I am excited to learn that Stephen King’s horror novel It will be adapted for film. The plan is to split the book into two movies. Cary Fukunaga, an American film director known for the True Detectiveseries, will direct the first movie. The producer for the film is Dan Lin.
It is a story of a group of kids who are terrorized by a wise-cracking, demon-possessed clown. I am glad that someone decided to take on this project. The 1990 miniseries based on It was scary when I was a kid but watching it now, I find it laughable. I know the planned project will be much better but I hope they do it justice. I have yet to read the novel but I’ll get to it before this film is ready for theaters.
I came across this book on NPR Books where they have an exclusive first read feature for it. This excerpt of the story was eerily captivating. I didn’t want to like it and I wanted to stop reading but at the end of the excerpt, I wanted to know more. The excerpt had an ominous tone to it and I wanted to know what would happen. The next day, I happened to see the book in Barnes & Noble. I was unable to leave without first knowing how the story ends so I sat and read.
It was unsettling. It’s a dark tale about a couple who so desperately want kids that they are willing to try anything. Since they are wealthy, they are able to try all possible fertility procedures but all prove unsuccessful.
After receiving a tip from an acquaintance, the Twisdens dash off to Slovenia and partake of Dr. Kis’ experiment, which is guaranteed to get them pregnant. Changes begin to take place almost immediately, but the experiment’s purpose was met and they produced beautiful twins. Ten years later, their life has changed drastically. The Twisdens have become very animalistic and predatory. In turn, the twins become convinced that their parents will kill them so they run away and seek refuge in a teacher. Unfortunately, their parents are able to find them wherever they go and escaping them seems to be impossible.
Though I was disturbed as I read (I kept thinking that it is possible that such a thing could happen), I enjoyed the story immensely. The gory descriptions of the Twisdens will stick in your mind and haunt you as you read. Breed is a great horror story. I was terrified the entire time that I read it and even now I have mental images of Alex Twisden chasing after his kids, slobbering as his taste buds ignite at the scent of them but trying to regain some control of himself at the same time.
So after reading On Writing, the memoir by Stephen King, I decided to read one of his books to experience his magnificence. I also wanted to finally confront my fear of reading a Stephen King novel and being forever scarred. Since his movies always scared me, I reasoned that his books would be even worse.
I decided to start at the beginning so I picked up a copy of Carrie. It took me a while to begin reading. Though I’ve watched the movies, original and remakes, many times, I was afraid that somehow the book would be more alarming. It turns out to be a good read.
I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Carrie. She has no friends and is bullied at school by the popular kids. Then she goes home to be further tormented by her religious-manic mother. The day of her first period was traumatizing. She knew nothing about periods. Believing the act of sex to be evil and that menstruation introduces that evil, her mother saw no reason in mentioning it to Carrie. When her period came, Carrie thought herself bleeding to death. Shocked by what’s happening to her, she starts to freak out only to be penalized for her oddity by the girls in the locker room who throw tampons at her, shouting plug it up. The girls gang up on Carrie and stone her with tampons as if to exile her from joining them in womanhood.
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