Stephen King - 'IT', really scary book

IT was given many 'faces' to make it more palatable, it wasn't necessarily actually physical.

I detest 'Needful Things.' I think 'The Tommyknockers' 'Gerald's Game' and 'Needful Things' are by far his worst. 'Needful Things' is trite and sex-obsessed and 'Gerald's Game' just gets sillier and sillier as the evil geezer in the corner arrives.

I read 'Cujo' before I saw the film and was cross that they'd changed the ending in the film. Yes, it 'feels better', but the book is more powerful because it 'feels worse' I think.

Pennywise is the embodiment of the evil of Derry, isn't he? The town itself has something 'wrong' with it and Pennywise is an aspect of that - the town has created various evils itself and attracts evil to it. Or am I over-thinking it?

I find it hard to get my head around the fact that "the shawshank redemption" was based on a stephen king short story.

I think he is a good writer, his books read well, but i grew tired of the apocalyptic endings, often involving some sort of alien life force. Wasn't "it" a giant alien spider in the end?

It the film was bad. I think some of the others mentioned have worked though.

My favourite book of his is needful things, and I also like Hearts in Atlantis a lot. I like the psychological ones.

Oh, pet semetary is the scariest, most vile book i have ever read and could never read this post children. I think stephen king either writes fantastic books or really shite books! I agree with those who say the films never translate well.

I haven't read "it" and i don't think i could - the film was just awful (scary and upsetting).

Oh and cujo, in the film the little boy survives, and in the book he doesn't , i had seen the film first so wasn't expecting that, i was devestated :(

'The Stand' is excellent.

I like 'It' a lot apart from that silly bit with Bill and his wife. I agree it's one of King's scarier ones and that the murder of the little boy (is it Denny?) is a horrible but great opening. And the bit with the gay man is v distressing.

I don't like 'Gerald's Game' - I think it's one of the worse things he's written.

In terms of film, 'Misery' and 'The Dead Zone' both work well imho.

Tommy knockers and pet cemetery are creapy and really good to read.

'It' is very scary, Pennywise is one of the nastiest, most chilling characters in literature imo and SK breaks a taboo when he kills off the younger brother right at the start of the book (as I recall - the boy follows his toy boat to the sewers?) which really sets the scene. But Stephen Kings's books almost never translate well to the big screen. The characters express themselves so much through internalised thought rather than speech or action.

Have you read Gerald's Game? It is about a couple who go off to their cabin off-season to revive their marraige/sex life. Gerald (the husband) gets out the handcuffs and handcuffs his wife to the bed, he then keels over and dies (she kicks him in the nads because he is so repulsive). What follows is the story of how she gets herself free. It is a very good story, very disturbing in places, but I would say impossible to make a film out of as you see everything through the wife's eyes.