So, Christmas has now sadly past, and I am trying to get back into my regular routine, but also develop some new good habits at the same time. For instance, I am eager to get back into reading and posting, but I also want to start being more physically active. Santa brought me Wii Fit Plus for Christmas, and I am determined to make "Santa" feel like he has not wasted his money on buying it for me. Also, I just got a huge promotion at work, and will have to spend more time with that. So just in case you wonder why I am not posting as often, those are the reasons.Oh, and one other update, Santa carried through on his promise, and brought me an Amazon Kindle device, and I must say, it is the coolest thing I have seen in a long while. It really does feel just like you are reading a book, not like a machine at all. As previously mentioned, I plan on reading The Stand with the Kindle, and I can't wait to start that.
Anyway, the real topic of this update is to talk about the SK stuff that I have watched/read since last I posted. Well, the first thing I wanted to mention was that I watched the movie version of "The Mangler". I can sum up the movie in one word...Chainsploitation. You've heard of "Blacksploitation", "Sexploitation", and myriad kinds of exploitation movies, but this one takes the cake. The movie is shot after shot of gratuitous machinery chains churning, and grinding, and hissing, and steaming......oops, it really is starting to sound like a sexploitation movie instead. But that being said, the cinematography and the set design were quite impressive, and definitely the best part of the movie. The acting was atrocious, and the expanded story was more than ridiculous. But that was to be expected. If I was to compare it to the film adaptation of "Graveyard Shift", I would say that it was sooooooooo much better.
Moving on...I have read the next five stories in Night Shift, and would like to make some brief comments on those:
"Strawberry Spring": I hate to say it, but I feel like it was so long ago that I read this story, that I already don't really remember it much. I guess that isn't really saying much about the story, is it? It was an ok story about a serial killer who kills some people during an odd weather anomaly in the spring. It was reminiscent of Jack the Ripper coming out of the London fog. Nothing really more to mention. Enjoyable, but easily forgettable.
"The Ledge": Now this story on the other hand, I find quite memorable. It is the story of a rich man who has his wife's lover walk the ledge outside of his apartment building in order to get away with his life. It is a very suspenseful story, and really keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is one of the stories that was turned into a movie, as part of the anthology, Cat's Eye. I have that movie here from Netflix today, and can't wait to watch it as well.
"The Lawnmower Man": I think that when SK wrote this story, he must have been high on something. That being said, it isn't a really bad story. It's just extremely strange. It's a very short story about a man who hires a service to come mow his lawn. The guy that arrives is a fat guy who has a very strange way of mowing the lawn: His mower runs by itself, while the fat guy gets naked, crawls behind the mower, and eats all the grass clippings. The guy turns out to be a worshipper of Pan, and ends up sacrificing the homeowner to his god. The thing to really mention about this story though has more to do with the movie version. The movie version has nothing to do with the story at all. SK sued to have his name removed from the movie, because it was a remake in name only. I hate it when people make movies like that. Why trick us into going to see a movie by putting SK's name on it? Was the movie that bad that you had to pull that bullshit? Well, I've seen the movie, and while it's not the best movie, it still is quite entertaining. So who knows?
"Quitters, Inc.": OK, this story totally rocks. I don't know if it is because I am an ex-smoker who can totally appreciate the lengths it takes to quit smoking, or if it is just a really good story. Basically it is about a man who is a chain smoker, with a wife and kid. He meets an old friend one day who gives him a card for Quitters, Inc. who helped him quit smoking and "changed his life". So he goes to this place, and finds out that if he will be under constant surveillance, and if he smokes, then bad things will end up happening to his wife and kid. He slips only once, and his wife is forced to spend a certain amount of time in a box that gives electrical shocks to her feet. It is really crazy to think that sometimes it actually takes something that big to make you break a habit. It definitely makes you think. This story is also in Cat's Eye.
"I Know What You Need": A very well paced, and well written story about a college girl who meets a guy who has a knack for always knowing what she needs. He comforts her when her boyfriend dies, and they start seeing each other. Then her roommate does some investigating, and finds out that he is not all that he seems. One evening, she sneaks into his apartment and finds some voodoo figures of herself, and her dead boyfriend. He confronts her, but has no more power over her, and she leaves him. The story itself wouldn't have been that interesting, if the writing wasn't done so well. The story unfolds at a perfect pace, and has me entertained all the way through.
Well folks, that's all for now. Have a safe New Years Eve!
No comments:
Post a Comment