The Losers' Club: A Stephen King Podcast

Bonus episode! The great Dee Wallace joins the Losers for a discussion on the making of Cujo. Note: This was recorded live at this past September's Creep I.E. Con and part of the beginning has been lost to the ether. Still, the majority of it remains intact! Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is All Saint's Day, so we thought: Why not celebrate the greatest saint of all? The St. Bernard! So, join the Losers as they remain in Castle Rock to discuss Lewis Teague's 1983 Stephen King adaptation, Cujo. Starring Dee Wallace, the film is world renown for being the de facto killer dog movie. But, it's much more than that as the Losers argue to reclaim the film as one of the great King adaptations. Listen on and stay tuned for our interview with Dee Wallace! Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Losers turn the clock back half a century and return to Castle Rock for Stephen King and Richard Chizmar's 2017 collaboration Gwendy's Button Box. Together, they discuss the timeline of the book, the implications of the titular box, and the ways it may or may not dovetail with what we know of Mid-World. It'll take longer for you to finish this episode than to finish this book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Losers Michael Roffman, Randall Colburn, and Jenn Adams head to Hollywood King again to discuss the latest developments in King's Dominion, specifically the new trailer for The Monkey, JT Mollner's comments on The Long Walk, and new updates for The Institute, The Running Man, The Life of Chuck, and, yes, Fairy Tale. They also sort through some tweets, which ranges from Netflix recommends to Mark Hamill online friendships to Taylor Swift. Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oops! All Tangents is a free-flowin' conversation exclusive to The Barrens that is based on a topic either topical or submitted by our patrons. Today, because we're nearly halfway through October, we're unlocking our recent Halloween edition. So, join Rockin' Randall, who keeps things creepy at the pumpkin patch with fellow Losers Jenn Adams, Julia Marchese, and Dan Caffrey as they talk all things Halloween. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Half a decade after it was first announced, the Losers finally review Daub's Lot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All good things come to an end... even our coverage of Audience Network's Mr. Mercedes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen King is no stranger to murderous cars. From Christine and From a Buick 8 to the malevolent Goblin truck haunting the roads of Maximum Overdrive, the master of horror knows his way around gory gear shifts, sinister steering wheels, and dangerous drivers. In 2014, he released Mr. Mercedes, a crime novel pitting Bill Hodges, a retired detective, against Brady Hartsfield, a criminal mastermind disguised as the ice cream man. Both survive the novel’s explosive conclusion, though Brady is left in a vegetative state. After a brief detour into the world of rare publications with the 2015 sequel Finders Keepers, King catches up with the disabled criminal and his newfound psychic powers. End of Watch sees Hodges once again match wits with his old nemesis aided by partners Holly and Jerome.  Hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Rachel Reeves, and Ashley Casseday hop back into the blood-soaked Mercedes to conclude their coverage of this confounding trilogy. They’ll discuss King’s swerve into supernatural territory while puzzling over the story’s bizarre tech. Does this 2016 novel elevate the trilogy as a whole? How does King handle the story’s suicide themes? Does Jerome have any flaws and what’s up with all the Zs? The Losers reach the end of the road as they say goodbye to one of King’s most autobiographical characters In case you missed it, they recently covered Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers within the last few months. Be sure to stream those episodes before you dive into this one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a spooky Friday the 13th treat: Randall and Mel’s Halloween Hell, the Losers’ Club's Patreon-exclusive annual series in which Randall and Mel watch a horror movie every day in October and talk about it. They'll be back with a fourth iteration this year, but to whet your appetite, they're unlocking last year's third entry which saw the two Losers joined by fellow co-hosts Dan Caffrey and Justin Gerber. Across a marathon four hours, the gang lose their marbles while discussing more than 100 movies.  That includes 20 new releases, such as Saw X, When Evil Lurks, The Exorcist: Believer, VHS 85, Totally Killer, and many more. (Don't worry, we don't spoil anything released this year.) They also chat about pre-Hays Code nastiness, the benefits of casting real sickos in your movies, Caff's bizarre hatred of Ernest, and literally all things Ghoulies. (Seriously, we spend an ungodly amount of time talking about Ghoulies.) Enjoy this ride and join The Barrens -- patreon.com/thebarrens -- for earlier installments and this year's coming fourth go-around. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It took a few years, but we finally got a first trailer for Gary Dauberman's 'Salem's Lot. Naturally, the Losers have thoughts. Behold, a mini episode. Bite-size, if you will. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are 20 stories in Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. In the second of two episodes dedicated to the 2015 collection, Losers Dan Caffrey, Jenn Adams, Michael Roffman, and Dan Pfleegor rank their 10 favorites. Don't miss the first part of our series from last week in which they rank the bottom 10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are 20 stories in Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. In the first of two episodes dedicated to the 2015 collection, Losers Dan Caffrey, Jenn Adams, Michael Roffman, and Dan Pfleegor rank all 20 tales, starting at the bottom. These aren't necessarily their least favorite. They're just ranked as such. Stay tuned next week for the concluding coverage with the top 10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Constant Listeners, yes, we originally planned to drop our Bazaar of Bad Dreams coverage this week. However, given Sai King’s renewed interest in