new update that confirms the project is still “very much on the table,” while he also explained the various hurdles the project must overcome. He explained, “To do it the way I wanna do it requires an enormous commitment from a studio.”

With the narrative itself sprawling multiple novels, and with the story blending together fantasy, supernatural, and Western genres, it’s an ambitious effort from a filmmaking scope alone. Additionally, the stories weave in and out of various other stories from King’s vast library, which results in more complications, given the number of studios that possess the rights to various titles.

“The way the Dark Tower universe is connected, you’ve got characters in there that are all over the place when it comes to studio ownership,” Flanagan detailed. “So the development process on it has been epic. It, of course, has taken much longer than I’d like it to, but I work on it all the time. It’s never stopped moving. It just moves at its own oil-tanker pace.”

In this sense, the complications sound reminiscent of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone through over the years, with rights issues preventing integral characters from appearing across titles and behind-the-scenes deals needing to be struck. However, King’s sprawling library and his penchant for offering up the rights to his stories make it an even more complicated situation.

Unfortunately, these complications fall entirely in line with the long and frustrating history of The Dark Tower.

In 2017, Nikolaj Arcel directed The Dark Tower movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, which was meant to serve as both an adaptation and a sequel to the original books. With a 95-minute runtime, the movie fell flat with audiences and critics, as it failed to capture the scope of the source material. Amazon then bought the rights to the series and even filmed a pilot for a TV series, though the streamer opted to scrap the pilot and not pick it up to series.

Knowing that we still have quite a wait ahead of us for the adaptation to move forward is disappointing, but all Stephen King fans can agree that we’d rather wait for a worthy adaptation than see another rushed attempt be released.

Are you hoping Flanagan can make his adaptation happen? Let us know in the comments below!

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One of the biggest distinctions of this new adaptation is the events of the novel will be spread out over eight episodes, with Prime Video today releasing the titles of each chapter.

Even though Mike Flanagan is known for exploring emotionally heavy topics and themes, the titles highlight his playfulness, especially considering the series premiere is titled “First Period,” with Carrie’s first period famously unlocking her telekinetic abilities.

You can check out the full list of episode titles below.

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Given that the series premiere is obviously a nod to Carrie’s (Summer H. Howell) transition into adulthood, the rest of the titles have us speculating about significant components of the narrative. “Foreign Language” could be a nod to Carrie being unfamiliar with what’s happening to her, with “Physical Education” teasing her embracing her abilities while “Home Economics” might imply Carrie’s confrontation with her mother, played by Samantha Sloyan. We can only imagine Carrie’s physics-defying abilities that could be explored in “AP Physics.”

Prime Video describes the new series, “Misfit high‑schooler Carrie White (Howell) has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Sloyan). After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.”

Also starring in Carrie are Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard.

Even if we’ve seen versions of Carrie before, Mike Flanagan recently explained to Entertainment Weekly what will set his take on the material apart from his predecessors.

“The story of Carrie alone has been told now several times,” the filmmaker shared with the outlet. “The thing that’s never been delved into is Carrie’s a part of this larger community of women and she never gets to know that. We have a book that fits perfectly into a 90-minute format. We’re talking about a series. Expansion’s essential. So if that’s the mission, how can we earn it? And that was the crux of it. Let’s understand that this is the story about gifted women. Let’s understand that this is a story about young women, in particular, learning their place in the world and coming into their power — and all the pitfalls that come with that.”

The new Carrie series premieres on Prime Video on October 7.

Are you looking forward to the new adaptation? Let us know in the comments below!

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Watch the official trailer for Prime Video’s “Carrie” television series below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Misfit high‑schooler Carrie White (Summer Howell) has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.”

Mike Flanagan serves as writer and showrunner in addition to directing four episodes of the eight-part series. Amazon MGM Studios produces. Stephen King executive produces.

The show’s cast also includes Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, Josie Tota as Tina, Arthur Conti as Billy, Thalia Dudek as Emaline, Amber Midthunder as Miss Desjardin, and Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle.

Mike Flanagan explained to Entertainment Weekly, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”

“The themes that Steve was talking about half a century ago of kindness versus cruelty, of empathy and bullying, and violence at school have become even more relevant today than he could have contemplated because of our relationship to technology and the degree to which violence encroaches on our high schoolers, especially in the United States,” Flanagan adds. “We had an opportunity to tell a story about a modern teenage experience that could use the seeds of these characters King created 50 years ago, but express them completely differently.”

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If you recall, the Losers are counting down Stephen King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best in 2026. For August, the Losers cycle through a few more novels before getting lost in the woods with some underrated gems in the King canon.

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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Below, you can catch up with the entire run…

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We’ve completely lost our trust in these overly friendly entertainers and now view them as dangerous entities. Most of this fear can be traced back to Tim Curry’s phenomenal performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Thirty-six years after Tommy Lee Wallace’s It, the iconic villain is still nightmare fuel.

With examples dating back to ancient Egypt, the clown exists in every culture. Court jesters, fools, and comedians have all provided light-hearted humor tinged with subtle social commentary through outsized pantomime and self-deprication. By the mid-20th century, western audiences were most familiar with the circus clown, a buffonish performer in primary colors, dazzling audiences with slight-of-hand illusions and vaudevillian tricks.

Inspired by the British pantomimist Joseph Grimaldi who originated the iconic white makeup design, Bozo the Clown rose to fame with an animated series and nationally syndicated children’s show. He would later inspire Ronald McDonald, mascot of the massive fast food chain who would bring clowns to the American dinner table. 

