King is not, by his own admission, a Christian so to try to compare his work with CS Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien may seem unfair to some. My impression is that King would get a lower favorability rating than JK Rowling by most conservative Christians. But while he does not fall within the same religious foundation as a Lewis or Tolkien, King deals with a lot of the same themes. 1408 is about unbeliever confronted with true evil. It is not, though some may take it that way, a "ghost" story. It is more like Christine, or From a Buick 8, or Black House in that the room, a supposedly inanimate object, is the villain of the piece.
I'm sure over time I will have more to say here about Mr. King and his work. But if you like scary movies at all, I put 1408 in the "see at the theater" category. One other ranking criteria, though probably obvious for this film: it is not a "family" film. Do not take immature (you determine what that is for your) children.
Sidenote 1: When, on the occasion that I have seen a movie and chose to rank it, my rankings (high to low) will be:
- See at the theater
- Rent the DVD (or pay per view if that is your preference)
- Catch it on a premium channel
- Watch it on basic cable (you'll enjoy the breaks)
- Don't waste your precious time
Sidenote 2: Many King stories don't translate well to cinema. Movies like Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption made the transition well, but many of the more stereotypical Stephen King stories have not faired so well (don't get me started on Hearts in Atlantis, which was actually a terrible version of "Low Men in Yellow Coats" and not "Hearts in Atlantis" proper at all). Why this is might be a good discussion topic for a future date.
2 comments:
What about 'The Stand'. That's one of my favorites!
ps-when I was a kid I was really into Stephen King, so much that my mom sold some of her good books at a garage sale for fear I would get the 'evil' in me. hah.
Obviuosly, it is fiction (good fiction, I might add) and I know better.
I got hooked on King in the middle of his career (after Gunslinger). I have the Stand but I've never read it. I saw the TV miniseries, which I loved, and the book plays into the Dark Tower series, but I just haven't read it yet.
For many Christians, who would accept Tolkein, Lewis, and even Rowling, King is still off limits. But it is good fiction. Better than he was given credit for early in his career. A book like Needful Things, for instance, is very insightful about human failings and the nature of evil.
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