The Complete Stephen King Universe

by Stanley Wiater

  “CHILDREN OF THE CORN”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  BURT ROBESON: When a dead boy is thrown in front of his car on a Nebraska highway, Burt insists that he and his wife go to the nearest town in the middle of nowhere. There they are captured by the children of the corn, and sacrificed to their dark god.

  VICKY ROBESON: When the Robesons run over a dead boy on the highway, Vicky wants to backtrack to the last major town they had passed through, and leave the body there. Burt insists they go on. Like her husband, Vicky is crucified by the children of the corn and offered up as a sacrifice.

  HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS: The demonic presence worshipped by the children of the corn. It is presumed that he still walks behind the rows.

  “The Last Rung on the Ladder”

  Upon discovering that his sister, Kitty (Katrina), has killed herself, a man named Larry recalls the day, back during their childhood, when he saved his sister’s life. Now he feels a great deal of guilt for not having been there for her in the end.

  “The Man Who Loved Flowers”

  A serial murderer who uses a hammer as his weapon of choice buys flowers for a long-lost love and confuses his victims with that old flame. He presents the flowers to his victim before the murder. It is presumed he is still at large.

  “The Woman in the Room”

  A man assists in the suicide of his disease-ravaged mother in the Central Maine Hospital in Lewiston.

  [NOTE: The short stories “Jerusalem’s Lot,” “Graveyard Shift,” and “One for the Road” are discussed in the section on Jerusalem’s Lot and King’s Maine. “The Ledge” and “Quitters, Inc.” are discussed in the section entitled The World of Richard Bachman. The story “Night Surf” is addressed in the section entitled The Worlds of The Dark Tower and The Stand.]

  NIGHT SHIFT: ADAPTATIONS

  Night Shift has the distinction of having spawned more film and television projects than any other King collection to date.

  In 1983, Granite Entertainment produced a direct-to-video release containing two short films based on King’s work: “The Boogeyman” and “The Woman in the Room.” The video, entitled Stephen King’s Night Shift Collection, is perhaps most notable for the fact that the latter tale was adapted and directed by Frank Darabont, who would go on to adapt and direct both The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999).

  In 1984, actor Peter Horton (Thirtysomething) and Terminator star Linda Hamilton co-starred in the screen version of Children of the Corn, which has spawned countless (and increasingly only vaguely related) sequels.

  The 1985 feature film Cat’s Eye, directed by Lewis Teague, incorporated two tales from this collection: “Quitters, Inc.,” starring James Woods and Alan King, and “The Ledge,” featuring Airplane actor Robert Hays. (See the separate entry on this film, which was written by King.)

  The following year saw the release of Maximum Overdrive, thus far the only movie written and directed by Stephen King. He adapted the screenplay from his short story “Trucks.” The R-rated thriller featured Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle (Batman’s Commissioner Gordon), and Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons), and is not to be confused with the 1997 cable television version of Trucks, which headlined Timothy Busfield (Thirtysomething).

  In 1990, Paramount Pictures released Stephen King’s “Graveyard Shift,” based on the wild story of the same name and starring popular character actor Brad Dourif.

  The year 1991 brought the made-for-television version of Sometimes They Come Back, starring Tim Matheson and Brooke Adams. The release led to several direct-to-video sequels.

  And, lest we forget, the 1992 film The Lawnmower Man was named after—and purported to be based on—King’s short story of the same name. However, the sci-fi thriller shared so little with the original story that King successfully sued to have his name removed from the project. (Which still didn’t stop the producers from making a sequel, even without an official King connection to exploit.)

  NIGHT SHIFT: TRIVIA

  • At the opening of the film version of Children of the Corn, the main characters are driving along a deserted road in Nebraska. On the dashboard of their car is a copy of the paperback of Night Shift.

  • The powers of Ed Hamner in “I Know What You Need” are quite similar to those of the main character of a classic The Twilight Zone TV series episode that might have inspired King. Its title? “What You Need.”

  • “The Woman in the Room” was likely influenced, and certainly informed, by King’s own deeply personal and traumatic experience: his mother died of cancer.

  • Night Shift is the only book by King that carries no dedication.

  • “The Lawnmower Man” was adapted to comic form by King and Walt Simonson in 1981, for the black-and-white Marvel Comics magazine Bizarre Adventures. Save for the stories in Creepshow—which was published in a comic version to tie into the film’s 1982 release—it stands with “Popsy”—adapted for Innovation Comics’ horror anthology Masques—as the only such adaptation of King’s work.

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  CREEPSHOW

  (1982)

  Creepshow isn’t a novel, nor is it exactly a short story collection. Its two incarnations are as a motion picture and as a comic book graphic novel. But its origins are in the fevered mind of Stephen King himself, of course.

  The film version consists of five segments, plus a sort of prologue and epilogue featuring a character called the Creep, whose resemblance to the Cryptkeeper only solidifies the relationship the film and the stories therein have to such classic early comics series as Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, and The Vault of Horror. Thus it is only fitting that the published version of Creepshow is presented in comic book form, with art by legendary horror comics master Berni Wrightson (who provided the illustrations for Cycle of the Werewolf).