As the archetype gained popularity, audiences slowly grew suspicious of the perpetual smile. DC Comics added a sinister edge with the Joker, a criminal mastermind who terrorizes Gotham with a jester facade, while the 1979 arrest of serial killer John Wayne Gacy connected the harlequin persona with grisly true crime. It’s no wonder that when Stephen King began writing about the essence of fear, he chose a sinister clown for his central antagonist. Remembering his inspiration, the Master of Horror would later describe clowns as the creature children fear, “more than anything else in the world.”

Published in 1986, It follows the Losers’ Club, a group of tween outcasts hunted by an alien entity. The shapeshifting creature has the ability to transform into its prey’s greatest fear, amplifying the terror to season the meat. But It’s default persona is an ostensibly friend circus clown who introduces himself as Pennywise. King even name-checks Bozo and Ronald McDonald when we first meet the beast in a sewer drain. Hoping to recover his lost paper boat, five-year-old Georgie Denbrough is lured into a false sense of security by a friendly smile and faint sounds of the circus. But the moment he reaches for his handmade toy, Pennywise grasps the child’s arm and rips it off. 

King’s novel became a runaway best-seller, immediately eyed as the next high-profile adaptation. Following in the footsteps of Tobe Hooper’s 1979 Salem’s Lot, Wallace’s It premiered as an ABC two-part special during November Sweeps Week of 1990. But King worried about the project’s success, particularly considering the novel’s disturbing content and themes of child endangerment. Hoping to draw eyes towards the risky endeavor, Wallace filled his adult cast with A-list actors like John Ritter, Olivia Hussey, Harry Anderson, and Annette O’Toole, most known for their work outside the genre sphere. 

Perhaps the most unusual casting decision was for the central villain himself. Though Malcolm McDowell and Alice Cooper were considered, likely for their own horror legacy, Wallace lobbied for Curry who envisioned the character as “a smile gone bad.” Then known for more comedic roles in Clue and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Curry admired Pennywise’s beguiling charisma and deadly intent, remembering that the monster must first draw kids close before sealing their fate. Curry’s own menacing charm is on full display. Though playing a bloodthirsty child murderer, he lures us in with a wink and a smile while danger twinkles in his eyes. 

Compared to Bill Skarsgård’s modern iteration, Curry’s Pennywise is fairly subdued. His clown is decked out in a yellow jumpsuit with purple-striped sleeves and billowing ruffles. White gloves and orange pom-poms complete this traditional look, topped with a button nose and bright red hair. Replicating Grimaldi’s makeup design, minimal features traced in black and red float in a sea of uncontoured white. Only jagged teeth, yellow eyes, and a bulbous forehead — inspired by Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera – give the look a strangely inhuman feel. Makeup Effects Coordinator Bart Mixon intentionally leaned into a friendly vibe noting, “This creature is trying to lure children in, so he’s not going to be a monster at first.”

Having previously worked under heavy prosthetics, Curry strongly argued for a more understated look and created an arsenal of his own menacing facial expressions. Wallace would later praise this more authentic approach, remembering, “He was right, of course. With those eyes, and that mouth, and his crazy, sardonic sense of humor, less turned out to be more in the makeup department.” Though several scenes feature Curry baring sharpened teeth, a smaller, less vicious set allowed the actor to more easily enunciate. 

This distinctive voice is central to the terror Curry creates. A wise-cracking trickster, Pennywise torments his victims with disturbing jokes and unnerving prophecies. Before going in for the kill, he warns the Losers, “I’m every nightmare you’ve ever had. I’m your worst dream come true. I’m everything you ever were afraid of.” In addition to amplifying the fear, Curry’s gruff voice helps connect the shapeshifting monster’s more nebulous personas. A mummy, a skeleton, and a treacherous witch all speak in Pennywise’s gravelly tones. When young Loser Beverly (Emily Perkins) sees blood explode from her bathroom sink, she doesn’t see the sinister clown at all, but hears his disquieting voice drifting up from the sewer drains, warning her of the horrors to come. 

As Bev cowers in fear on the bathroom floor, Wallace zooms in for a close-up of the frightened child’s face. It’s a technique he repeats several times through the series, creating the illusion of children in jeopardy. Wary of Broadcast Standards and Practices, Wallace avoids putting his young cast directly in the path of danger, using clever tricks and varied point of view to imply danger safe for network TV.

Rather than actually harming the kids, Pennywise taunts from a distance while Wallace highlights their expressions of fear. Though intended to soften disturbing content, the result is actually scarier. With no child in the frame, we feel as if Pennywise is menacing us through the thin protection of our TV screen. This destabilizing perspective shift allows us to fully absorb Curry’s terrifying performance as we squirm in his unrelenting gaze. 

Wallace uses special effects and replacement puppetry only when necessary; when Pennywise crawls out of a tiny locker room drain and later when he disappears into his subterranean lair. When viewed in a bubble, these moments admittedly feel campy and dated, but alongside Curry’s mesmerizing delivery, they are uncanny punctuations of terror. Pennywise often appears in the cold daylight, creating an eerie clash between fantasy and reality. When Bill (Richard Thomas) first returns to his childhood home, Pennywise taunts him from a line of open graves, one for himself and each of his friends. There are no thunderstorms or scary tableaus. Pennywise merely laughs while standing in the open earth.

Later, he torments Richie (Harry Anderson) in a crowded library, screaming ominous jokes while patrons pass by unaware, reading the newspaper and checking out books. Filmed in the bright light of day, Wallace eschews standard horror tropes and lets Curry create terror on his own.

