Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide

by Stephen Jones

Inside Creepshows you will find a candid look at each and every Stephen King movie, sequel and spin-off, all complete with major cast and credit information, along with television adaptations, stage shows, radio plays and computer games and details of unproduced and forthcoming projects. In fact, everything you could possibly want to know, including in-depth coverage of classic films and fan favourites like Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Creepshow, The Dead Zone, Christine, Stand By Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne and The Green Mile.
Illustrated with numerous rare posters, photographs and book covers, and featuring extensive quotes from many of the key people who worked on these projects - including exclusive contributions from Mick Garris, Frank Darabont, Harlan Ellison, Peter Straub, Bernie Wrightson and, of course, Stephen King himself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Stephen Jones is an eighteen-time winner of the British Fantasy Award.

Reviews

[Ripley]

This guide gives a short synopsis and some behind the scenes commentary of every film based on a Stephen King movie up to it's print date of 2001. It even talks about the movies very loosely based on his stories and the episodes of popular television series that he scripted, Chinga from X Files for instance. I was surprised to see that he had a close circle of friends that included movie industry big wigs that he frequently works with, like Mick Garris and George Romero. This book also talks about the reception of the films, how much creative control King had and his involvement, and how closely the film follows the book, which in most cases isn't very close. 

I quite enjoyed this book, because as a cinephile, I've seen a good majority of those tv mini series and films based on his books. I'm not as familiar with the lower budget works or his dollar babies, but now this gives me a list of things I need to check out. The book ends with an interview with the man himself and what I liked best was how he talked about his near fatal accident of 1999 that almost prevented him from ever writing again. At the printing of this interview, his only plans for writing were to finish the Dark Tower series and one more novel and then he was going to retire. I'm incredibly glad he decided to scrap that idea because he has printed some fantastic works since then.

I give this one a 5 out of 5.  It has great info on the movies and the process it took to get them to the screen for us to see. The photographs and video covers only enhance the experience. This is a must have companion book for any fan of the man himself: Stephen King!

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christine on HBO triggered my whimsy for teenhood idol King, and so I dug up this library, a purchase from Amazon. Snippets of trivia about his stories-turned-movies/films abound, most of which I'm already familiar with. What I didn't know was how King abhorred Kubrick's version of The Shining, which I think ranks as the best King adaptation I've seen (kudos to Kubrick and the leads)! Reading all at random, I see why I used to like him. Why I in fact, love him still. His stories always start out real enough for one to be able to relate to, before it eventually ties the knot around your ankle and whisk you off. And by the time that happens, I'm usually well into the realm of suspension of disbelief...I am such a sucker for King. And he does seem like a nice enough chap, basing on his co-workers' first person accounts. Typos abound.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another favorite movie guide of mine on Stephen King. This one is beautifully made in the style of Creepshow and features all of King's movies up to 2001. Pet Sematary (remember The Ramones song?), Tales from the Darkside, IT (the 80s movie not the fine remake), Misery, Sometimes They Come Back (still scary), The Dark Half (LOL, he ain't heavy, he's my brother), The Stand, Needful Things (somehow I liked the movie more than the book), The Shawshank Redemption (excellent story), the follow ups to Children of the Corn, Green Mile (one of his best novels ever). Included are forthcoming projects, a bibliography and an index. Gosh, when you read those pages you really know why there is no one in the last 50 years or so like King. He was so outstanding back then and sometimes still is. Highly recommended stuff. When you want to walk down memory lane this is the right stuff to do...

[Leila Anani · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful and informative guide to the films of Stephen King's works. Each movie is given at least a page which includes cast and crew info, synopsis, stills and trivia. This also offers sections on short films, forthcoming projects, a list of King cameos, recurring talent and a selected bibliography.

Only downside is of course it was published in 2001 so of course doesn't cover anything beyond that. Even so, I found this one quite useful and it's helped me track down a few films I'd missed.

[Kerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did we really need multiple pages dedicated to Children of The Corn sequels and The bloody Lawnmower Man!?
Also pretty much every film is slated so it would make you wonder if King is actually any good at writing if you didn’t know any of his books.
But I did enjoy plenty of facts that I was previously unaware of.

[Daniel DeLappe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read and a must for fans. Where was The Stand?

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a rabid SK fan this was a fun read but I really feel they could have left out the crap movies like "Sometimes they come Back" or the numerous Children of the Corn sequels. There are some excellent SK movies, particularly those by Darabont, that man has a way with prisons! And there are some great books that got made into horrid movies, think Needful Things. But I did like the little tidbits and trivia.