  Two of the stories in the film have their origins in text form. “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” began life in the mid-1970s as a short story published in a pair of men’s magazines, Cavalier and Nugget, both of which were repositories of many early King stories. The other tale, “The Crate,” first appeared in Gallery magazine. Both have the kind of structure and twist ending that were typical of the comics stories King read and loved as a young man.

  Creepshow was created as a kind of living version of those horror anthology comics of the 1950s. In addition to creating the Creep, King added three brand-new stories to the script, narratives that had never appeared in purely text form. Those were “Father’s Day,” “Something to Tide You Over,” and “They’re Creeping up on You.” King also somewhat altered the two older stories used in the picture.

  Most notably, particularly for our purposes, King moved Jordy Verrill’s small town from New Hampshire to Maine, only several miles away from Castle Rock, itself a major component of the King Universe.

  It should be noted that in the case of the two already published stories, we have adhered here to the later (film/comic book) versions in our own discussion, just as we have adhered to the unabridged version of The Stand. Since the Creepshow screenplay was written by King, we consider his update in the form of the film’s script to be the official continuity.

  “Father’s Day”

  A savagely cruel old man, murdered by his much-beleaguered daughter, returns from the grave seven years later to take vengeance upon her, and the rest of his cold-hearted family.

  “FATHER’S DAY”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  BEDELIA GRANTHAM: After caring for her cruel, ungrateful father for thirty years, Bedelia is finally driven over the edge when her dad arranges the murder of her fiancé. On Father’s Day, Bedelia crushes her parent’s skull with a glass ashtray. Each subsequent year, she returns on that day to dine with her family and visit her father’s grave. Seven years after she killed him, Bedelia’s father, Nathan Grantham, returns from the grave to kill his daughter and the rest of the family.

  NATHAN GRANTHAM: A sadistic old man, murdered by his daughter after arranging the “ac
cidental” death of her fiancé. He comes back from the grave seven years later to murder her, as well as numerous other family members. The current status of the resurrected corpse that was Nathan Grantham is unknown.

  PETER YARBRO: An unfortunate man, Peter Yarbro makes the mistake of becoming engaged to Bedelia Grantham. Unwilling to be parted from the daughter he treated as a slave, Bedelia’s father, Nathan, has Peter Yarbro murdered.

  “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”

  In this story (a.k.a. “Weeds”) a slow-witted farmer discovers a meteor on his property. He believes at first that he will be able to sell it for a great deal of money. However, when he attempts to retrieve it from the hole it made on his farm, he burns himself. Worse, the meteor infects him with a spore or virus of some kind that causes green weeds to grow wildly over everything, including his own flesh.

  “THE LONESOME DEATH OF JORDY VERILL”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  JORDY VERRILL: Jordy is the doomed and none-too-bright farmer. He has what he calls “Verrill luck,” which is all bad. After being infected by the “meteor shit,” Jordy commits suicide by blowing off his head with a shotgun.

  THE METEOR SHIT: Whatever it is that comes out of the meteor continues growing all over Jordy Verrill’s farm, five miles from Castle Rock. If this is the same Castle Rock seen in other stories, and not some alternate dimension, we must presume that the spread of the infection was somehow interrupted. However, the manner of that interruption and its permanence are unknown at this time.

  “The Crate”

  In June 1834, an explorer named Julia Carpenter sent a large crate from the Arctic to Horlicks University. Misplaced, the crate remains under a stairwell in Amberson Hall for more than a century and a half, until it is discovered by a janitor. The janitor, curious, informs Professor Dexter Stanley, who hurries to Amberson Hall to open the crate with the janitor. Inside there is a vicious monster, who promptly eats the janitor upon the opening of the crate, and later devours a student as well.

  “THE CRATE”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  HENRY NORTHRUP: This much-put-upon professor, upon being told of a monster in a crate, leads his wife into a trap, causing her to be eaten by the beast. His current whereabouts are unknown.

  WILMA NORTHRUP: Insists upon being called Billie, right up until the time her husband—whom she has tormented and sneered at for years—traps her with the evil thing. Billie is consumed by the creature.

  DEXTER STANLEY: Professor Stanley is the one who actually opens the crate, an action that immediately results in the deaths of two people. Distraught, he tells Henry Northrup about it. Henry drugs him so that he will have time to dispose of his wife and the monster in the crate. Later, Northrup and Stanley make a pact of mutual silence. His current whereabouts are unknown.

  THE MONSTER IN THE CRATE: After eating three people, including Billie Northrup, it is chained again in the crate by Henry Northrup, and then the box is dumped into Ryder’s Quarry. However, Henry does not do a very good job. It seems likely that the monster has escaped, but its current whereabouts are unknown.

  “Something to Tide You Over”

  In a homicidal rage, Richard Vickers murders his wife and her lover by burying them up to their necks at the shore, and then letting the tide come in. When he returns to find the bodies, however, they appear to have been swept out to sea. Instead, they show up as undead creatures ready to do him in in the same fashion.

