The other half of darkness —— The movie world of Stephen King, the master of terror

Steven Allan Spielberg once described The Shawshank Redemption as a "chewing gum movie". Because this movie has a mysterious attraction, just like chewing gum, it will stick to shoes when you step on it. Many people have seen this film and applauded it, but few people know who the original author is.

His name is Stephen King. In 2003, this writer, who was praised by The New York Times as "the master of modern horror novels", won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American National Book Award. This award marks that Stephen King has finally been recognized by the mainstream cultural circles, and his status as a best-selling author will not detract from his artistic achievements.

Even among the best-selling authors, Stephen King is prolific. He has been adapted into dozens of films. What's more, when it comes to the rate of adaptation of original works into TV series, Stephen King can rank second and Shakespeare first. Except The Shawshank Redemption, sharping, Fog and so on, which you are familiar with. There are more excellent films, which are not well known. When you are looking for a suspense thriller movie, here is a treasure map, so that you won't miss the treasure under the shallow floating soil.

1. Kelly. Kelly (1976)

Director: Brian De Palma

Starring: sissy spacek/Rosetta Jacobs/amy irving/

Like all introverted and ordinary-looking girls, Kelly is often pushed out by her classmates. But if this is the case, the mother who is a religious fanatic, plus Carrie's own little secret, will eventually let the mysterious power hidden in Carrie explode. But her classmates don't know what kind of storm of blood and fire will wait for them.

Words such as mindfulness, super ability, mental ability, telepathy, etc. In fact, they are all products of the research category of "super psychology".

Carrie the Witch is not only the first work published by Stephen King, but also the first time to popularize the mysterious power of "spiritual ability" to the audience in front of the big screen. At the same time, this film is the originator of the so-called "youth horror film" type.

In the movie poster, the angry girl covered in blood and the burning black bracket in the background indicate that a killing is coming.

Many movies that end in killing have a loose structure. However, there are various narrative methods in this film, and the author polished the original work to make it more focused on Carrie's personal image itself. At the same time, the artistic layout of the screen space, the angle and movement of the lens are carefully arranged, which brings the audience an immersive feeling.

2. Dead zone (1983)

Director: david cronenberg

Starring: christopher walken/Brooke Adams?

Johnny, who had been in a coma for many years because of a car accident, woke up to find that he had been compensated by God-he had the ability to predict disasters. But he gradually found that this ability is more like a curse than a gift. This ability made him famous, and at the same time began to pull Johnny into the abyss of no return.

The name Conanberg may be a little strange, but if the movie Blinking is mentioned, it is estimated that it will arouse many people's childhood shadows. It's true that the film "The Dead Zone" is not a work of Conanberg that can be seen at a glance, because there is nothing too scary in the film. So someone once commented that this is his only horror film depicting human nature.

The performance of Vulcan, the hero in the film, can be said to be the most dazzling flame in his whole performance career. The character's melancholy, loneliness and despair at the last moment are all shown in his performances, even in every close-up.

The word "melancholy beauty" is rarely used in this kind of film, but this film did it. Melancholy is like a mosaic on the bathroom wall, and pieces of collage decorate it. A lot of shadows and silhouettes are used in the picture to create a cave-like space effect. This strange feeling is similar to David Lynch's Ghost Night. There is also a so-called bizarre suicide in the film history, which needs you to see.

3. Pet souvenirs from the pet cemetery (1989)

Director: Mary Lambert?

Starring: Dale Midkiff/Fred Gwynne?

Louis's family and career are very successful. When his child died in a car accident, he just moved to a small town. Grief is not enough to describe the feelings of this family. Louis accidentally learned that there was an Indian cemetery near his new home, and this cemetery also had the magical power to revive pets. The pain of losing a child produced a terrible plan in his mind. ...

As early as edgar allan poe's work "Premature Bury", "I can't accept the fact that I am dead" was used as a horror element.

Kim himself once claimed that horror movies are attractive because you are preparing for your own death. And the ancient cult in Pet Cemetery combined that kind of deformed and crazy physical death with the collapse of a happy family. The irreconcilable conflict between the two draws the audience into a nightmare without warning.

The quality of this kind of movies often depends on whether those horror clips can be engraved in your heart. Although the bloody scenes in the film are restrained, the excellent assists of onomatopoeia and editing combine to form a "panic montage". It's like walking alone into a path on a rainy night, surrounded by crazy people whispering hysterically.

The seemingly low-cost cemetery scene at the beginning of the film is actually carefully designed. Fog, as cold as asphalt, permeates the whole cemetery paper, rickety crosses and broken and tortuous stone roads. It indicates that this will be a Gothic nightmare, not a hodgepodge of simple family sitcoms and supernatural elements. A hint: Stephen King also appeared in the film himself.

