The avalanche of Stephen King adaptations shows no sign of slowing down. Just this Fall we have had It: Chapter Two, Castle Rock, In the Tall Grass and now Doctor Sleep. In honor of this prolific run, as I cull through the Alvin Schwartz penned and Stephen Gammell illustrated “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” I present three scary stories that call to mind the iconic works of one of horror’s greatest voices, Stephen King.
In his works, King has tackled it all. Ghosts. Vampires. Cats that won’t stay dead. Post apocalyptic gunslingers– you get the picture. The man’s published sixty some novels and hundreds of short stories and in that time has explored not only everything that goes bump in the night, but also a great deal of the human condition. He’s studied the nuances of adolescence but also the pains and regrets that one can only appreciate much later in life. And like a good urban legend, many of his works are fun to share with friends and not so fun to relive alone at the end of the night.
When you hear about a haunted hotel, not one but two King works are likely to jump to mind, “The Shining” and “1408.” That is just the topic of the scary story “The Ghost with the Bloody Fingers.” This tale sticks to the lighter side, although the accompanying drawing is as gruesome as ever. In it a hotel clerk warns guests, “There is only one empty room, but we don’t rent that one because it is haunted.” Two nights in a row guests ignore the warning, only to flee at the sight of a bleeding ghost crying out “Bloody fingers!” On the third night, a guitar player takes the room and is strumming along when he is interrupted by the ghost. He continues to play until he loses his patience, looks up and yells, “Cool it, man! Get yourself a Band-Aid.”
And that’s it! If only the Torrances had displayed such authority with their
hauntings. I can’t help but imagine that this is how King, a guitar player himself, would handle a real life ghostly encounter.
The next scary story, “Bess,” calls to mind my favorite King novel, “Pet
Sematary.” It tells of John Nicholas, who raises horses and is warned by a fortune teller that his favorite mare, Bess, will cause his death. He laughs it off but to ease his troubled mind sells the aging animal to a neighbor. Eventually Bess passes away due to old age and John feels a sense of relief amidst his grief. He visits her remains when a rattlesnake nestled inside the skull strikes, killing John instantly. While there is no supernatural element, John, like the Creed clan, finds himself unable to evade what fate has set in motion.
The last tale, “Faster and Faster,” unnerved me as much as a child as it does
now. And like “It,” “The Body,” “Pet Sematary,” and more, it features one of King’s favorite pastimes– putting young children in mortal peril. Two kids, Sam and Bob, go playing in the woods when they find an old, possibly blood stained tom-tom. Like any curious child would, Bob starts beating on the drum. As he picks up in speed the two boys hear shouts and galloping horses coming through the woods. The two make a run for it when one of the men on horseback fires a bow and arrow, striking poor Bob down. Later the police can find no hoof prints, arrows or drums anywhere in the woods.
That’s a tough break, alright. One second you find a junky old drum behind a tree stump, the next you’re getting taken out by ghost riders. Most of King’s childhood protagonists make it out alive but not all, adding to the terror of his stories.
“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” like Stephen King, tackle every sort of possible threat under the moon. Sometimes we get a hard earned lesson at the end, other times a grim punchline. Much to my relief though we get to take a peak into the fantastic, a world of curses and omens, without having to check into the haunted hotel or pick up that bloody tom tom ourselves.