I don't pick up any Stephen King novel lightly. That's because while I am reading it and upto a forthnight after finishing it, each and every thing that goes bump in the night ends up scaring me to death. And yet, Mr. King managed to disappoint me twice in a week.
First, the movie - The Shining. To be fair, this movie was telecast late at night (if you can call 11pm that anymore!) and somewhere some dude/lady, in his/her infinite wisdom and for reasons best known to him/her, and perhaps to God, had decided to edit it. I confess that I was torn between being astonished and angry both. There is so much of violence and horror in real life these days that the same in the make-belief world of the cinemas simply pales in comparison. But who is to argue? The unfortunate result of this thoughtless editing was that parts of the movie simply didn't make any sense. It seemed as if the scenes were simply joined to each other in a haphazard manner.
Let's forget the editing for a minute. The movie started with a great plot. A man is asked to be a caretaker for a sprawling hotel that is closing down for the winter. He will have only his wife and little kid for sympathy. Except for a patchy contact with the local police, there won't be anyone within miles. Plus the last person to act in this capacity had ended up going berserk, killing his wife and twin daughters before committing suicide. Naturally the place has a 'reputation'. I almost salivated at the thought of getting scared out of my wits. But then the plot seemed to fizzle out before my very eyes. First, I couldn't figure out what the Shining meant - is it the kid's ability to be able to talk while keeping his mouth closed? Is that what summons the old chef back to the hotel in time to save him and his mother? How does his father die? What's the meaning of his ending up in the old photo at the end of the movie? And why on earth is the hotel full of ghosts of customers from a bygone era?
By the time the credits started rolling, I wondered if I had been better off going to bed early instead. :-(
And as if this disappointment wasn't enough, I had to pick up his 'Finders Keepers' at the library. It's not a horror novel. I won't go into the details of the plot. Suffice it to say that the idea of a fan killing a writer for messing up with the life of his favorite character and to get at the treasure trove of his never-to-be-published work, that too not for money, but to read it, sounded pretty far-fetched. Whichever way I saw it, I was unable to understand Morris. Sure, I was anxious to see that no harm comes to Peter, Tina and their parents, I also knew that they would emerge unscathed - or as 007 would say, shaken but not stirred.
I am not sure I will reach out for Mr. Mercedes anytime soon.
First, the movie - The Shining. To be fair, this movie was telecast late at night (if you can call 11pm that anymore!) and somewhere some dude/lady, in his/her infinite wisdom and for reasons best known to him/her, and perhaps to God, had decided to edit it. I confess that I was torn between being astonished and angry both. There is so much of violence and horror in real life these days that the same in the make-belief world of the cinemas simply pales in comparison. But who is to argue? The unfortunate result of this thoughtless editing was that parts of the movie simply didn't make any sense. It seemed as if the scenes were simply joined to each other in a haphazard manner.
Let's forget the editing for a minute. The movie started with a great plot. A man is asked to be a caretaker for a sprawling hotel that is closing down for the winter. He will have only his wife and little kid for sympathy. Except for a patchy contact with the local police, there won't be anyone within miles. Plus the last person to act in this capacity had ended up going berserk, killing his wife and twin daughters before committing suicide. Naturally the place has a 'reputation'. I almost salivated at the thought of getting scared out of my wits. But then the plot seemed to fizzle out before my very eyes. First, I couldn't figure out what the Shining meant - is it the kid's ability to be able to talk while keeping his mouth closed? Is that what summons the old chef back to the hotel in time to save him and his mother? How does his father die? What's the meaning of his ending up in the old photo at the end of the movie? And why on earth is the hotel full of ghosts of customers from a bygone era?
By the time the credits started rolling, I wondered if I had been better off going to bed early instead. :-(
And as if this disappointment wasn't enough, I had to pick up his 'Finders Keepers' at the library. It's not a horror novel. I won't go into the details of the plot. Suffice it to say that the idea of a fan killing a writer for messing up with the life of his favorite character and to get at the treasure trove of his never-to-be-published work, that too not for money, but to read it, sounded pretty far-fetched. Whichever way I saw it, I was unable to understand Morris. Sure, I was anxious to see that no harm comes to Peter, Tina and their parents, I also knew that they would emerge unscathed - or as 007 would say, shaken but not stirred.
I am not sure I will reach out for Mr. Mercedes anytime soon.
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