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…

The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #28-23 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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. 

The post Tim Curry’s Pennywise Is The Reason Clowns Still Scare Us appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.”

The post ‘Crouch End’ – Stephen King’s Cthulhu Mythos Short Story Getting Prime Video Series Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post Cosm Turns Stephen King’s ‘IT’ into World’s First Horror Experience in Shared Reality appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post The Flatulent Foreigners of Stephen King’s ‘Dreamcatcher’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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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Missed the first five episodes? Catch up below!

The post The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking: #34-29 [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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.

The post ‘Carrie’ First Look Images Preview Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King Series for Prime Video appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.  

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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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Missed the first two episodes? Catch up below!

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Behold, The Definitive Stephen King Book Ranking!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carrie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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