The Rush loves Stephen King. You have to; he's the, ah, king of modern horror and then some -- a complex writer who can make real, human stories that can still terrify and fascinate, and still occasionally gross you out just for fun.
So we won’t blame Steve for this; we can't. But the fact is: you shouldn’t buy Stephen King Goes to the Movies. It’s a total rip-off.
Way back in the distant, spider-webbed past, Steve wrote a truly wonderful book about horror in film, in print, and on line (hmmm ... familiar ...)
Danse Macabre is, thankfully still in print, like damn near everything the man ever wrote. It remains a classic in the field, and well worth a reading or re-reading. And at first glance, it's easy to think that this new original paperback might be some kind of sequel to that wonderful book of essays; after all, it’s been 33 years.
But it ain’t. At all. It's really just PUBLISHER's excuse to put out a book of often-reprinted King short stories and novellas that served as the basis for some of his best and worst of his cinematic adaptations, each preceded by the teensiest, tiniest little commentaries from King. And not even very insightful commentaries, for that matter (for instance, we still don't get to find out what he thought of Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining, dammit.)
If you're a King fan, do yourself a favor: take five minutes, stand in your local bookstore, and read the measly few original words right then and there. You won't even have to find a place to sit. Then put it back and save your money, 'cause you have almost certainly read every single other word in this collection at least a couple of times before. There is very little to be gained here.
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