What would you do if you fell asleep on a flight and woke up to find a damn near empty airplane was still chugging along? That's the premise of Stephen King's novella The Langoliers and it remains one of his most fun, pulpy stories, despite a rather sketchy TV mini-series from the mid-'90s.
We sometimes break the Kingcast's usual format and this episode is one of those. Hey, we've been at this for four years, we gotta stretch our legs from time to time. Thankfully the Kingcast boys love video games almost as much as they love Stephen King and with that a beautiful idea was born.
A young couple find themselves trapped in the middle of nowhere with a creepy old dude, his mail order Ukrianian wife, and a disturbing child locked up in a shed. This is, unbelievably, the eighth entry into the Children of the Corn franchise and there are still more to go after this one.
The Shining chronicles the slow descent into madness as one very troubled father succumbs to the ghosts (both literal and metaphorical) gnawing at his psyche while acting as the winter caretaker of the fancy Overlook hotel. The debate between the quality of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of King's masterpiece has been raging for over 40 years and even spills into this very episode.
Sleepwalkers is a 1992 feature film directed by Mick Garris based on an original screenplay by our show's namesake about a mommy cat person and a son cat person who love each other a little too much while on the hunt for a human virgin to sustain their supernatural cat people powers.
Author Mike Noonan loses his wife and his ability to face a blank page in one sad moment. Through his grief, he's able to find himself again by helping a single mother in a difficult custody battle with her very rich, and kinda evil, in-laws. This late '90s King tale has a strong following even if it's not considered one of his classics.
1408 is a Stephen King short story that proves you don't need a whole hotel to be haunted to be scary, just one "evil fucking room." This is a banger of a short story and a really good movie that is often overlooked (ahem) in favor of his other haunted hotel story.
Stephen King's alter ego, Richard Bachman, wrote a bunch of dark, cynical, and strangely prescient short novels before it was revealed that King was behind the pen name. At that point, King released them all in a collection called The Bachman Books, which featured the stories Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man. They're all fascinating looks into the darker corners of King's psyche and one of them was even allowed to fall out of circulation.
Popular podcast Screen Drafts invited the Kingcast boys onto their show to rank the top 13 Stephen King Adaptations, so it only seemed right that they journey over to The Kingcast and bring their ranking expertise for a wild curveball episode.
Dolan's Cadillac is about a man seeking revenge against a mobster after said mobster bumped her off. It's not a straight line to his revenge, though, and the man ultimately concocts an elaborate scheme to bury the mobster in his own Caddy with the help of a deserted stretch of highway and some borrowed construction equipment. This is King tackling Poe and... well, it works on the page. The movie... not so much.
Carrie is Stephen King's debut novel expertly adapted by the great Brian De Palma in an era when studio filmmaking could experiment in ways most modern studios will not allow. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie turn in Oscar-worthy (and nominated) performances in this film that still has the power to capture the attention of even iPad-addicted Gen Zers.
Cujo has become synonymous with big, scary dog, thanks to King's iconic novel and its popular 1983 film adaptation starring Dee Wallace. A mother and son get stuck in a crappy Ford Pinto and are tormented by a rabid St. Bernard. Will they escape or become a quick meal for the crazed animal?
Misery follows a popular writer who is rescued by a fan after a terrible car accident only to find himself in an even worse position: captured by an unbalanced lady who has a lot of notes about his recent work. Rob Reiner directed his second perfect Stephen King adaptation with 1990's Misery and lead star Kathy Bates to an Oscar win, the first and only Oscar won for any King adaptation.
The Stand, if you don't know, is Stephen King's epic story of the a deadly viral outbreak and the battle for humanity's future that happens after 99.9% of the world's population is wiped out. Good versus evil, light versus dark, this is a top to bottom banger from the master of horror.
The Life of Chuck is a novella that was published in the recent story collection If It Bleeds. It's a story told in reverse that begins with the end of every single life in the universe and only gets sadder from there. More heady drama than supernatural spook-a-blast, this material opens the door for some surprisingly deep responses from those who have read it.
True Detective Season 4 debuts on HBO and Max January 14th and takes place in a small Alaskan town where weird shit has a habit of going down, especially when the month-long night settles in. The chat about this upcoming season is very light on spoilers, so don't worry about diving in before you start watching the new season.
1922 was a novella originally published in Stephen King's story collection Full Dark, No Stars. It's all about a rural farmer who kills his wife for her family's land and talks his teen son into helping. Both men can't grapple with the enormity of what they've done and soon begin to spiral into guilt-driven madness despite getting away with the crime free and clear. It was adapted by Netflix into a feature film released in 2017.
Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy find themselves recruited to help a small town fight ferocious bad guys that look like humanoid wolves on horseback. They are after the town's children and our ka-tet must stop them or die trying.
Carla Gugino is a national treasure, having made numerous appearances in stuff like Brian DePalma's Snake Eyes, Sin City, Watchmen, The Haunting of Hill House, and, of course, one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made: Gerald's Game.
It is Stephen King's giant novel about a group of tween kids confronting their fears and persevering through the power of friendship all while facing down an eternal killer clown who calls himself Pennywise. It is one of King's most enduring novels and only seems to be getting more popular as each generation passes.
all nerdy bastard
I stumbled over dour podcast..now iam hooked. love the way you approach the books, movies but also other random stuff. keep going! greetings from austria!
Angie Williams
I humbly submit 3 names for Billy Summers. Boyd Holbrook, Luke Grimes or Jack Surgenor. and omigod YES to Amber Midthunder.
Bizarre Bazaar Bisbee
okay I get it 2 years old but just on the off chance that you ever talk to Kate again and you actually see this comment the books she's looking for are by Clive Barker The Books of Blood there's 3 possible short stories that she may be referencing but I'm pretty sure almost 100% sure the actual story she's looking for is called Pigs Blood Blues it's in the first volume of the Books of Blood there's six volumes and like I said there's a couple other stories she could be referencing anyway 2 years late with the answer but just in case I couldn't resist Clive Barker and Stephen King are literary doppelgangers in my opinion not the same style whatsoever but the same genius.
Bizarre Bazaar Bisbee
Hello I get this is an older podcast but I just found it love it by the way! I just wanted to tell you and maybe somebody's mentioned this by now but you seemed not to be confused about why your Catholic school had all the werewolf books. The Benandanti -Google it of course you're going to find out that they were "fictional beings" but you come to your own conclusions. Like you said kind of strange that you're Catholic school was so full of that literature right? Just remember not all monsters are monsters, in fact as I'm sure you already know most of the really bad monsters are the humans.
natalie mintz
I fucking love this guy. I could listen to #BryanFuller talk about stuff all day. Any topic.