Description
Book SynopsisFrom 1976 to the present day, there have been over 45 films adapted from the spine-tingling works of Stephen King. In Stephen King on the Big Screen, Mark Browning addresses the question of why some of the film adaptations of the world’s best-selling author are much more successful than others.By focussing on the theoretical aspect of genre, Browning brings an original approach to familiar films and suggests new ways of viewing them. Although often associated with the macabre, King’s stories form the basis for dozens of narratives, which are clearly not horror from Stand By Me to Hearts in Atlantis. How are The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption successful as prison movies? How do Cujo and The Shining work as family dramas? Are Dreamcatcher and Christine merely updated 1950s B-movies? The book is the first written by a film specialist to consider every Stephen King film given a theatrical release, including work by Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg and George A. Romero and the first to consider in detail films like Creepshow, Sleepwalkers and 1408. The style, whilst critically rigorous, is designed to be accessible to discerning readers of King and fans of films based on his work.
Trade Review'Stephen King was among the first generation of horror writers to be overtly influenced by cinematic horror as well as literary, so it's hardly surprising that he is the most widely adapted horror novelist there is. These adaptations are, as Mark Browning observes in this excellent work, very hit-and-miss. Indeed, a great plus of this book is its blatant non-fanboyism. It is a meticulously critical work; scholarly but not pretentious, giving both praise and scorn where it's due, and acknowledging the greatnesses and flaws of the films as adaptations, suggesting some interesting viewing strategies along the way. Films are divided into theme, e.g. prison movies, rite of passage, telekinesis etc., and analysed from various intelligent positions. An excellent study of why adaptations work/fail, and for any King fan it's definitive.' - Andrew McQuade, Gorezone 'Browning is very conversant with film and its associated genres [...] Browning's purpose is praiseworthy because it does fill in an obvious gap in the research done on King and his literary texts and their filmic adaptations [...] the author is able to make connections [...] with a variety of texts and films.' - Edmund P. Cueva, Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies
Table of Contents'Mind Over Matter: Telekinesis' - Mark Browning 'Tales from the Darkside: The Portmanteau film' - Mark Browning 'Sometimes Dead is Better: The Body Under the Sheet' - Mark Browning 'Boys to Men: Rites-of-Passage' - Mark Browning 'The Rise of the Machines: 1950s Science-Fiction B-Movie' - Mark Browning 'The Great Escape: Prison Drama' - Mark Browning 'Books of Blood: The Writer' - Mark Browning 'The Terror of Everyday Life and Final Girls' - Mark Browning
