Violence in the Films of Stephen King

Contributors analyze the theme of violence in the film adaptations of Stephen King’s work, ranging from his earliest movies to the most recent, through a variety of lenses.

In Violence in the Films of Stephen King, contributors analyze the theme of violence in the film adaptations of Stephen King’s work—ranging from the earliest films in the King canon to his most recent iterations—through a variety of lenses. Investigating the diverse and varying roles that violence continues to play as both the level of violence and the gendered depictions of violence have evolved, many of the contributors come to the conclusion that King’s films have grown more violent over time. This book also examines the fine line between necessary violence and sensationalist violence, discussing the complexity of determining what constitutes violence with a narrative and ethical significance versus violence intended solely to titillate, repulse, or otherwise draw an emotional reaction from viewers. Scholars of film studies, horror studies, literary studies, and gender studies will find this book particularly useful.

Introduction

Michael J. Blouin and Tony Magistrale

1. Stephen King’s Carrie: Victim No More?

Sarah E. Turner

2. An American Hyde: Stephen King’s A Good Marriage

Tony Magistrale

3. The Mad Lady: Racial and Sexual Violence in Mick Garris’s Bag of Bones

Phoenix Crockett and Stephen Indrisano

4. Cujo, the Black Man, and the Story of Patty Hearst

Sarah Nilsen

5. King of Pain: Exposing the Raw, “Unpleasant Truth” of Stephen King’s Use of Extreme Violence in Doctor Sleep

Mary Findley

6. Violence Persists: Muschietti’s IT Films and a Sadistic Status Quo

Michael J. Blouin

7. “Cut You Up into Little Pieces”: Ghosts & Violence in Kubrick’s The Shining

Danel Olson

8. Tempered Violence in Frank Darabont’s Adaptations of Stephen King: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile

Maura Grady

9. Hiding in Plain Sight: Watching and the Unconscious in Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes Trilogy on Page and Screen

Brian Kent

10. Political Allegory and the Plague of Violence in the Television Adaptation of The Outsider

Philip L. Simpson

11. The Invasive Gaze: Surveillance Camera Shots in Flanagan's Doctor Sleep and Price's The Outsider

Matthew Muller

12. “Murder is Damnation, But Murder is Also Work”: Violence, Patriarchy, and the Work Ethic in 1922

Jason Clemence

13. Lost in the Supermarket: When “The Mist” Fogs Our Mind . . . When Basic Emotions Transform into Monstrous Acts

Alexandra Reuber

14. Stephen King’s Big Driver: A Utopian Road to Justice

Patrick McAleer

About the Contributors