From inking out a living as a laundromat manager (before his wife Tabitha dug Carrie out of the trash and convinced him to “keep trying”) to now having penned 65 novels/novellas and over 200 short stories that have sold over 400 million copies worldwide throughout his illustrious 50-year career, Stephen King stands as one of the most profound and provocative storytellers of our time, much as Poe and Lovecraft were hailed during theirs.
However, not all of King’s stories have had success, some floooating down sewage drains within the literary and/or cinematic world, others failing to even reach the hands of publishers and/or producers and somehow fading into The Mist. There are definitely an array of reasons as to why some of the King of Horror’s work had never blossomed or straight out bombed – money-hungry studio execs wanting things their way, for instance, or a novel just not “flying” (to say it nicely). Or, simply put, King himself having gone through dark periods in his life and dealing with his own monsters and madness.
Whatever the case, let us examine a handful of King’s earlier works that were never fully appreciated or tales that fell flat in either book or movie form, and explore the potential impact these stories can still have if they were ever given screen debuts or re-do’s.
Rose Madder (Debut)
Published right smack in the middle of his half century-old career in 1995, King’s horror-fantasy Rose Madder had never quite reached the same heights of his other works, remaining an obscure novel and shelved right there with the lesser knowns The Regulators, From A Buick 8 and The Tommyknockers.
Madder is a disturbing, gritty tale of a 30-something woman named Rosie imprisoned in a 14-year volatile, violent marriage. After losing her unborn child from an “accident” caused by her abusive husband, Norman, Rosie escapes from him and starts a new life in a city miles and miles away. It isn’t long, however, until Norman, a police detective, tracks her down, and so Rosie must find a place other than our world for help – a strange mythical realm via the portal of a painting.
Rose Madder is lavished and laced with King’s trademark descriptions and in-depth characterization, however, it is played out as more of an exhausting sob story rather than a horror novel, its post “pay off” dragging on and on and leaving the reader guessing where King is going with it. Moreover, the novel greatly expands on subjects we’ve seen countless times, including domestic violence, or the “escaping into another world through a painting” motif, and so it is clear to see why Madder never exited the realms of book pages and onto the big screen.
But sometimes, taking an “all too familiar”, yet heavily important topic (in this case, spousal abuse) and skillfully fleshing it out can be a good thing, King’s emphasis on domestic violence being quite bold and strong, as it is something that continues to affect homes today. A film adaptation of Madder would therefore make a firm, solid contribution in addressing and facing our world’s real monsters, and just as Rob Reiner struck a good balance between terror and drama with Misery, Madder, too, could capture that same blend.
Also, the story’s freaky monsters – a rampaging minotaur and a mysterious “woman in the painting” who becomes an unspeakable abomination – would sure be reeeally cool to see on screen!
Maximum Overdrive (Re-Do)
Rod Serling was once asked if he would ever consider being a director, to which the master storyteller humbly replied, “I couldn’t even direct traffic.” Stephen King should have made this same confession instead of taking the driver’s seat for Maximum Overdrive.
Written and directed by King, Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 sci-fi horror film that involves the Earth falling under a radiation storm from a passing comet, causing the planet’s machines to “come to life” and turn on its owners! An arcade video game console (totally 80’s) electrocuting its player, for instance, or a soda machine killing its customers by spitting frozen Coke cans at them at 90 mph. Or a massive truck with the Green Goblin’s head on its grille running over innocent humans – kinda like Christine on crack!
From corny dialogue to a flimsy storyline, Overdrive crashed and burned upon its release, mainly because its novice director was way in over his head, not to mention coked out of his mind throughout the entire production, as King later admitted. The movie’s vehicles weren’t the only ones in need for speed, apparently, the writer thankfully getting sober soon after the film’s wrap.
“It’s a wonderful moron picture,” King once said of his “wreck”. “It’s really illiterate in a lot of ways.”