Hearts in Suspension, we opted to unlock our coverage of the collection from The Stephen King Archives. For those not in the know, The Stephen King Archives is our Patreon exclusive imprint in which your Losers search the vault of Stephen King material – dusting off unpublished short stories, long-forgotten interviews, coffee-stained manuscripts, and alternate versions of your favorite tales. This particular entry was recorded in December 2021 - in conjunction with our Hearts in Atlantis coverage - - and sees us discussing Hearts in Suspension in full. Published in 2016 and edited by King's longtime mentor Jim Bishop, the book features an original essay by King entitled "Five to One, One in Five", four installments of "King's Garbage Truck", a reprint of King's novella "Hearts in Atlantis", 12 essays by fellow students and friends from King's college days, and a gallery of period-specific photographs and documents. We time travel back to UMO and talk about it all.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're unlocking our very first episode of CrichtonCast, our Michael Crichton spinoff podcast exclusive to The Barrens. In this installment, host Randall Colburn is joined by Losers Dan Caffrey and Justin Gerber to discuss The Andromeda Strain, the crunchy, science-forward supernatural virus story that propelled Crichton, then a Harvard Medical graduate in his mid-20s, into literary stardom.  Together they weigh in on Crichton's early life, the book's origins, its clever use of verisimilitude, intellectual distrust, the charms of Robert Wise's ultra-faithful 1971 adaptation, and the ways in which it dovetails with King's own pandemic tale, The Stand.  Want more? Get episodes on Sphere and Jurassic Park in The Barrens: patreon.com/thebarrens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this deep dive into the second season of Audience Network's Mr. Mercedes, Randall Colburn, Justin Gerber, and Dan Pfleegor gather to discuss why the series jumped ahead to End of Watch over Finders Keepers. They also wrestle with its efforts to find drama in holding patterns and touch on the season’s shocking ending, a wild deviation from the source material.  Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Losers Michael Roffman, Dan Caffrey, Justin Gerber, and Dan Pfleegor head to Hollywood King again to discuss the latest developments in King's Dominion, specifically on The Long Walk, The Monkey, The Institute, and forthcoming projects by King such as Always Holly. They also sort through some tweets, which ranges from greatest film scores to King's 1999 accident to more. Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a clip from our latest Patreon-exclusive episode that sees your Losers gushing about their favorite, all-time Stephen King crushes. Want to hear the full track? Become a member of The Barrens (Patreon) by visiting www.patreon.com/thebarrens. You'll unlock hundreds hours of exclusive content that includes even more episodes of The Stephen King Archives, our Dark Tower Detour series, dozens of Ka-mmentary tracks for your favorite King flicks, all of our Lobstrosities episodes clawing through those silly King sequels, in addition to spinoffs like The Soul's Midnight, Talkin' Hawkins, and CrichtonCast. Not to mention, dozens upon dozens of locked episodes and one-offs, including a 24-7 Discord community featuring Constant Listeners just like you! Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After taking a quick (and bleak) detour with the macabre Revival, Stephen King returned to the characters he introduced in 2014’s Mr. Mercedes with 2015’s Finders Keepers. The second in a trilogy of novels about aging detective Bill Hodges, Finders Keepers follows a young boy whose discovery of a trunk filled with cash (and moleskin notebooks) puts him in the crosshairs of a psychopathic bookworm.  In this episode of The Losers’ Club, hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Rachel Reeves, and Ashley Casseday slip on their pocket protectors and duct-taped specs to discuss King’s return to the obsessed fan archetype. Along the way, they touch on parasocial fandom, rare book dealers, butts, and whether the story even needs Hodges and co. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we’re unlocking our debut episode of the Dark Tower Detour, our Patreon-exclusive series that studies the minutiae of Roland Deschain’s epic quest. Hosted by Dan Pfleegor and Dan Caffrey, this exclusive series covers a range of topics that interest those who remember the face of their father. No character is too small. No detail too obscure.  This kickoff episode -- recorded in September 2021 -- sees the Dans joined by Kingslingers co-hosts Scott Daly and Matt Freeman. Together, this blessed ka-tet bring its expertise to the ill-fated Battle of Jericho Hill, a tragic bloodbath mentioned in passing across several installments of the series. If you recall, the event was finally explored in full during a five-issue Marvel comic book run that ran from December 2009 to April 2010. Using that as a stepping stone, your heroes will examine the minds behind these comics, break down the belligerents on either side of the battle, and discuss the canonical significance of the Horn of Eld in this world and others. If you like this episode, you can find more installments of the Dark Tower Detour, including our latest episode that studies the similarities between The Dark Tower and The Lord of the Rings, by joining The Barrens: patreon.com/thebarrens, In addition to the Detour, we have close to a thousand hours of content waiting to be unpacked. Not to mention a whole Discord community of Constant Readers just like you.  Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2014, Stephen King took a turn toward the macabre with Revival. A sprawling opus about the intersection between faith and science, the novel has since become a favorite amongst Constant Readers, who all consider it to be one of his modern masterpieces with an ending that haunts you forever. Today, the Losers step up and prepare to be healed by Minister Charles Jacobs as they discuss the unnerving novel. Together, they weigh in on the themes, how they relate to King's own beliefs in god and the afterlife, and whether or not this is the most harrowing ending King has put to paper. Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices