Stephen King - 'IT', really scary book

[perceptionreality]

I thought the film was really silly and not at all frightening - the clown was almost comical.

I decided to read the book (don't usually read horror) and it's really got to me and given me nightmares!

I knew it was George .

That part haunted me as a child and now I have a little brother George so I definitely can't re-read. Not that I'd want to. [shudder]

Terrifying book!

My Grandad is called Dennis and has been Denny to the whole family ever since I could not pronounce "grandad" as a toddler

Carrie is a great read IMO

Wasn't Denny the baby that Sarah put to bed when she finally slept with John Smith (The Dead Zone).

A line something like "Sleep Denny" "That easy?" "That easy."

(Haven't read it for years, so could be wrong)

I love most of his books, but after his accident I went off him quite a bit - his writing seemed angrier and disjointed.

For me he returned to form with Under the Dome.

(However, unlike the rest of the world I really liked Cell, so my taste is obviously a little screwed!)

The Stand is my absolute favourite, closely followed by The Talisman and Black House.

Dolores Claiborne was pretty good too book wise. The film I think (not seen it for yonks) diluted the issues a bit.

The Stand
The Shining
Firestarter (can't believe nobody mentioned this yet!)
Dead Zone
... all great SK classics.

And from among his newer books:

Duma Key.

Did anyone see the documentary on Stanley Kubrick's film of The Shining? It is called Room 237 and it came out last year.

I mentioned Firestarter, cote! I love it, especially the flashbacks to the clinical trial and you're never quite sure what actually happened.

'The Shining' is the only SK film that I think is very good. Jack Nicholson plays the role so, so well and is very believable. But I have not read the Shining and I get the impression that if you read the book a lot more is explained.

I've never read SK before but I am impressed by his characterisation in IT. If there's one thing that keeps me reading a book it's when I feel I know the characters.

I don't see The Shining as a SK film as it is different from the book (like The Running Man). It is still a good film, and much better than the made for TV version which sticks to the book, though

oh really? I should probably read The Shining then - it'll take me forever I think to get through these huge books!

'The Shining' as a film is a v skewed interpretation of the book and Jack Nicholson plays a character very different to King's version of the character. It's a good film - but it's v different to King's imagined hotel/caretaker.

Salem's lot was also very good and scary. The tv adaptation not so good.
Carrie and Shawshank redemption both made good cross others onto film. Kathy Bates in Misery was fantastic.
Dark Half raises the question of what would you do if your alter ego came to live.
Thinner frightens me as well.
Tommyknockers could possibly be an amazing film if made now with all the fx available and a decent director.
A few friends have a fear of clowns now after reading IT and banned them from the house.

I read It when I was about 15 and it terrified me, I'm talking sleepless nights, fear of the dark, everything! I think I lot of the layers and complexities of the book escaped me at the time, so I might re-read it.

The Green Mile was a fantastic film adaptation, makes me cry every time. Really wonderful story.

Going back to IT - I think the way the evil manifests itself is explained pretty well between the lines. IT feeds on fear more than anything else, because apparently fear makes its victims taste better. So it manifests to each person as something different - that which they fear most. In children these fears will be very different from the fears of adults, and according to IT, children manifest a greater intensity of fear and so are better prey. It's quite sophisticated as a concept.

It's also clear in the book that IT comes from outside our own world, but after IT's arrival a vicious circle develops in which Derry is infected with its evil, and IT then feeds on the consequences of that evil, which makes the infection in the town worse with each cycle.

You can't tell I'm a Stephen King nut, can you?

LOL pointythings - very well explained indeed though. Is that not a similar theme in Needful Things, where the man in the shop sets up the evil initially and then everyone in the town is trying to destroy each other anyway.

Help...! What was the title of the book which had the evil twin, who drove a car with the plates "high toned son of a bitch" ?? Can't remember it.

The sparrows are coming?

I loved Needful Things - "gobble my crank with your metal filled mouth!" remember that quote from 10 years ago.

When I was in Maine, I went to Ogunquit beach just because of "The Stand".

I love the interconnecting characters in his books. They were part of the enjoyment of my youth, skint, reading Stephen King books from the library.

I thought Christine was an ok film version of the book.

Evil Twin and sparrows = Dark half.

Thanks Remus.

I was about to trawl through Wiki.....

Good point, OP - King is very good at smalltown evil, he has quite a jaded view of human nature IMO. The same sort of thing happens in Under the Dome too, and another common thread is the way King REALLY doesn't like the American brand of extreme fundie Christianity.

Another Stephen King fan here, read all his earlier books several times each, even now if I see a balloon I think of IT (we all float down here..)
The Stand has got to be my favourite of all time, but like most of you guys on here I haven't really enjoyed some of his latest stories.
I lost all my books when I moved but reading this makes me want to start reading them all again!

I've just read 'Blockade Billy' which I got for 30p in a charity shop and which looked absolutely brand new. Has anybody read it? It also had a short story, 'Morality' which has freaked me out a bit - really horrible and quite un-King-like, as it seemed to be just nasty for nastiness' sake.

I love Insomnia and really hope someone makes a decent film of it one day. I think that properly done the "world of auras" could be stunning. I always feel something almost like genuine grief at the end :(

Has anyone read Rose Madder? Think that could be a cracking film too.

The Stand is my favourite as well! The Green Mile is the most faithful to the original book film that I've ever seen, though. It's a truly excellent story, and the film is superb.

I read Desperation the other day, really liked it until it did the standard SK thing of going all supernatural and ridiculous. I found the same with IT - really frightening and gripping, and then it's all supernatural monster nonsense and it loses all the tension almost instantly. It's a real shame, I'd love him to write a horror where it could all actually happen, that would be far more scary, and more satisfying as well!

Yeah, the Shining film is very different. I love the book.

I LOVE It, the Stand, Dolores Claiborne, Firestarter (the ending is amazing and the father daughter relationship is so sweet and sad), the Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, The Talisman...oh, and 'Salem's Lot.

Did anyone read his new novella collection called Full Dark, No Stars? It chilled me.