By many accounts, the original It has not aged particularly well (the less said about that spider conclusion, the better.) To be fair, certain elements of King’s original story would challenge the most talented director, but the 1990 miniseries often feels overly saccharine and occasionally silly, particularly when compared to Andy Muschietti’s effects-heavy interpretations, It and It: Chapter Two. But Curry’s unsettling portrayal of the sinister clown has managed to stand the test of time. Though entirely covered with makeup and silk, the actor’s raw talent shines through and we feel as if Pennywise is targeting us. 

I don’t write this to denigrate Skarsgard’s portrayal or Muschietti’s blockbuster films. The Swedish actor managed to do the impossible when reinventing King’s iconic character. But the modern version of Pennywise is a highly-stylized counterpoint to Curry’s stripped-down interpretation, revealing what the talented actor was able to do with a bit of makeup and artistic flair. His Pennywise remains one horror’s most iconic characters, spiraling into a subgenre all its own. In the thirty-six years since It premiered, the murderous clown archetype has been utilized by some of horror’s most exciting creators and seen in countless series and films.

Stephen King is often credited with destroying the clown industry, reframing once friendly figures as sinister killers in disguise. But I would argue it’s Curry’s performance that put the jovial clown out to pasture. While King’s story is certainly terrifying, nothing compares to the British actor’s signature blend of menace and charm.

We first meet Curry’s Pennywise as he offers a friendly wink and wave while hiding behind a laundry line. On second glance, his appealing demeanor has dissolved. What’s left is a grimace of abject malice as he advances on a helpless child. In less than thirty seconds, he’s managed to reel us in and scare us to death. Curry may not have invented the killer clown, but his iconic Pennywise remains one of the horror’s most terrifying creatures. It’s a microcosm of Curry’s talent for reeling us in then tearing us to shreds.

Though Curry did not invent the sinister clown, he is the quintessential example of the trope and still one of the scariest characters in the history of horror. 

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The Lovecraftian tale was also featured in King’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

“Crouch End” will be a six-part limited series at Prime Video.

“London never sleeps deeply, and its dreams are uneasy. When global movie star Doris Freeman bursts into a London police station claiming that strange phenomena are behind the disappearance of her husband, police inspector Ted Vetter must investigate whether she’s telling the truth, whether she could be a murderer, or whether there’s something even more chilling at play.”

Variety notes in today’s report that Prime Video’s “Crouch End” is being adapted by Paul Tomalin (“Bodies”) and directed by Tom Shankland (“Berlin Noir,” “The Serpent”).

“Stephen King is one of the defining storytellers of our time, and we’re thrilled to bring his Lovecraftian tale to life in London with Crouch End,” said Nicole Clemens, VP of International Originals at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. “Paul Tomalin brings a singular, character-driven vision to the series and, paired with Tom Shankland at the helm, plus the first-class production teams at Mammoth Screen and Fifth Season, this show will grip audiences worldwide with its visceral crime thriller and supernatural mystery.”

Paul Tomalin said, “After reading Crouch End some years back, Stephen King’s vivid prose has haunted my nightmares ever since. Having the honour to adapt it with the incredible team at Mammoth, Fifth Season and Amazon alongside director Tom Shankland is a dream come true. I couldn’t be more excited to bring this thrilling tale to the screen.”

Director Tom Shankland adds, “I’ve been a Stephen King super-fan forever. The chance to work with this great team and bring his utterly brilliant London mystery to life is beyond exciting — Crouch End will be cinematic, original and thought-provoking in equal measure.”

This won’t be the first time Stephen King’s “Crouch End” has been adapted for the screen. Back in 2006, it was adapted for the small screen for the series Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

The late Tim Curry narrated the audio book version of King’s terror tale.

Bloody Disgusting’s Jenn Adams recently selected “Crouch End” as one of the 13 Stephen King short stories every fan should read. She wrote, “King ventures into Lovecraftian Lore with Crouch End, a deeply unsettling story of an American couple on a doomed trip to London. Having lost their way, they wander down the wrong street and possibly into another dimension filled with hideous monsters and sinister approximations of city life. Set in a real district of London, the story was inspired by King’s trip to the UK to visit collaborator and friend Peter Straub. King resists the urge to fully reveal Crouch End’s mysteries, creating another haunting example of less-is-more horror.”

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While MGM+ hasn’t revealed an exact premiere date yet, season two will include eight episodes. 

In season one, “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.”

Season two will pick up after the season one finale, in which the survivors discovered similar facilities all over the world. 

“Set free but hunted, new dangers await the escapees from the Institute, and I can’t wait,” said Stephen King of the renewal.

The series hails from director/executive producer Jack Bender (From, Mr. Mercedes), writer/executive producer Benjamin Cavell (Justified, The Stand), and MGM+ Studios. Both filmmakers are no strangers to the world of Stephen King.

Mary-Louise Parker (Ms. Sigsby), Ben Barnes (Tim Jamieson), Joe Freeman (Luke Ellis), Simone Miller (Kalisha), Fionn Laird (Nick), Hannah Galway (Wendy), Julian Richings (Stackhouse), Robert Joy (Dr. Hendricks), and Martin Roach (Chief Ashworth) star, with Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones,” The Predator) joining the second season.

Get a peek at Allen, Barnes, and Parker in the first batch of images below.

The post ‘The Institute’ Season 2 First Images Tease The Next Chapter Of Stephen King’s Horror Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Sam Raimi will produce the upcoming Desperation movie, while Stein and Lipovsky are on board to direct. Searchlight Pictures is the studio attached to the feature film project.

Published in 1996, Stephen King’s novel Desperation was previously turned into a made-for-TV movie starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt and Steven Weber back in 2006.

Wikipedia reminds, “Desperation is a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation. Entragian uses various pretexts for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to ‘rescuing’ a family from a nonexistent gunman. It becomes clear to the captives that Entragian has been possessed by an evil being named Tak, who has control over the surrounding desert wildlife and must change hosts to keep itself alive.

