I do love a Stephen King story, and whilst I have read some of his books, I have seen more film adaptations and television adaptations than I have read books (I’m more a watcher than a reader) I was trying to think back to when I first heard or knew about the name Stephen King and I think it was this image (below) which I saw in an issue of Starburst or might have been Fangoria, back in the late 70s I think. At the age of 6 or 7 I had no clue really what the image was, who this girl was, and why was she blood soaked. It was only 2 or 3 years later that I saw the film Carrie and realised what it was all about and from then on. I was familiar with the name of Stephen King. fast forward to now, and I’ve seen dozens of Stephen King film and tv adaptations and whilst I like many more than others (and LOVE some of them. Shout out to Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, and Mick Garris’s The Stand) I have enjoyed seeing them all over the years and will always watch something with Stephen King’s name attached to it.
I was very excited to hear about Stephen King on Screen, a feature documentary that would be a guide to Stephen King on the big screen and smaller screens. After a very surreal introduction which did have me thinking’ Am I watching the right film’ We are treated to a huge amount of King references in this intro which any King fan will have fun spotting. then its into the documentary itself which is a who’s who of wonderful people who have worked with the best selling author and helped bring his work to the screen including Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), Tom Holland (Thinner, The Langoliers) and Mick Garris (The Stand, The Shining, Riding the Bullet, Desperation, Bag Of Bones, Sleepwalkers, Quicksilver Highway)
Stephen King on Screen is wonderful and whilst there may be many Stephen King fans who think they may know all the stories about the films, I think everyone who watches this documentary and hears the stories from the mouths of the talent involved will come away from this doc with new nuggets of information and perhaps also feel the desire to rewatch every film and show that’s been mentioned. (I’m thinking about it)
With the insanely huge list of Stephen King projects, of course there are some that aren’t talked about (otherwise the documentary would have to have been 40 hours long (I’d still watch it at that length though) I wont go into which ones I’d like to have heard about (or heard more about) but here’s hoping that anyone going into this documentary cant possibly expect every single film or show to be talked about in depth, but that’s not to say this isn’t a cracker of a doc for your evenings viewing.
The documentary also treats us to wonderful behind the scenes footage which I have never seen and was wonderful to see and hear. So whether you class yourself as a die hard King fan, or whether you have only heard his name but haven’t read a book or seen any of the adaptations. You’ll still find so much to love in this documentary. Its great for experts and also for newcomers to one of the Masters of Horror (some say THE Master)
Stephen King on Screen is directed by Daphné Baiwir (The Rebellious Olivia de Havilland).
frompage2screen.com 