4. Ten-day danger (1990)

Director: rob reiner

Starring: james caan/kathy bates?

Paul, a famous best-selling author, was suddenly involved in a car accident. Fortunately, nurse Anne saved his life. But he never imagined that the story of his new book, which he inadvertently revealed, would attract Annie's crazy revenge. Paul must find a way out. Anne's anger has begun to burn on others.

Compared with the previous films, Ten Days of Danger is much more famous. The original name of the film is "The Number One Book Fan", which is really appropriate. The heroine Kathy? Bates is a real crazy fan of this book. She won the 63rd Oscar for Best Actress for her outstanding performance. Jin also said that Ten Days of Danger is a work that "can have a great influence on you".

For a prolific writer like Jin, writing often becomes the most interesting and important thing in his life, and even makes people wonder whether he has time to experience other parts of his life. Writing has also become a "safe fortress" for the protagonist Paul in the film. When the writer wants to change the plot, both the reader and himself must break through the safe cage. Unfortunately, Paul met Anne, a person who is willing to defend his recognized "story" to the death.

Anne's delusion of love for writer Paul, with the blessing of religious fanaticism, catalyzed a kind of terrorist pressure with tragic temperament. Annie, who is extremely unstable, is like a bomb, which may affect Paul or you who think you are safe behind the screen at any time.

Although the film is surrounded by a cold and tense atmosphere for most of the time, occasionally there is a little comedy element in it. A person who can't act normally has to pretend to be calm and have some humor from time to time when facing Annie's "invisible countdown" time bomb. The contrast between these two diametrically opposed emotions makes the horror atmosphere in the film even more tense. The sense of insecurity of complete helplessness has also multiplied.

5. Rabies scares Cujo( 1983)

Director: Lewis Teague

Starring Dee Wallace/Danny Pintoro/daniel hugh kelly?

Donna, a housewife who had no worries about food and clothing, began to fall into an emotional crisis because of the exposure of the third party relationship. Donna had to move to a motel when her husband left and her son was very young. Originally, she wanted to take this opportunity to sort out her confused thoughts and consider the next step. But the appearance of a vicious dog completely changed the future of her and her children.

Family, people's safe haven, may be a mistake, which breeds the germ of fear. The feeling of "making you feel on pins and needles at home" is to take advantage of the potential fear of death in our daily life. When many people are young, they are worried that there is a monster hidden in the closet. When we are asleep, it will stretch out half a face from the gap and stare at the unconscious dreamer with red pupils.

If you think this is a horror movie in which a vicious dog attacks innocent people, it is all wet. This story is actually about how a family faces injuries. The slow pace of the story in the first half is not boring, but the seemingly comfortable daily life in the film makes the undercurrent look bleak. In the film, Donna's life goes into disorder step by step, just like the rocky coast after low tide, and the hidden crisis is exposed as the story progresses.

Both mother and son's performances are mature and restrained. Donna, as a mother, showed her anger to protect her children and despair when she found that she was beyond her power. Just as fear always grows up, so do boys. Facing the dog's panic, accompanied by mental confusion and physical loss, the boy's expression and limbs were all exposed to the camera.

Sometimes, people gain a sense of security and control by repeating monotonous family chores. Even subconsciously, they think it is not impossible to get rid of the fear of death as long as they can continue like this. But this movie will tell you that no place is really safe, and home is not your safe haven.

6. Phantom Fierce Room 1408(2007)

Director: Micael Haverstrom

Starring: john cusack/Samuel Jackson?

Mike, a horror writer, is caught in a writing bottleneck. He found that he lost his enthusiasm, became less and less good at describing feelings, and became less and less able to truly feel the fear. So Mike came to the Dolphin Hotel/room KLOC-0/408, which is a famous haunted shrine. Unfortunately, he succeeded this time.

Hotel rooms, with more or less traces of other people's lives, are always easy to become hotbeds of terror. There are countless urban legends about hotels. It's all horror stories in hotels. Different from the famous sharping, 1408 has its own unique expression.

In addition to the conventional horror film techniques, this film also uses a lot of innovative shooting angles. A large number of close-ups not only create a distorted and psychedelic sensory effect, but also show how the protagonist is going out of control and crazy step by step, from losing control of the outside world to losing control of himself.

Most of the scenes in the film use real scenes instead of post-special effects, which also enhances the realism of the terrible room. The improvement of realism is accompanied by the suppression of claustrophobic atmosphere. The change of the room, the abrupt sound effect without warning, all give people a strong sense of uneasiness. As Kim once described, the room 1408 in the movie is just like the doctor's cabin in Calgary. Those crooked and abrupt designs and abnormal picture angles make the whole movie reveal an expressionist madness.

In fact, this movie has two endings, which everyone needs to pay attention to. Of course, if you don't want to accept too much negative energy, then you'd better not go to see the director's abridged version.