“They begin to fight for their freedom, sanity and lives before realizing that if they are ever to escape Desperation, they must trap Tak in the place from which he came.”

Desperation was published at the same time as Stephen King’s own “mirror novel” titled The Regulators, which shares characters but takes place in an alternate universe.

The union of Sam Raimi and Stephen King is an exciting one for fans of both Raimi and King, and there’s a nice bit of full circle history there too. As you may recall, it was Stephen King’s review of The Evil Dead that Raimi credits for saving and legitimizing his indie debut feature.

And the rest is history! Stay tuned for more on this developing story.

The post ‘Desperation’ – Sam Raimi and ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Directors Teaming for Stephen King Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Cosm and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced IT as Cosm’s next experiential cinema title. The New Line Cinema horror film based on Stephen King’s bestselling novel marks Cosm’s first-ever horror experience and will debut at Cosm venues on August 28, 2026!

The highest-grossing horror film of all time, IT (2017) captured audiences worldwide. Nearly a decade later, the classic film will captivate audiences once again and introduce an entirely new category of experiential horror thanks to a production collaboration between Cosm, Warner Bros. Pictures, Little Cinema, Double Dream (founded by IT filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti), and New Line Cinema (a label of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group).

The company previews, “Leveraging Cosm’s 87-foot-diameter, 12K+ LED domes and proprietary fulldome production technology, guests will be transported into the eerie woods, haunted sewers, and shadowy corners of Derry, Maine. Intensified sound design and dynamic environments will supplement the film beyond its original format, helping Cosm redefine the jump scare as guests come face-to-face with the haunting Pennywise.”

“Over the past year, we’ve seen experiential cinema in Shared Reality bring to life a fresh, exciting way for fans to interact with – and enter the worlds of – their favorite films,” said Alexis Scalice, Vice President of Business Development and Entertainment at Cosm. “Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Double Dream, and Little Cinema have all been incredible partners to help deliver IT as Cosm’s fourth film in Shared Reality.

“Together, we are taking horror beyond the frame, creating an immersive experience to deliver thrills unlike anything fans have experienced before.”

“After the incredible audience response to our previous Shared Reality presentations, we’re excited to continue this ongoing collaboration with Cosm and Little Cinema by bringing IT to this immersive format,” said Jeff Goldstein, President of Global Distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures. “Each project has pushed the boundaries of how audiences experience these iconic films, and IT offers a uniquely thrilling opportunity to further that vision – delivering a bold, sensory-rich way to engage with one of the most memorable New Line titles in the Warner Bros. Library.”

“Each title we’ve brought to Shared Reality together has taught us something new about how stories can wrap around an audience,” added Jay Rinsky, Chief Creative Officer at Little Cinema. “IT teaches us fear, and we’re treating every shadow, every silence, and every red balloon as a chance to invent something the medium hasn’t seen yet. It’s been a privilege to evolve this format alongside entertainment pioneers such as Cosm, Warner Bros., and Double Dream.”

Cosm’s growing portfolio of Hollywood and Blockbuster IP provides Cosm guests across the world with a year-round slate of experiential cinema programming. IT will premiere at Cosm Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta on August 28, 2026, and will debut at Cosm Detroit at a later date.

Learn more on Cosm’s official website and stay tuned for additional details.

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Carrie follows a high school misfit who seeks revenge for a hideous prank by psychically destroying her senior prom. The name Carrie White has become synonymous with the concept of a formal dance thanks to a flawless adaptation from Brian De Palma. Now fifty years after the film’s release, Mike Flanagan is putting his own stamp on the troubling story.

Rather than a feature film, the writer/director will expand King’s relatively slim debut novel into an eight-episode miniseries for Amazon Prime set to premiere on October 7.

Flanagan is no stranger to the world of Stephen King. A long-time Constant Reader, he first made waves with his daring adaptation of Gerald’s Game (2017), a novel many fans considered un-filmable. His underrated Doctor Sleep merges the disparate plot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with King’s original source material, and his 2024 genre-bending tearjerker The Life of Chuck faithfully executes one of the author’s most metaphysical novellas.

He’s currently mired in pre-production for an expansive adaptation of The Dark Tower series, keystone to King’s connected universe, and Warner Bros. recently announced that Flanagan will helm a new version of The Mist, King’s 1980 novella which sees a small Maine town overrun by otherworldly monsters. 

Considering the vast array of the author’s previously unadapted material, an obvious question arises. Why reimagine Carrie in 2026? Noting the timeless nature of the content, Flanagan expressed his desire to bring the story of a bullied girl into modern times, mirroring his approach to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. He explained, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”

His miniseries will maintain the novel’s bloody bookends while delivering “big surprises” along the way. 

A New Prom Night Nightmare

The roughly 60-second teaser introduces Summer H. Howell as Carrie White just before the moment of catastrophe. Standing in a prom dress, she smiles at her applauding classmates with an ominous crown perched upon her head. Moments later, Carrie unleashes a rage-filled scream into the night air while promgoers rush for the exit doors. But careful examination of this scene shows Carrie wearing a different, albeit dirty dress as she seems to telekinetically punish her peers. 

In an exclusive first look with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan explains that in his version of the story, “the events of that prom are going to be completely different.” An open trunk emitting a crimson glow does hint at the pig’s blood dumped on Carrie’s head, but it’s likely Flanagan’s formal dance will be a different kind of horror altogether. Despite these changes, the series may end with the widespread destruction outlined in the source material. Unlike any previous adaptations, King’s novel ends with the near-total destruction of Chamberlain, Maine. A flaming street in Flanagan’s trailer promises similar carnage no matter what prank sparks Carrie’s deadly revenge. 

