Stephen King Films: "Subliminal Themes"

I notice a great deal of oddities and similarity in Stephen King films, despite many of them being directed by completely different directors with very different tastes. Obviously much of this stems from them adapting from the same author. Still, there is also some direct connections between key figures from different films that may have gone unnoticed.

One of my first observations was that there may be a relation between "Old Mother Abigail" from THE STAND and "Dick Halloran" from THE SHINNING.

My contention here, is that in THE STAND, Mother Abigail tells Nick that her family has had a long line of people with "The Shine" - a clear reference to their psychic talents, and her ability to connect with the last survivors through dreams.

In THE SHINNING, Dick Halloran tells Danny that he would have whole telepathic conversations with his grandmother, to whom she titled the pychic ability SHINING.

This led me to believe that these two characters are related, despite being in different films.

This is not unlike, King's reoccuring "Dark Man" who is the villainous evil entity in THE STAND and also in his series THE DARK TOWER, two very different books indeed.

In the DARK TOWER graphic novel, it goes as far as suggesting that the Dark Man is prevalent in both dimensions, thus sets his precedence in both books.

I could be wrong about this, and I am curious if anyone else has seen similar connections in King's film adaptations and books.

I don't think there's so much as "subliminal themes" but more towards the fact that at some point in King's career...he simply ran out of ideas.

A lot of his stories were set in his hometown of Maine & a lot of his characters had a "coming of age" approach to the horror aspect of King's plots. Suffice to say, this would be an easy angle to cross reference one story with another.

From memory, Stand By Me made references to Cujo, Christine & Salem's Lot. I wouldn't refer to these connections as subliminal themes.

Also when King was recovering from his injuries, his publishing company gave him a hideous amount of money to come up with 3 novels in 2 years. That's a lot of pressure on the imagination to come up with something new...for 3 novels in a row.

That's understandable. I still think though a director's choice to have a link in an actual film adaptation is what is notable.

I had heard many times that Stephen King didn't care much for Kubrick's film version of THE SHINING. But I like it better than King's actual version and the mini-series on cable, which stood true to the novel.

I suppose it's because I like the genius works of Kubrick, who adds so much of his own work in film and in much detail. Oddly, it is rumored that King used Kubrick's bizarre "Spacial Anomalies" from the 80's Shining film to add in his book, and later cable series, "Rose-Red."

One film that King liked very much and had great success was Pet Cemetery, which I thought did well in staying true to the novel and also in adding in new elements in a balanced way.

Oddly, Frank Durobont's THE MIST seems to have gotten a bad rap-because lots of people didn't like the ending. I really like The MIST and thought it was one of our decades greater horror films, reminiscent of horror films from the 70's & 80's.

It was obvious that King had a strong H.P. Lovecraft influence when he wrote it, and that showed in the film as well. A cool mix in my opinion.

As a kid I grew up reading Stephen King. I thought I could count all the novels I read on one hand then surprised the hell outta me when the tally came to 18!!!

I think from memory, it was around The Talisman & The Dark Tower when I started to feel King was running out of ideas...or maybe simply I was out-growing him....enter Clive barker.

And yeah, I'm in the minority too of liking how Durobont ended The Mist. The burden of demons!

I was watching an older movie called "Phantoms", which was pretty cool. It was sort of a cross between Silent Hill, The Mist and The Thing. I was surprised to know it was adapted from Dean Koontz who goes back quite a way as an author.

On a review of Phantoms I seen this criticism of Koontz (pasted below) and I thought; I suppose most authors revisit similar themes to explore the aspects of certain ideologies. I do this a lot in my work as an artist and writer, too.

So maybe with some authors, it's not about running out of ideas, but about exploring similar themes in different ways in other titles.

However, I do agree with you on King -he must be stressed to fulfill expectations and the sheer amount of books he's contracted to write.

IDMB Criticism on Koonts (not mine)

Dean Koontz isn't exactly the world's most prolific author. As a writer, he has the tendency to basically re-state his themes and plots over and over. His movie adaptations are usually messy, as clearly seen by such films as Hideaway and Sole Survivor. Thus, it comes as a surprise that Phantoms is an often terrifying thriller; it's not particularly original, but it delivers the thrills and suspense that it promises .

As an artist, whether it be writing, music, film, illustration...it's very easy to lose sight of integrity when you're trying to make a living out of your talent.

The general public has a habit of labelling them "sold out" when they merely become successful at what they do.

Originally posted by Esau Cairn
As an artist, whether it be writing, music, film, illustration...it's very easy to lose sight of integrity when you're trying to make a living out of your talent.

The general public has a habit of labelling them "sold out" when they merely become successful at what they do.

I agree most assuredly. Just because an artist (music, film, art, ect) becomes popular, it doesn't mean they've lost their touch.