  “SOMETHING TO TIDE YOU OVER”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  HARRY WENTWORTH: Harry is murdered by the enraged husband of his lover, Becky Vickers. After their deaths, the lovers return from their watery grave to take vengeance.

  BECKY VICKERS: Killed for her infidelity, Becky comes back from the dead to get even with her husband.

  RICHARD VICKERS: After eliminating his cheating wife and her lover by burying them up to their necks on the beach and waiting for the tide to come in, Richard is done in via the same manner by his resurrected victims.

  “They’re Creeping Up on You”

  A fabulously rich recluse, Upson Pratt is a soulless businessman who destroys lives without remorse. He is also obsessed with his environment, keeping his home perfectly white, very neat, and almost completely sterile. So when the cockroaches show up in force during a blackout, it drives him over the edge.

  “THEY’RE CREEPING UP ON YOU”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  UPSON PRATT: Unhealthily obsessed with hygiene, Pratt particularly hates bugs. Especially cockroaches, which begin to proliferate in his seemingly sterile apartment. Perhaps it is some kind of cosmic payback for his life of cruelty that Pratt is set upon by thousands of cockroaches, who enter his body and take up residence in his hollowed-out corpse.

  CREEPSHOW: ADAPTATIONS

  In October 1982, Warner Bros. released Creepshow, written by King and directed by horror veteran (and personal friend) George A. Romero. The producer was Richard Rubinstein, whose Laurel Entertainment would later produce, among a great many other things, Tales from the Darkside. The film has special effects by another horror vet, Tom Savini. (Savini also appears as a garbage man in a cameo at the end of this movie.)

  The five stories in the picture are bookended by a brief framing sequence in which a young boy is seen reading Creepshow, the comic book, only to have it taken away by his mother.

  The 120-minute feature is dotted by an array of stellar talent in brief appearances. “Father’s Day” features Viveca Lindfors as Aunt Bedelia and Ed Harris as Hank Blaine. “Something to Tide You Over” showcases Leslie Nielsen as Richard Vickers and Ted Danson as Harry Wentworth. “The Crate” has Hal Holbrook as Harry Northrup, Adrienne Barbeau as Billie, and Fritz Weaver as Dexter Stanley. Finally, “They’re Creeping up on You” stars veteran actor E. G. Marshall as Upson Pratt.

  And, lest we forget, King himself is seen as the title character in “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.”

  While the R-rated release was by no means a blockbuster at the box office, it did well enough to spawn a sequel. The aptly titled Creepshow 2 (1987) was written by the first film’s director, George Romero (who did not direct this follow-up), “based on stories by Stephen King.” The credit itself is suspect, however, when only “The Raft” segment is based on a published King story. The other two installments in the film (“Old Chief Wood’nhead” and “The Hitchhiker”) are apparently stories initially developed by King and later scripted by Romero.

  Plans for a Creepshow 3 never reached the production stage.

  CREEPSHOW: TRIVIA

  • Billy, the boy in the bookend segments of the 1982 feature, was played by Joe King, son of the author.

  • In addition to his starring role in a segment of the first Creepshow, Stephen King had a cameo as a truck driver in the sequel, as did his long-time assistant, Shirley Sonderegger, who played Mrs. Cavenaugh.

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  DIFFERENT SEASONS

  (1982)

  Though he has since seen several similar books published, Different Seasons was a milestone for King in at least two significant ways. First, it was a collection of novellas—or short novels—a form of prose writing not generally considered very marketable. Short stories are a quick read, of course, and novels are the accepted format for prose fiction. Novellas fall somewhere in between. This entry helped slightly to lighten the stigma of the novella.

  In addition, Different Seasons represented a major change for King. Of the four novellas in this collection, three of them are very specifically not horror stories, though one of those three, Apt Pupil, is certainly disturbingly horrific. Given that King had been crowned the “king” of horror and was expected to do nothing else, writing such mainstream work—and in novella form—was indeed a risk. Fortunately, it was a gamble that was eagerly embraced by the public.

  In some ways, the entries included here are the best loved of King’s writing to date. That might, at first, seem hard to accept. Fans love The Stand (1978) and The Shining (1977), among others. But with the films The Shawshank Redemption (199
4), Apt Pupil (1998), and particularly Stand by Me (1986) all originating from this material, it seems less of a stretch to conclude that, collectively, Different Seasons has reached one of the broadest audiences and received perhaps the best response (both Shawshank and Stand by Me were Oscar nominees) of any of King’s work.

  It also contains a body of work that is considered among his best.

  Apt Pupil

  Without a doubt, Apt Pupil is the dark heart of this remarkable collection, and is among the grimmest pieces King has ever written. Just as he has subverted so many long-accepted conventions of Americana over the years, here King takes a small-town conceit and relationship worthy of Norman Rockwell and inverts it, turning the innocence of that Saturday Evening Post image of America into a perversely insightful study of evil.