The Monstrous Addition of Social Media

On the opposite end of this fiery conclusion is an extreme act of bullying that brings together the story’s main cast. King’s novel begins as Carrie gets her first period while showering in the girls’ locker room. Completely unaware of the concept of menstruation, the sheltered girl thinks she’s bleeding to death. Her classmates respond with vitriolic rage. Led by ultra-mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), they mock the terrified teen while pelting her with tampons. Glimpses of this disturbing event reveal that Flanagan has excised the scene’s nudity while adding a seismic update. As Carrie sobs in the shower stall, Chris and her friends film the breakdown with their phones.

Other scenes note the presence of social media, bringing King’s fifty-year-old story into the digital age. 

Flanagan’s adaptation promises to explore the destructive power of social media, an often invisible entity with a potential for harm rivaling Carrie’s own powers. While King’s tormented heroine suffers in front of a small group of girls, Flanagan’s version of the incident will likely become a viral video, potentially circling the globe on social media. Similar to Katt Shea’s criminally underrated The Rage: Carrie 2, which includes elements of revenge porn exploitation, Flanagan’s modern retelling will distinguish itself by exploring the nebulous cruelty of online bullying, a force ten times more powerful than the irl pranks King first envisioned. 

A Completely Reimagined White Family

In addition to modernizing these canon events, Flanagan hints at updates to Carrie’s oppressive upbringing at the hands of her mother, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan). Dead before the novel begins, we never meet Carrie’s domineering father Ralph, known to carry a bible alongside his gun. Flanagan’s White household will be an altogether different beast. In his version of the story, Carrie and her mother have been hidden away in the unassuming home, forced out of hiding by Ralph’s unexpected death. Perhaps we will finally meet this elusive man whose shadow hangs over his wife and child. Considering the White family’s fundamentalist lifestyle, this reimagining hints at tradwife culture and a home ruled by staunch patriarchal control.

Whereas King’s Carrie has been tormented by her classmates since Kindergarten, Flanagan’s Carrie will be a wide-eyed newcomer to public school, eager to make friends and engage with her peers. We glimpse Carrie cozying up to Chris and the equally popular Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) as she navigates a new social scene. Of course, we know this kindness is part of an elaborate plot designed to lull Carrie into a false sense of camaraderie, setting up an atrocious act of public humiliation. These brief moments of feigned compassion put Sue’s own complicity into question. Will Flanagan’s version of the character find the courage to defend Carrie from vicious bullies or will she succumb to peer pressure and join in the mob mentality? 

Perhaps the biggest deviation from King’s original text is the relationship between Carrie and her mother. King’s Margaret White is a horrifically abusive religious zealot whose worldview has been hardened by internalized misogyny. She shames Carrie for menstruating, locks her in a closet to “pray,” and regrets not killing her child in infancy. She’s also responsible for Carrie’s social ostracization. Known to berate her neighbors for their “sins,” Margaret forces her daughter to live by an extreme code of conduct and disallows any potential friends lest they corrupt the girl with their worldly ways.

Flanagan’s version of the character is perhaps just as much a victim as Carrie herself. Also trapped inside her home, his Margaret is overly vigilant, her own trauma manifesting as strict control. Describing a more sympathetic depiction of the iconic villain, Flanagan explains, “Our Margaret White is a woman who fiercely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from this world … [She] doesn’t know how to do that and thinks the way to protect her is to close her off; not punitively, but to create this private utopia.”

Despite this potential softening, Sloyan’s Margaret may still have a sharp edge. Though she has appeared in many Flanagan projects, from Hush (2016) to The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), she is best known for her role as the abhorrent Bev Keane in the poignant saga Midnight Mass (2021). Perhaps inspired by King’s Margaret White, Bev is pious and sadistic, willing to punish anyone who does not adhere to her warped approximation of Catholicism.

Flanagan specifically wrote Margaret with Sloyan in mind, likely remembering the actress’s eerie ability to create deceptive empathy and shift our allegiances on a dime.   

Expanding Stephen King’s Telekinetic Universe

While most of King’s story deals with an unthinkable prom night in Chamberlain, Maine, large sections of the semi-epistolary novel see experts debating the nature of telekinesis. Do Carrie’s frightening abilities represent a new phase in human evolution or is the prom night carnage merely a fluke? King settles the debate with a shocking denouement in which a young mother recounts her infant daughter’s ability to dangle her crib toys in midair. We’re left to wonder if she will become another tormented girl who surprises the world with metaphysical strength. 

Flanagan plans to build out this brief scene while amplifying themes of female empowerment. After introducing our main cast of characters, episode two will open with an unrelated story in which we meet another girl with the TK gene. Each subsequent chapter will expand this world, building out a roster of telekinetic young women. Considering King’s fondness for stories about powerful kids, often described as possessing “the shining,” Constant Readers will no doubt have their eyes peeled for various Easter Eggs nodding to the author’s vast catalogue. 

Giving Carrie Her Own Voice

Perhaps the most striking distinction in Flanagan’s new trailer is the extent to which we hear Carrie’s voice. The sneak peek is fully narrated by the titular prom queen as she demands accountability. “I want to know why,” she explains while detailing Chris’ elaborate plan. Aside from the aforementioned coda, King’s book essentially ends with the aftermath of the prom night tragedy, leaving little time for Carrie to reflect. His shifting narrative does bring the reader into her fragile mind, though not before she’s been cowed by relentless cruelty. We watch Carrie sink into bloodthirsty revenge, but never hear a considered desire for justice or repair. 

