STEPHEN KING AT THE MOVIES

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The subtitle of Ian Nathan’s tome is A Complete History Of The Film And Television Adaptations From The Master Of Horror, and he’s not fibbing. This handsome book covers 65 Stephen King-based movies and 30 TV shows to date, while even such unofficial curiosities as Woh, a Bollywood riff on It, and Nasse Schlupper, a German porno take on The Shining, get a mention in the introduction.

The format is pleasingly straightforward, tackling the screen adaps chronologically from Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) to previews of Andy Muschietti’s It Chapter Two and Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, both due later this year.

Heavy hitters such as Kubrick’s The Shining, Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, Reiner’s Stand By Me and Misery, and Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist get six to eight pages apiece, while guff such as the nine (!) Children Of The Corn sequels and The Mangler trilogy are relegated to boxouts.

You naturally won’t agree with all of Nathan’s readings and opinions (one word: Christine) and there’s the occasional niggly error (referring to Stand By Me’s Teddy as Terry throughout), but Stephen King At The Movies is strong on context, Making Of anecdotes and analysis, while Nathan is especially adept at identifying recurring themes and motifs. Also a joy is the mix of stills and behindthe-scenes shots, gleaming so vivid as to bleed off the page. Jamie Graham