The King of Horror Films The Write Brigade Stephen King Research Paper Outline 1. Introduction a. Short biography b. Thesis Statement: Stephen King uses many different elements in order to scare his readers. The elements include supernatural elements, real life scenarios, and fear of the unknown. 2. How substance abuse and a childhood accident affected King’s creativity a. Heavy drinking b. Harder drugs c. Intervention and Sobriety d. Watching one of his friends getting hit by a train 3. Using supernatural elements a. The Tommyknockers uses aliens and mind control b. Carrie uses things such as witchcraft and supernatural powers. 4. How stories that include real life situations can scare us. a. Rage I. Repercussions from Rage II. Removal from print 5. Fear of the Unknown and things that “go bump in the night” a. Gerald’s Game 6. Suspenseful writing with very descriptive tone a. Autopsy Room Four a man is lying on the table awaiting his living autopsy unable to scream. 7. Writing style A. Tone B. Word Usage C. Emphasis 8. Conclusion The Write Brigade Horror Films The King of Horror Films For such a successful writer, Stephen King really had no secret to his writing style. King has credited free writing for his best ideas. He also has a very down to earth way of looking at his fame. Stephen King would read for four hours, and then he would write for four hours or until he reached 2,000 words. In a Time magazine interview, King called this his nine to five approach and that he, “worked until beer o’ clock.” When asked where his ideas came from, King would often reply, “I have the heart of a small boy. . . And I keep it in a jar on my desk.” Also, he does not have just one particular way of writing horror, and what often sets off the terror in his readers most was the vast amount of detail portrayed.
As Mccarthy once said “The suspense of a novel is not only in the reader but in the novelist, who is intensely curious about what will happen to the hero. (Mary McCarthy)” In this quote, McCarthy means the main characters in the story are suspenseful to draw the reader to be anxious. Above all, the author incorporates the use of literary terms in his or her’s story to create the feeling of suspense. To be specific, in the story “The Hitchhiker” by Lucille Fletcher, the author includes the elements foreshadowing and supernatural to leave the reader anticipated and anxious what is going on in the story. Also, in “The Monkey's Paw” by W.W Jacobs, the author develops suspense by adding literary devices such as situational irony and cliffhanger
How W.W. Jacobs, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens Create Suspense in their Gothic Horror Stories
In the First Forward, Stephen King looked to his peer Amy Tan for a justifiable reason to work on this piece of non-fiction. Amy replied, “No one ever asks about the language.” King states, "What follows is an attempt to put down, briefly and simply, how I came to the craft, and what I know about it now, and how it's done. It's about the day job; it's about the language." (xiv). As a successful novelist, King has lived the experiences that a writer would not only like to learn from, but perhaps live someday. Discovering how success happened to someone that the aspiring writer might admire makes the dream seem more real, almost attainable. This success as a writer makes Stephen King an expert on this subject, thus making his perspective authoritative.
Writers have changed the lives of many people over the years. In times of situation that people do not want to be in, times of wars, poverty, near death experience causing one to be immobile, or even just to get out of this world the works they create gives people those opportunities to do so. Stephen King is a big contributor of his published works to people in every on every continent. He is a writer of both novels and short stories, a film director, actor and even screen writer of most of his novels that turn into movies, but is he mainly known because of his works in the genre of horror. Going from his first published novel, Carrie and one of his famous selling The Shining King have made history as the king of
King, who has explored almost every terror-producing theme imaginable, from vampires, rabid dogs, deranged killers, pyromaniac ghosts, to telekinesis, biological warfare and even a malevolent automobile was known for his horror stories, and strange deaths.
Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine (Biography Today). During the course of a thought-provoking childhood, King gained an interest in chilling stories that were far too grown-up for such a young boy (Biography Today). His concentration on demoralizing stories became his own clandestine escape from his particular fears brought on by a life-changing event for his family (Kehoe). The life-changing event that was brought on at such a youthful age has developed the king of horror, who is now a renowned author.
2. In paragraph form and with reference to the story, discuss the role of fear in creating suspense.
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
Blood. Some people love it some people hate it, Tim Burton loves it. The movie Sleepy Hollow is very gory, bloody and more eerie than the text because the viewer is actually seeing in real life the dark descriptions of what is going on and get the goosebumps, and chills down their spine, which some actually love. Readers get none of that when reading “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. When is the last time you heard someone jump out of their seats in terror when reading a book, movies are what get the viewers
When writing a story that is meant to scare the reader, authors use a variety of different literary elements to intensify fear. This is apparent in the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “beware: do not read this poem,” and “House Taken Over”. It is shown through transformation in the character, setting, and sometimes even the story or poem itself, adding to the scariness that the reader feels when reading it. While there are some examples of transformation not being scary or not playing a role in stories meant to scare us, transformation plays a crucial role in making the reader of these stories scared.
In any good horror story line you have to have certain aspects or traits to be categorized as a good horror story. What do the readers look for in a horror story you may ask. Well the primary ingredients for making a fearsome, shuddery, monstrous story are foreshadowing, fear, suspense, mystery/surprise and imagination of course. Without every single one of these elements, the reader would not be involved and wouldn 't even continue to finish reading the full story. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Phillip K. Dick and Edgar Allen Poe are only some of the great representations of who have constructed frightening yet delightful stories for us to read.
conveys feelings of suspense and thrill. There are many different literary criticisms that can be
Stephen King is one of the most influential authors of today. His award-winning novels and short stories are known world -wide. His many awards and nominations have created a space for him in the literary world. King is a true “Horror King”, for his books, turned movies, have scared millions world- wide. Stephen King has helped bring America to prominence through his many books, essays and short stories.
King owes his success to his ability to take what he says are “real fears” (The Stephen King Story, 47) and turn them into a horror story. When he says “real fears” they are things we have all thought of such as a monster under the bed or even a child kidnapping and he is making them a reality in his story. King looks at “horror fiction...as a metaphor” (46) for everything that goes wrong in our lives. His mind and writing seems to dwell in the depths of the American people’s fears and nightmares and this is what causes his writing to reach so many people and cause the terror he writes about to be instilled in his reader.
The medico-legal autopsy report should be as detailed as possible so as not to miss even the slightest of findings, which may later play a big role in determining the case, hence standardized autopsy procedures as well as autopsy protocols have been devised.