Flanagan’s original monologue allows Carrie to voice her pain and mourn the life she could have had. We’re also treated to a mug shot-style photo of Chris with a bruised and bandaged face, implying that the mean girl will have to answer for her senseless sadism.

Flanagan is known for filling his series adaptations with heartwrenching speeches that cut to the heart of his thematic intentions, and this teaser seems to follow suit. After years of fans, critics, and scholars analyzing Carrie’s pain, perhaps his modern retelling will offer the titular anti-hero a chance to finally speak for herself. 

The post What Mike Flanagan’s ‘Carrie’ Teaser Reveals About His Bold New Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)

Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.

Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).

Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.

Cross out Dreamcatcher!

Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 513 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (aka Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch), and the conclusion of our coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat on the Requel Tier.

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Along with the new teaser comes the announcement that the eight-episode limited series premieres on Prime Video on October 7.

The series follows misfit high‑schooler Carrie White (Summer H. Howell), who has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.

Carrie is written and executive produced by showrunner Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House) with Flanagan also directing four episodes.

Stephen King also serves as executive producer. 

Also starring in the series are Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, Josie Tota as Tina, Arthur Conti as Billy, Thalia Dudek as Emaline, Amber Midthunder as Miss Desjardin, and Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle.

Each of the show’s episodes will apparently open with the introduction of “a different, unique story of a different woman, somewhere else in the world and in time, coming to terms with their own abilities.” Flanagan teased, “Carrie’s specific place among that group of women is part of the real joy that we get to discover over the course of the season.”

Expect Flanagan to expand King’s story in unexpected ways, using a modern lens. 

Also check out the new poster below, giving a peek at Carrie in her prom queen tiara.

The post ‘Carrie’ Seeks Friends in First Teaser for Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King Series for Prime Video appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

If you recall, the Losers are counting down Stephen King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best in 2026. Before July bleeds into August, the Losers dance right into the roaring ’20s with some lengthy discussions on some of King’s angriest and most surrealistic works.

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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Entertainment Weekly is previewing the upcoming series this morning with a handful of first look images that introduce us to Summer H. Howell’s Carrie White and more.

Mike Flanagan explains to Entertainment Weekly, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”

“The themes that Steve was talking about half a century ago of kindness versus cruelty, of empathy and bullying, and violence at school have become even more relevant today than he could have contemplated because of our relationship to technology and the degree to which violence encroaches on our high schoolers, especially in the United States,” Flanagan adds. “We had an opportunity to tell a story about a modern teenage experience that could use the seeds of these characters King created 50 years ago, but express them completely differently.”

Of particular note, Mike Flanagan teases in his chat with Entertainment Weekly that the series will spotlight additional characters who have their own telekinetic abilities.

Each of the show’s episodes will apparently open with the introduction of “a different, unique story of a different woman, somewhere else in the world and in time, coming to terms with their own abilities.” Flanagan teases, “Carrie’s specific place among that group of women is part of the real joy that we get to discover over the course of the season.”

The eight-episode limited series is expected to premiere on Prime Video this Fall.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Misfit high‑schooler Carrie White (Summer Howell) has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan). After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.”

Mike Flanagan serves as writer and showrunner in addition to directing four episodes of the eight-part series. Amazon MGM Studios produces. Stephen King executive produces.

“Carrie” stars Summer Howell as Carrie White, with Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, Josie Tota as Tina, Arthur Conti as Billy, Thalia Dudek as Emaline, Amber Midthunder as Miss Desjardin, and Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle.

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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.

The post Here’s Johnny! 5 Unexpected Homages to ‘The Shining’ in Non-Horror Media appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

If you recall, the Losers are counting down Stephen King’s published novels — specifically, novels (no collections) — from worst to best in 2026. To cap off June, they crack into the 30s with some rough choices surrounding some of King’s most fantastical works and a sequel that’s as divisive as always with this group.

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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To blow off steam, the Losers hit the road to visit all the towns in Stephen King’s Dominion. Derry, Castle Rock, Ludlow, Boulder, the list goes on. They’ve got miles to drive and so many (scary) sights to see. At the end of the day, though, they have to ask themselves: Which one’s the best? And, more importantly, what does “best” mean in this context?

Stream the episode below. PayDays and Nozz-a-La, optional. 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 Summer Road Trip – What’s the Best Town to Visit? [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The unrivaled Master of Horror made a splash in 1974 with his debut novel Carrie and has been terrifying readers ever since. Two years later, Brian De Palma brought this shocking story to the screen with an equally electrifying horror film that remains a genre classic and a prototypical example of “Good For Her” horror. This dual debut seemed to open the floodgates, unleashing endless waves of Stephen King films.

From the highs of Misery, Cujo, and The Shawshank Redemption to the schlocky fun of Cat’s Eye, Creepshow, and Children of the Corn, the last five decades have seen just about every notable horror creator take a stab at the author’s massive collection. 

In recent years, this singular subgenre has begun to burst at the seams, expanding to include Stephen King-esque fare. In 2016, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer debuted Stranger Things, a sci-fi series heavily inspired by two of King’s most famous books. The Netflix series remixes Firestarter and It by following a little girl with psychic powers and an intrepid group of kids on bikes who must battle an otherworldly foe and a sinister government agency. With its clever blend of modern effects and comforting nostalgia, this gateway horror series paved the way for Andy Muschietti’s It adaptation which remains the highest grossing horror film of all time. 

Four years later, Mike Flanagan would create Midnight Mass, a spiritual adaptation of King’s second novel Salem’s Lot. Published in 1975, the book sees a tiny New England town torn apart by a centuries-old vampire. Though Flanagan’s story is perhaps more tender, both iterations of the classic horror tale follow close-knit communities shaken to their core by the presence of an  ancient evil. 

