77 Terrifying Years of the King of Horror

On 21 September, American author Stephen King turned 77, a writer so firmly associated with the horror and thriller genres that he has rightfully and unanimously earned the title of the King of Horror. The most prolific and talented in his genre, King has published 65 novels, five non-fiction books, and 15 poems to date. Additionally, he has released seven novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. His tireless pen is also responsible for more than 200 short stories and 35 novellas, all collected in his own anthologies.

Despite the fact that King made his name in the horror genre, it's impossible to say his work is confined to such narrow genre boundaries. King successfully operates at the intersection of genres like fantasy (“The Talisman,” “The Dark Tower” series), science fiction (“The Running Man,” “The Dead Zone,” “Under the Dome”), and entirely realistic prose (“Dolores Claiborne,” “The Body,” “Misery”). Highbrow literary critics tend to classify his works as “low literature,” into which all the aforementioned genres inevitably fall. However, let’s be fair – how is the existential drama about Jack Torrance, a playwright who loses his talent and descends into madness in the snowbound Overlook Hotel, any different from the inner turmoil of “classic” literary hero Rodion Raskolnikov? Is it the presence of the supernatural? There’s plenty of that in both “The Shining” and “Crime and Punishment.” Is it the moral message? King's is always more clearly articulated than the incoherent mumblings of Dostoevsky’s fevered, delusional characters. Moreover, the therapeutic effect of “horror literature,” according to psychiatrists, is much more healing for a person than the deep frustration one experiences after reading the sluggish and murky “psychological” dramas of lauded classics.

Although King is often reluctantly admitted into the mainstream and “great literature,” the writer has no shortage of awards: the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and even the National Medal of Arts, which was presented to King in 2014 by President Barack Obama himself. The National Medal was awarded for “mesmerising storytelling with deep insights into human nature,” a point no literary critic would likely dispute.

Good doesn’t always triumph in Stephen King’s works, and evil isn’t always defeated, but this author completely lacks the “moral relativism” so often found in those same Russian “classics,” who love to grant “their truth” to every villain, outcast, and psychopath in their novels. Perhaps it’s precisely because of his clear moral compass and deep understanding of the nature of evil that Stephen King was one of the first internationally renowned authors in spring 2022, following the full-scale invasion of Putin's hordes into Ukraine, to declare a boycott of Russia and prohibit his literary agents from selling the rights to his books in the aggressor state.

But King’s literary boycott is not where his activism ends – just a quick scroll through his Twitter (social network X) will reveal a substantial collection of the author’s comments on the genocidal war Russia is waging on Ukrainian territory. In spring 2023, King addressed the global community, urging them not to forget about Ukraine and to ignore those who call for appeasement.

Some of King’s quotes deserve to be printed on T-shirts. Here’s what the “politically incorrect” and ruthless King of Horror wrote about the entry of the Ukrainian Armed Forces into the Kursk region and the extension of the war into the aggressor's territory:

“The Russians are getting their shit handed to them, and they deserve it. After all, they started it.”

There’s nothing to add – and who are we to add anything to the words of a classic?

Aside from being the most prolific and productive writer in America (he began writing at age seven and has continued for over 70 years), Stephen King is also one of the most adapted writers in the world. There’s a myth about the “curse of King adaptations,” suggesting that most of them either flop at the box office or turn out far worse and duller than the original texts. But is this really true? King’s works are always in high demand among film producers, and since he writes so much, the ratio of successful to unsuccessful adaptations seems quite large. Just listing a few films that have been cinematic classics for decades is enough to dispel this myth: “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” “Misery,” “It,” “Firestarter” (the original version with a young Drew Barrymore in the lead role), “Silver Bullet,” and finally, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” which is studied frame by frame in film schools.

In the coming years, 2024-2026, we can expect several more landmark adaptations of the King of Horror's novels, novellas, and short stories. These include the feature film “The Life of Chuck,” starring Tom Hiddleston, based on the story from a recent collection. The film “The Monkey,” which tells a terrifying tale of two twins. A reboot in serial format of King’s principal “vampire novel” “Salem's Lot,” scheduled for release in October. The list of King series will also be expanded with the miniseries “The Institute,” which continues and develops themes explored in his older novel “Firestarter.” Finally, there will be two iconic adaptations of his early novels in the genre of dystopian social commentary, written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman: “The Long Walk” and a remake of the 1987 sci-fi action film “The Running Man” – the previous adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger had very little in common with the grim, hopeless, and brutal story described in the novel, apart from the basic plot idea.

Let’s hope that this flow of King adaptations doesn’t dry up, as film studios have already acquired the rights to his five new novels and a collection of short stories. We wish the King of Horror many more years of productive work and many more successful adaptations.