The Book That Scared Stephen King
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- It’s a book so dark that when Stephen King considered it done, he put his draft in a drawer, telling himself that he’d finally gone too far. In his own words, he was horrified by what he had penned and to this day, considers it to be the most frightening novel that he’s ever written.
The book is Pet Sematary and the question posed in this video is why does it resonate with us? It’s been the basis for three films and a prequel television series, garnering it with more adaptations than The Shining, It or any of the other Stephen King books.
And have you ever wondered where Stephen King may have gotten his idea for it? It’s much more obvious than you may think. And in this video is discussed the folkloric Wendigo, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as well as Stephen King’s connection to George A. Romero and his film Night of The Living Dead. Enjoy! - Zábava
I don't want to be buried in a pet cemetery.
But since I'm often mistaken for a dog it's probably unavoidable.
As a parent who has lost a child... This book is one of the most accurate depictions of the kind of mania and desperation I experienced, I felt like Louis and Rachel. I get why King sees this as his scariest novel (I agree) but to me it's also the most tragic horror story I've ever read.
I remember this novel. My mom bought me this book, and she used to read it to me when I was 5 or 6 years old. Since I do not live in an English-speaking country, the version I have is translated. Although I wasn't old enough to understand the concept of horror and couldn't tell if the translation was good enough, this story still scared me a lot.
One of the other things that King has said in regards to "Pet Sematary", (the writing of it, in any case) was that he was in a very dark place in his life at the time. He reports having been quite unhappy in that period of his life. Though he was an internationally celebrated bestselling novelist by this point, and his family's concerns about money were now behind them, he was having a hard time with domestic "family life". Coping with the stressors and pressures of being a husband and father involved drinking a lot of alcohol and bumping huge rails of coke on a regular basis. He's gone as far as to say that what little he remembers of the process of writing "Pet Sematary", his memories are very hazy and fragmented. It's a bleak story, because he was feeling very bleak at the time. In fact, finishing the final draft, he intended to throw it away. It was his wife Tabitha who saw it, read it, and said: "This MUST be published."
His wife saved so many books
It does definitely explain a lot! From what I've seen from reading this book (and what I've heard with bts facts about The Shining novel), he seems to have been terrified of being someone that could hurt his own kids or his kids getting hurt in from something else, and used his writings to work out those parental fears. I wouldn't be surprised that's part of how his books did so well - those are very normal and common fears a lot of parents have for their kids, and becoming a parent in general can be one of the scariest things for a ton of people.
As a parent, it really is terrifying.
100% True. Im a father of two, an older girl and a younger boy. When reading this book I was crying and coudn't go through it. After third attempt I finally finished the book.
Pet Semetary is a good example of how a horror story can be tragic as well as creepy, and also a good example of how tapping into something that's very common/human can help with making a good horror story imo. Losing a kid is often a lot of parents' worst nightmare and this book does a really good job exploring that horrifying and tragic experience - as well as musings about death in general.
For anyone that's looking for a similar book, I recommend Nick Cutter's The Deep - it's like a mixture of Pet Semetary and Room 1408, cosmic horror, and takes place in the deepest parts of in the ocean.
This book scared the living hell out of me. I agree it is absolutely his scariest. After reading it I couldn't sleep for almost three days. I also believe it is the best book of his I've read, however. I admire how effective it was in its horror.
I feel like “children shouldn’t play with dead things” is a great first act to pair with “pet cemetery”
What could be more unsettling, upsetting, and off-putting than the death of a child described in detail? I have both book and film (both) and cannot reread the funeral chapter, it's just too emotionally overwhelming...
I am currently reading this one. I am having hard time reading it, but also a hard time putting it down.
I always thought it was his book Rage when he was writing under the Bachman pen name. But now that I think about it, I think it’s more guilt and the sense of he feels indirectly responsible for the events that would happen after its release.
I can see why this one he considered the scariest though. I had to take frequent breaks while reading it, no horror book has ever done that for me before 😅
I took 10-year year break.
I feel like King's "Jekyll and Hyde" is actually "The Dark Half"
Nothing more terrifying than dead children and pets coming back to life!
Exactly!