In addition to these recent hits, 2025 was a banner year for the Master of Horror. Audiences delighted in six mainstream adaptations, including the massively popular It: Welcome to Derry which chronicles earlier cycles of the titular clown’s reign. With this boost to King’s cultural cache, it’s no surprise that we’ve begun to see more unofficial adaptations of the author’s work and horror creators who build their own unique castles in King’s creative sandbox. 

So what defines a Stephen King-esque story?

For the past fifty years, the prolific author has dipped his toes in nearly every subgenre from supernatural stories and grisly gore to western fantasy and science fiction. Including his vast catalogue of short fiction, King has tackled ghosts, demons, werewolves, zombies, aliens, mutants, and self-driving cars, not to mention bizarre monsters of his own creation. But what truly unites this vast array of horror is King’s focus on relatable characters. In his 2000 memoir/instructional text On Writing, the prolific author describes the amusement he finds in writing disparate characters, placing them in horrific scenarios, then exploring the ways they try to survive.

An unofficial Stephen King adaptation may take place in the author’s native New England — bonus points if it’s set in Maine — and reference his well-known heroes and villains. But what makes the King connection unbreakable is a character-driven story about average people who band together in the face of abject terror. 

Weapons Captures Small Town Stephen King

Following his 2022 shocker Barbarian, Zach Cregger returned with Weapons, a sprawling story that begins in a doomed elementary school. On an otherwise ordinary day, Justine (Julia Garner) arrives at her desk to find that all but one of her students have disappeared. As the mystery grows increasingly violent, Justine and Archer (Josh Brolin), the father of a missing boy, find their way to the home of Alex (Cary Christopher), the class’ only surviving student. In some ways reminiscent of Salem’s Lot, Weapons swings wildly through the unfortunate town, introducing us to its flawed inhabitants as we watch their lives fall apart.  

Cregger’s setup nods to a pair of King short stories. Both “Suffer the Little Children” and “Here There Be Tygers” tackle monstrous presences in elementary schools, but as Weapons reaches its final act, Constant Readers may remember another Stephen King tale. Featured in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew, “Gramma” introduces us to George, a little boy tormented by an aging witch. On an afternoon alone with his sickly grandmother, the frightened child gradually realizes that the imposing old woman has been waiting for an opportunity to cast a spell that will extend her own life by possessing his body.  

Alex finds himself similarly tortured by his aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), a garish witch who orchestrates a desperate plot to sustain her own strength. Transforming humans into mindless weapons, Gladys has taken over Alex’s family home and lured his classmates to the basement. Holding them in a comatose state, she syphons off their energy to extend her own supernatural life.

Vastly different in many ways, both “Gramma” and Weapons hinge on a sinister witch who uses horrific magical spells to sacrifice the bodies of her vulnerable prey. 

Hokum Echoes The Shining and 1408

It’s nearly impossible to watch a film about a haunted hotel without thinking of King’s third novel, The Shining. This icy story follows Jack Torrance, an angry writer struggling with his sobriety and a shameful incident haunting his past. Accompanied by his wife and young son, Jack has taken a job as the winter caretaker for the Overlook, a haunted hotel situated high in the Rocky Mountains. Snowed in, Jack finds himself tormented by dangerous ghosts who amplify his greatest fears. 

Damian McCarthy’s Hokum follows a similarly troubled figure. Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a surly writer who travels to the Bilberry Woods Hotel in rural Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes. Haunted by his own tragic past, Ohm finds himself trapped in the honeymoon suite, a decaying room that’s been permanently closed to protect visitors from a dangerous witch trapped within its walls. Visual nods to King’s text abound with woodcut figurines and an animated clock, mirroring ominous descriptions found in King’s text. 

Another terrifying sequence sees Ohm staring with horror at a closed door, the only thing separating him from the approaching witch. As the door knob slowly turns, Constant Readers remember Jack’s narrow escape from the ghostly woman in room 217. And Ohm’s popular Conquistador books directly reference King’s long-running fantasy series The Dark Tower which follows a gunslinger named Roland Deschain tasked with protecting the nexus of the universe. 

In addition to these thematic comparisons, Hokum bears striking resemblance to King’s terrifying short story “1408.” Collected in 2002’s Everything’s Eventual, the terrifying story follows Mike Enslin, a dejected writer who’s risen to fame penning essays about his adventures in haunted locations. Mike arrives at the Hotel Dolphin and bullies his way into the titular room, despite the manager’s dire warnings. McCarthy nods to this story with an ominously misplaced hotel room door, reminiscent of King’s entry to 1408, an unsuspecting portal that appears to move each time Mike looks away. 

However, McCarthy’s most direct reference lies in a minicorder Ohm uses to capture notes. Trapped inside the dreaded honeymoon suite, this device offers well-timed messages while sitting next to a decomposing corpse. Mike records his time in 1408 with his own trusty minicorder. Described for the reader, his tape has captured the man’s slow descent into madness as the room prepares to swallow him whole. With conclusions that differ wildly in tone, both Ohm and Mike find their lives irrevocably changed by encounters with the supernatural realm. 

Widow’s Bay Builds Its Own Version of Castle Rock

Katie Dippold’s Widow’s Bay has taken the idea of an unofficial King adaptation and turned it into an art form. The Apple TV series sees the residents of the titular island plagued by a curse that dates back centuries. Not only does the picturesque hamlet not accommodate wifi connections, those born on the island face certain death should they ever try to leave. Desperate to modernize the tiny town, Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) draws in waves of tourists just as a new cycle of terror begins. 

