Judith Torres
Annotated Bibliography
Stephen King Horror Films
Stephen King is a very popular author of horror fiction. Stephen King who is also known as The unchallenged “King of Horror”. In his books, movies, etc. he blends elements of the traditional gothic tale with those of the modern psychological, thrillers, detective, and science fiction stories. As a boy king found a box of fantasy horror fiction books and stories that had belonged to his father, and he read them all. By the time Stephen was seven he had begun writing his own stories. Many of King’s stories are semi autobiographical, meaning that they are taken in part from some of his own experiences. Many of the locations he writes about are based on the places he grew up in and visited. His population comes from him being able to create stories in which evil occurs in ordinary situations. In 1973, King sold his first novel, Carrie, the tale of a tormented teen who gets revenge on her peers.The book became a huge success after it was published the following year.
(“Stephen King Biography”, //www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/King-Stephen.html)
Some of Stephen King’s horror films are Carrie, IT: chapter 1 & chapter 2, The Shining, In The Tall Grass, 1922, Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game and Misery.
In the ending of Carrie: The house was set aflame due to some of the lit candles falling down. And it eventually sank underground, taking Carrie and Margeret with it. Carrie kills her mother by stopping her heart, but nothing happens to the house.
(Rodriguez, Maddie, “The Many Endings of Carrie”, Book Riot, //bookriot.com/2016/07/12/anatomy-of-a-scene-the-many-endings-of-carrie/)
In the ending of The Shining: It ends with the death of Jack, as well as the hotel that goes up in flames due to an aging boiler with jack freezing to death, and the hotel still in one piece, Kubrik said this ending would haunt the audience.
(Paonessa, Rachel, “The Shining Ending Explained.”, Indie 88, //indie88.com/the-shining-ending-explained/)
In the ending of IT: “Chapter 1: Bill can united with the others and together they overcome their own fears — each manifested again in turn by Pennywise — and attack the creature both physically and with their imaginations, wounding it badly and sending it back even further down into the depths beyond the sewers and tunnels underneath Derry. Then after having defeated him, for now, they come back and the promise each other to come back if Pennywise came back by cutting their hand with a rock. Chapter 2: They all go down into the sewers and begin to perform the ritual, which involves chanting and burning tokens, but it doesn’t work. Mike lied about the Ritual of Chüd, not revealing that the Native Americans who attempted it were killed by Pennywise. Pennywise attacks again, this time taking the form of a giant spider/clown hybrid, sending the Losers running. Each once again has to face their worst fears. Eddie is killed by Pennywise after thinking he’s defeated it by stabbing it with the same metal weapon from the first film, but that provides inspiration for the others.” They realize that the best way to defeat the bully is to stand up to it and make it seem small. Pennywise shrinks and shrinks until he becomes tiny. Finally, Bill reaches into it and pulls what it calls a heart of chest, crushing it and seemingly killing it for good.
( Hunt, James, “IT Chapter Two Ending Explained”, Screen Rants, //screenrant.com/it-chapter-2-movie-ending-explained/)
In the ending of In The Tall Grass: “Whatever “wisdom” the rock gave Travis allows him to send Tobin out, back to the church on the side of the road. There, Tobin is able to warn Becky and Cal to ignore a past Tobin’s cries from the grass. He stops them from ever entering the grass by showing Becky the charm Travis gave him, after Travis took it from a dead Becky earlier. The nonlinear nature of time in the grass makes it so everything is happening at once, and since those trapped in it are reborn again and again, it gives Becky a chance to take a different path entirely. This time she chooses to turn around and go home to raise her baby with her family. Travis is also saved, even though he dies. We see the fate of those who succumbed to the rock’s evil when Becky gives birth in front of it. The ground opens, and it’s revealed those damned souls were absorbed into its roots where they were made to suffer for eternity.” They will never escape the grass. They were not redeemed.
(Walsh, Michael, “The Ending of Netflix’s In The Tall Grass Explained”, Nerdist, //nerdist.com/article/in-the-tall-grasss-ending-explained/)
In the ending of 1922: “Wilfred discovers this not through the papers but from the ghost of Arletter; she, flanked by rats, corners him in the house’s basement and she “whispered secrets to me only a dead woman could know”. The farm falls into disrepair, with a massive hole in the roof letting snow pour in and a cow taking up residence in the living room. While the police wrongfully solve the mystery of Arlette’s disappearance, that doesn’t draw a line under it either; Wilfred end up selling the farm for a much lower price than Arlette ever wanted (the reason he killed her) and leaves for work in the city he once despised, only to keep having to move on after feeling hunted by rats. At the end, as he writes his story (the film’s framing device), rats pour in through the walls and surround him.” He begins to realize that everything bad that has happened to him and those around him is a result of his single, selfish, short-sighted decision. It’s a very dark version of the “grass is always greener” adage, telling a story where things can only possibly get worse from the start.
( Leadbeater, Alex, “1922’s Ending Explained”, Screen Rant, //screenrant.com/1922-movie-ending-rats-explained/1/)
In the ending of Misery: “Despite being mortally wounded, she managed to escape the bedroom and died in her barn with her hands on a chainsaw, which she presumably intended to use on sheldon. In the movie, sheldon kills her by ramming a metal statue of her pet sow pig – names Misery after his stories – into her head.” Paul can’t write and has horrible visions of Annie coming to attack him, though he learns the troopers that they found Annie died from her injuries in her barn.
(“Misery Summary and Study Guide”, Super Summary, //www.supersummary.com/misery/summary/)
For a good portion of his career, King wrote novels and stories at a breakneck speed. The film The Shining released in 1980 and became a renowned horror thriller that has stood the rest of the time. King also wrote Joyland in 2013, a pulp fiction style thriller that takes readers on a journey to uncovering whos behind an unsolved murder. Then surprised the audience by releasing Doctor Sleep in 2013, a sequel to the Shining, with Sleeping hitting number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