Yeah, this is a BS title. Should be : Stephen King’s own book that scared him. There’s a whole book list of his favorites (Danse Macabre) and the one that scared him the most from that would actually be interesting. This is old news about PS for almost any SK fan.
Great video. Very interesting and informative. My one issue is that, at 10:17, you mention Richard Matheson's I am Legend as kicking off the zombie horror genre. You are mistaken in making this statement.
I Am Legend was about Vampires, nit zombies. The movie just changed that because the screenplay writers were lazy and didn't want to have to write for intelligent antagonists capable of speech and human thinking.
Although I’ve read most of King’s horror novels, as well as there three classics you mentioned, I never made the connection between Jekyll & Hyde/Shining until now. (My inner English major is howling with delight, so thank you.) Dracula/Salem’s Lot is no surprise, but Frankenstein/Pet Sematary is, at least to me. Maybe that’s because I had always assumed the inspiration came from “The Monkey’s Paw,” the chilling 1902 horror story by W.W. Jacobs. Something tells me we’re both right. By the way, Pet Sematary is the only SK book I’m too afraid to read.
I had a hard time finishing it, scary disturbing read.
my favourite King novel..but I read it only once lol and put it away. It's a really disturbing book
Oh, I thought this video was going to be about "The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen. Famously, Stephen King claimed it was the scariest novel he ever read and possibly the scariest ever written.
Still, though, this is an interesting video!
What happens? I thought this was going to be about the book that scared King too.
This is my favorite King book
love algernon blackwood’s Wendigo😊
0:45
"And to this day he considered it the most frightening novel that he's ever written"
Well, I'm glad SOMEBODY does.
I read it, it's DULL.
I read voraciously, Novels from many genres [except westerns, and romance novels, i have SOME standards], but while i have ENJOYED many Horror novels, I've never actually read one that has Frightened me.
There is something about Horror rendered in prose that really doesn't "Grab" me.
Sci-Fi, Sure, Murder Mysteries are incredible AND engaging, But Horror novels... I've NEVER read one that has had the desired effect.
King is NOT even the best Horror author there is, and when he reached a point in his career where the publishers would cut him a HUGE advance for writing "Boo!" on a cocktail napkin, his work had REALLY deteriorated to the formulaic and predictable, and the ONE THING that is the kiss of death for Horror, be it movies, books, TV, Radio, ANY media, it's being PREDICTABLE.
How can you be frightened when you can time the jump scares in a Horror movie down to the second?
There's no "Unknown" there's just ticking all the boxes.
Honestly the MOST horrifying thing I've ever read in a King novel was the child sex scene in "It".
To this day I wonder why he hasn't been had up on child pornography charges for that sequence.
Didn't "Scare" me, it was just all kinds of creepy and wrong.
I think a LOT of people are just mistaking disbelief and revulsion for Fear.
I didn’t find it scary either. If I had to choose which of his novels was the creepiest, in the way I like it, I’d say “‘Salem’s Lot.” Second would be “The Stand,” because viruses are pretty spooky. I stopped reading his stuff after “IT,” which I consider his worst. Seemed at that point he was just churning them out, and while I found a few to be good stories, most were boring.
@@geslinam9703 Salem's lot was an engaging read, but as I said, no fear involved.
@@Voodoomaria aw, there were some really good parts of that book…the cemetery scene where the gravedigger is burying Danny Glick, then later when the gravedigger goes to Matt’s house, both alive and as a vampire. And there was just King’s prose in general, when he wrote about the transformation of the town. Really, though, even the SK novels I enjoyed, I don’t think any of them were spine chilling extremely scary. My idea of scary is ghost stories, for the most part. Not many ghosts in his work.
@@geslinam9703 Like I said, Engaging, but not scary.
There was ONE story i read, but it's part true story, part Urban legend.
The story of London's Highgate Vampire.
Somewhat unsettling, BUT it filled me with more curiosity than fear.
@@Voodoomaria oh, that story is on my list of things I need to read. I’m into cemeteries, and Highgate is one I’ve always wanted to see, so anything to do with it is interesting to me. Thanks for the reminder, maybe I’ll read it tonight!