Horror on YouTube, Part 3: Stephen King Short Story Adaptations

Stephen King has written loads and loads of short stories. Tons of them. In between the time I typed that first S up there and right now, King published two short stories. You know that last short story you read? Turns out it was by Stephen King. You look up "prolific" in the dictionary, it has a picture of Stephen King next to it. You get the idea.

Lots and lots of them have been adapted into movies and television programs of varying degrees of quality. You've probably seen some of the tv movies and feature films based on his stories, so I'm going to let those go. Instead, I'm just going to focus on some of the short story adaptations you might not have seen. For example:

The Moving Finger

Short stories are ideal fodder for anthology television show adaptations, and King's have been used frequently. While they may not be suited for feature films, SK's crazier ideas can usually hold up for 22 minutes of tv. Case in point, "The Moving Finger," a story about a man facing off with a finger poking up from his bathroom sink drain. That's all, but it's enough. Here we see it as an episode of Monsters, a short-lived series in the vein of Tales From The Darkside.

Word Processor of the Gods

Speaking of Tales From The Darkside, here's their adaptation of "Word Processor of the Gods," a short story about a man whose late beloved nephew left him a word processor (remember those?) with the power to alter reality. Will he be able to turn his life around and make a better world for himself before the device falls apart? Check it out in this good adaptation. Just don't get freaked out by the creepiest opening credit sequence in the history of television.

The Battle

This short animated adaptation of "Battleground" came to us from the Ukraine back in 1986. I hadn't heard of this one before today, but thanks to the internet, here we are. The story is easy to follow and doesn't require much dialogue, so the language isn't really a barrier. Watch as a hit an returns home from bumping off the head of a toy company, only to find a box of pissed off "army men" on his doorstep. This one is a favorite story of many King fans and was also adapted (live-action) in TNT's excellent Nightmares and Dreamscapes series from 2006. You should check that series out, too.

 

N.

Speaking of animated adaptations, here's a "motion comic" version of one of King's most unnerving and frightening stories from his recent output. "N." is a fantastically paranoid story, and the motion comic's visuals, music, and sound effects add to the discomfort and dread. This is Stephen King at his most Lovecraftian (not counting "Crouch End," a Cthulhu mythos short story that was also adapted in Nightmares and Dreamscapes) and at his best. Turn out the lights, turn up your speakers, and let 'er rip.  (Oh, and if the subtitles bother you, you can watch it in 25 very short parts on youtube. You should be able to find them in the "related" videos.)

 

 

Horror on YouTube, Part 2: The Gore Edition

Get your Gallagher-style ponchos ready - it's about to get messy.

Friday the 13th Part 4 - Uncut Kills

The Friday the 13th series made its mark on audiences with a simple premise, a strangely compelling antagonist, and creative, over-the-top violence. Most, if not all, of the 80s editions of the series had to make pretty heavy cuts just to receive an R rating from the MPAA, rather than the dreaded X. While the little bit of excised gore from the first film was restored to make an "uncut" version on DVD and blu ray, the rest of the series has not received such a treatment. However, much of the cut footage is available through a number of sources, and generally it would be great to see it restored to the films. Here is a comparison between the theatrical and uncut versions of some of the deaths in Part Four. This supposed "final chapter" of the series allowed special effects all-time great Tom Savini to go nuts on the kills, culminating in the "death" of Jason Voorhees himself. His demise was short-lived, but it was still spectacular.

Cut/slide

Search around YouTube enough and you will find yourself in some pretty dark and disturbing places. Fortunately, you can find your way back to the goodness and light by simply searching for the phrase "cut slide."  A cut/slide is a very specific type of horror movie kill, in which the victim gets something sliced off almost without their knowing. You see the horrible realization dawning on their faces only when the victim slides down a wall or collapses slowly to the floor with their dismembered body parts dropping away underneath them. Watch this cut/slide montage and you'll see what I mean.

Horror on YouTube, part 1

So you're looking to slake your thirst for horror and you can't be bothered to pull yourself away from your computer. Where are you to turn? A movie pirating site? Google? Some stupid blog?

No! Just pull up good ol' YouTube (or Y'allTube as its known where I live) and you're in horror heaven. Below are some examples of horror content on YouTube that you might want to check out.  I'll provide links to more bone-curdling, blood-chilling videos as October creeps along.

Halloween 6: The Producer's Cut

Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers is a jumbled mess of a movie. It tried to tie Michael Myers to an ancient Celtic cult using a mystic rune and a Man In Black and Paul Rudd and... daaaaah. It sucked. What hit the theater screens with a thud in 1995 was not the original vision of the writer and director. In fact, about 40 minutes of the theatrical cut consisted of material that was reshot after bad performances with test audiences. So, whatever became of the originally shot material? Well, you can watch it on YouTube in what is known as the Producer's Cut. Does this version make more sense? Is it better than the theatrical version? Lots of fans think so. They are dumb. It's not better, but it is interestingly different and worth checking out if you are a fan of the series or of slasher movies with confusing mystical nonsense in them.  Here is the first of eight 15-minute or so segments.

Horror VHS Covers

Look at just about any movie poster or dvd case today and you'll see nothing but a bunch of Photoshopped faces floating on a background of yellows and blues selected by Marketing department scientists as the hues most pleasing to the eye. But back in the day, movie posters and video boxes were crafted with at least as much care and creativity as the movie they represented. With horror movies, the artwork was often a hell of a lot more intriguing and evocative than the movie itself. In the VHS era, a million cheapo horror flicks were in direct competition with the big budget Hollywood movies right next to them on the shelves at the rental store. They couldn't touch the effects and star power of their big-time peers, but they could sure put up a front with a killer video box. These videos collect tons of great box art that you may not have seen in years, and the likes of which we'll probably never see again.

Morgan Freeman as Dracula

Morgan Freeman has done it all in Hollywood. He's played every part from prisoners to Presidents and he has never disappointed. But has he ever played that most malevolent of monsters, the embodiment of evil, the one and only Count Dracula? Yes. Yes he has. Here he is on the children's show The Electric Company, putting on his best Transylvanian accent while bathing in a coffin. There would be better times to come for Mr. Freeman.