To be fair, though, the main premise of Overdrive was and still is a genius idea, much like the famous creepy Twilight Zone episode, “A Thing About Machines”, in which a man’s TV set, radio, telephone and other household appliances all say to him in unison, “Get out of here, Finchley!” The concept of machines having minds of their own and wreaking havoc on people taps into our irrational fears, from the most complex gadgets to the simple, everyday devices (we may never look at our electric tooth brush the same again), and given the current rise of A.I. in this present age, perhaps we should be a little frightened!
If Overdrive were to be taken out for another spin and given an entirely different operator, perhaps it could deliver the maximum scare – in both a screen re-do and maybe a fresh first novel adaptation by King!
The Monkey (Debut)
A short story published in 1980 in Gallery magazine and later included in King’s 1985 anthology The Skeleton Crew, The Monkey centers on a small, mechanized toy chimp with cymbals and an ear-to-ear toothy grin, discovered one day by young Hal Shelburn. But the oblivious boy later learns that his newfound “toy” is actually a cursed object, causing impending doom to those close to him whenever the stuffed animal bangs its “cute” little cymbals.
Though simple, The Monkey is a well written eerie little piece, and while it’s a complete mystery as to why it never swung its way into film or TV (unless you count the “Jolly Chimp” antagonist in Toy Story 3), a screen debut of this frightening gem would be astounding!
Of course, The Monkey released in our present cinematic world would also meet obstacles, given the countless “dolls from hell” flicks that have been unboxed since the mini-ape’s first appearance decades ago, including the current Annabelle, M3gan, Imaginary, and lest we forget, Chucky, whom horror fans are all too familiar with.
However, perhaps doing the complete opposite from the conventional “spooky doll” thing and presenting a toy that does not talk and does not “come to life” (as is the case with the monkey, who only bangs cymbals and lets its curses do its deeds) just might work, if put into the right filmmaking hands.
Speaking of which, a screen debut for The Monkey is currently in development (it’s legit – not fake “fan news”), which will star Theo James (Divergent, The Gentlemen), with Oz Perkins (Gretel & Hansel, The Twilight Zone) as director and James Wan (Saw, Insidious) as producer. ‘Nuff said!
Cujo (Re-Do)
King’s 1981 award-winning novel, Cujo, is the tale (no pun, I swear) of a massive Saint Bernard bitten by a bat and becoming a rabid “thing” on four legs, terrorizing a rural town and thus playing on our primal fears of canines and the mere fact that a frothing dog running amok could actually happen! Like Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws, Cujo doesn’t just focus on the “monster”, but cleverly weaves in a drama involving a husband and wife struggling to stay together in the midst of a crisis.
The 1983 film adaptation of Cujo faired moderately successful, made during a mid-80’s King-craze in which scores of the best-selling author’s novels and novelettes were being sold like McDonald’s burgers to movie studios – Christine, Firestarter, Cat’s Eye, The Dead Zone and Children of the Corn, to name a few. And while some King adaptations in this era weren’t super terrible, this lineup had “$” branded all over them and therefore entailed a sort of lackluster staleness underneath their stylish veneer, Cujo included, unlike projects by acclaimed directors Brian De Palma (Carrie), Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) and Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, Misery) who carefully crafted their King babies.
So, why not a Cujo re-do that might surpass the mediocre original?
Yes, yes, I know – the mere mention of a Cujo remake sounds incredibly absurd to most, considering the barrage of idiotic “beasts-gone-wild” film flops throughout the decades. Not to mention a ridiculous remake attempt in 2015 titled “C.U.J.O.” that would have presented the scary pooch as a government lab mut. Cujo film star Dee Wallace also shakes her head at the idea of a re-do. “They’d want to do the dog in CGI, which the fans would not like.”
True, there are some films – classics, especially – that are best left untouched. But we have also seen horror remakes that have surprisingly “shined”. Examples include Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing, The Fly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and IT, each initially scoffed at and presumed pointless, yet were actually hits, preserving the basic “essence” that made the originals memorable – and refining them!
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