I think it will be tough to show the occurences in the room and make them as scary as they were in the story - a lot of the mood setting is that the room is “off” how can you show that?
I wish they had done either “The Man in the Black Suit”, or that ganster one, with the lassoed flies - that one would be good too, not scary but good.
The Death of Jack Hamilton. Great story. My favorite non-horror story from the collection.
Oh, yes…that was a good one.
Dolan’s Cadillac would be a good one too. Also one about the Old Man’s Club…the mysterious one with the rooms that go on forever and the butler who never seems to age.
CRAP! I just watched that trailer (at work, no less) and have got a serious case of the willies.
Cusack is my all-time favorite actor.
They were going to make “Dolan’s Cadillac” with Kevin Bacon and (blurg) Sylvester Stallone, but it never went anywhere. Personally, I think Paul Giamatti would be fantastic as the protagonist if they ever decide to actually make it into a movie.
FWIW, there’s a post at Rotten Tomatoes by someone claiming to have seen an advance screening of 1408 and giving it high marks, but who knows if they have any taste.
Considering the story was more or less pointless, I predict the movie will suck.
No, wait, I just watched the trailer. That has very little resemblence to the story, so maybe the fact that the source is so lackluster will have no bearing on how good or bad the movie is.
Ivylass, the one with the dying mother is Riding the Bullet. They made it into a movie about a year and a half ago. It’s not too bad.
I have to say- if you loved this short story, get it on Audiobook and listen. HOLY creepy. I’ve listened to it 3 times and each time I’m left creeped out like you would not believe. I think the movie will be good, personally.
I would LOVE to see Quitters, Inc as a movie.
I have the version of the audiobook that has King reading it. When he’s doing the voice on the phone I just want to crawl under the blankets and hide. Made me afraid to pick up the phone for a week.
Good stuff.
Did you not like the treatment in Cat’s Eye?
I haven’t heard the audio book of this, but I can tell you that for months (no, I’m not exaggerating) after reading the story for the first time, the “automated read-back” voices on phones would give me the heebie-jeebies. (You know the ones I’m talking about; you dial the gas company, and they ask you to enter your 18 digit account number, and then “auto-read” it back to you: “You have entered ONE zero ONE eight TWO. . .”) ::shudder::
No, there’s another one, about a man going to visit his dying mother in the hospital and he deliberately gives her an overdose of pills in an assisted suicide
Ah. The Woman In The Room. That was either in the Night Shift collection, or Skeleton Crew.
There was a film made of The Woman in The Room; it was paired with The Boogeyman. I rented it once so long ago I really couldn’t tell you much about it.
I think it’s one of King’s most legitimately scary stories (up there with The Reaper’s Image), and agree that a good 95% of the story’s effect is that it’s related in a “documentary” style a la House of Leaves (“At this point, there’s a burst of distortion on the tape and then thirty seconds of silence before it resumes.”)
In typical Hollywood fashion, it looks like they’re going to “jazz it up” with wacky monsters and ghosts and stuff jumping all over the place. :rolleyes:
Yeah, I’m a little wary of the daughter being turned into a creepy little Ring-style ghost. Wasn’t that b&w guy going out the window scary enough? (That part really did give me the chills)
Listened to Blood & Smoke, then watched the TV trailer last night, and I decided, yes, this will suck. They’re trying to add way too much. A ghost jumping out the window, winter inside the room, “the police are in 1408, and it’s EMPTY!”
Half of the story consists of Olin talking about the room - compelling in the story, but they won’t do it in the movie, and I have doubts that Jackson (though I love him) could pull it off. The other half of the story relies on the perfect presentation of weirdness. How can a movie replicate the menu and the plum, the eldritch feeling of the bed’s comforter, or the seasick feeling upon looking at the crooked door?
Also, I be they won’t have the picture of the woman with the bleeding nipples (cause that’s just too shocking!), and she is awesomely weird and frightening.
I’m listening to the audiobook version right now, and I just don’t see how this can be made into a movie. There must be a lot of added material.
My fingers are crossed, too. Unfortunately, I’m having some surgery this Friday, so I doubt I’ll be up to any movie-going this weekend. However, the following weekend, unless this movie scores less than 15% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, I am so there.