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Looking for the scariest Halloween movies? Stephen King, best known for his horror movies with a twisted tale, made a number of frightful movies, all of which are perfect for Halloween viewing. Here are three of Stephen King's finest.
The Shining (1980), written by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a psychological horror film. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an wannabe playwright and alcoholic on the wagon, saw the job as caretaker of The Overlook Hotel as a way to salvage his dysfunctional family. His wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son Danny, spend the winter in the Overlook, which was riddled with horrible and unexplained disturbances. The book and movie have plenty of King's real life drama intertwined, mixed in with a good dose of horror.
After writing Carrie and Salem's Lot, books that were based in his home state of Maine, King was looking for inspiration elsewhere. Story has it, that he opened an atlas of the US, pointed a finger and ended up in Boulder, Colorado, the backdrop for his next book, The Shining. King and his wife Tabitha were the only guests in The Stanley Hotel on October 30, 1974. The hotel was closing for the season, and would soon be shutting down. That night, in room 217 which is now said to be haunted, King had a dream in which his son was screaming down one of the hallways. He immediately woke up, and by the time he finished his cigarette, had the plot already set.
Carrie (1976) was Stephen King's first book (1974) to be published into a motion picture. His fourth book, it was written while he was living in a trailer in Maine, on a portable typewriter that belonged to his wife Tabitha. King was unhappy with the way things were going with the story, and threw the first three pages in the trash.
According to Wikipedia, "Tabitha fished the pages out of the trash and strongly encouraged him to finish it. He followed her advice and Carrie was born. King said, "I persisted because I was dry and had no better ideas… my considered opinion was that I had written the world's all-time loser." The book was dedicated to his wife, Tabitha: "This is for Tabby, who got me into it – and then bailed me out of it.'"
Directed by Brian De Palma, and starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie and John Travolta, Carrie went on to become one of King's most impressive works. Carrie (Sissy Spacek) was a tormented high school girl. When she couldn't take any more, she releases her rage upon her classmates. Carrie gradually discovers her telekinetic powers, which she unleashes at the prom – the scene that made the movie famous in the horror genre.
Pet Sematary, is a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King that was later made into a film in 1989, and directed by Mary Lambert. The book was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984. Starring Fred Gwynne (The Munsters), as the "kind" old man across the street, and Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the daughter, Pet Sematary was the story where pets that are buried in the "pet cemetery", come back to life, but not sweet and gentle the way they we buried. "The cursed burial ground deep in the woods brings the dead back to life -- with "minor" problems," says Netflix.
Sources: wikipedia; netflix
Written by Donna Diegel
Exclusive to HULIQ.com
Posted October 26th, 2009 by Donna Diegel