Blending horror with deft comedy, Dippold makes cheeky references to King’s body of work. Tom warns that, “there’s something in the fog,” reminding readers of King’s 1980 novella The Mist. And Loftis’ own stay in the town’s haunted hotel sees him tormented by the ghost of a murderous clown. We even spy a vintage King hardback peeking out of a local book trade box.

In many ways Widow’s Bay feels like a new iteration of the author’s Little Tall Island, a tiny village off the coast of Maine. In addition to the 1992 novel Dolores Claiborne and a handful of harrowing short stories, this quaint fishing village is also the setting for King’s 1999 teleplay Storm of the Century. Premiering on ABC primetime, this tragic tale follows a terrified group of islanders who batten down the hatches for a dangerous Nor’easter only to find a more sinister threat lurking within. 

Constant Readers may also be reminded of Castle Rock, the author’s favorite fictional town.

First introduced in the 1981 novel Cujo, the charming village becomes the star of Needful Things, King’s satire about consumerism. After several Castle Rock stories, we’re reintroduced to its residents as they gossip about the arrival of Leland Gaunt and the grand opening of his curio shop. Anything their hearts desire can be found in his varied inventory, so long as they’re willing to pay the price. Pitting cantankerous neighbors against each other, Gaunt ignites a wave of grisly violence by exploiting long-held resentments and feuds. 

The town’s only defense against this supernatural threat is beleaguered sheriff Alan Pangborn. Still grieving the deaths of his wife and younger son, Alan struggles to connect with his older child and pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Also a widower, Loftis struggles to raise his own restless son and explain the strange details of his wife’s tragic death. Attempting to unravel the island’s dark secrets, Tom is aided by quirky residents including a surly fisherman named Wyck (Stephen Root) and Patricia (Kate O’Flynn), an earnest Town Hall employee. King’s own novels feature many of these proactive alliances with disparate characters combining their strengths to overcome insurmountable odds. 

With Widow’s Bay renewed for a second season and Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series on the horizon, the future seems bright for new King adaptations, both spiritual and directly pulled from his catalogue. The prolific author also shows no signs of slowing down with two publications nearing release. His upcoming novel, Other Worlds Than These, is the long-awaited third Talisman book which teases direct ties to his Dark Tower world. Holly Forever will be a new installment of his crime series, offering a different kind of genre fare.

This embarrassment of riches spawning multiple worlds seems ripe for spiritual adaptation and will likely inspire horror creators for decades to come.

The post How ‘Weapons’, ‘Hokum’, and ‘Widow’s Bay’ Continue Stephen King’s Horror Legacy appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Ben Young, who broke out with the ultra-bleak horror movie Hounds of Love, is attached to helm the short story adaptation from King’s 2015 collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Deadline reports.

The story follows “Ollie Franklin, a charismatic resident of an assisted living facility who begins experiencing disturbing visions after the death of a fellow resident. As the line between memory, regret, and the supernatural begins to blur, Ollie is forced to confront long-buried secrets from his past before time finally catches up with him.”

Young adapts the screenplay with writer Troy Abruzzise.

“Stephen King was one of the first authors I ever read religiously, so getting to work on something that came from his imagination is a genuine honour,” Young told Deadline. “What I love about Mister Yummy is that the horror is inseparable from the humanity. It’s creepy, moving, character-driven, and exactly the kind of movie I’d line up to see. It’s also the first feature I’ll direct that I’ve also written on since Hounds of Love, so helping shape the script into the kind of Stephen King film I’d want to experience myself has been a real joy.”

Producers include Aimee Schoof, Isen Robbins, and Megan Freels Johnston of Intrinsic Value Films (Tesla, Experimenter), along with Josh Kesselman (Devil’s Peak, The Great), and Thomas Mahoney of Handsome Watson (Wild Indian, Brian).

Mister Yummy joins upcoming King adaptations “Carrie,” The Stand, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Rat, Autopsy Room Four, and Cujo.

The post Stephen King’s ‘Mister Yummy’ Adaptation On The Way From ‘Hounds of Love’ Director 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. 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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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

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

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

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!.

So, in this special episode, we hear from the maestros behind that makeover magic: Julianne Clancy, Senior Director of Marketing at Vintage Books; Mark Abrams, Art Director at Vintage Books; and legendary artist Ghoulish Gary Pullin. Together, they share the process of reinventing iconic covers for a new era, the timeless influence of horror, and why reading is back, baby.

Killer conversation with a killer ka-tet. Stream the episode below and be sure to pick up your own collection from Vintage Books from your local bookstore or straight from the publisher!

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 Unboxing Vintage Books’ Stephen King Collection [The Losers’ Club Podcast] 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.

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

The post ‘Monsters in the Archives’ Review – An Essential Volume for Stephen King Fans appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post ‘Michael Jackson’s Ghosts’: The King of Pop’s Overlooked Collaboration With Stephen King appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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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The post Caroline Bicks on ‘Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King’ [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post Patton Oswalt to Narrate Stephen King & Peter Straub’s ‘Other Worlds Than These’ Audiobook appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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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The post ‘Sometimes They Come Back’ at 35: Stephen King’s Short Story Came Back Sentimental (Not a Bad Thing) [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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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The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #58-53 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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

The post Stephen King News Roundup: On ‘Other Worlds Than These’, John Mellencamp, ‘The Mist’, and More [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post Listen to ‘Stand By Me’ Star Wil Wheaton Narrate Stephen King’s ‘The Body’ Audiobook [Exclusive Excerpt] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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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The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #66-59 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post ‘Stand By Me’ Returns to Theaters in March for 40th Anniversary appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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

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

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

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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The post All the Stephen King Adaptations Currently in Development from ‘Carrie’ to ‘Rat’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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!.