Model, actor, and former adult film performer Cam Damage joins Vespe and Breznican to nerd out about all manner of things, from VHS collections to notable Bangor locations to Stephen King's work on the whole. We do focus primarily on King's recent outing, Fairy Tale, a work that isn't exactly beloved by most of his constant readers, but a story that means a lot to Cam.
Writer/Director duo David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano (I Don't Understand You) join Vespe and Breznican to talk all about their new movie as well Stephen King's The Stand, with a focus on the 1994 Mick Garris mini-series adaptation. Unexpected topics of conversation this episode: hilarious film commentaries, birds being a-holes, '90s footwear, the perfect choice for Randall Flagg being poo-poo'd by King, and questionable strip club stories from Miguel Ferrer. I Don't Understand You is available...
Life of Chuck stars Karen Gillan and Tom Hiddleston sat down with us to talk about their Stephen King origin stories, the film adaptations that moved them, and everything that went into their roles in the most recent Stephen King adaptation.
The Life of Chuck is based on Stephen King's novella of the same name from the If It Bleeds collection and is a story told in reverse featuring dancing, death, a haunted cupola, and the end of the world. You know, the basics for a good yarn.
Mike Flanagan's adaptation of The Life of Chuck starts hitting screens this weekend. It's about a lot of things: the end of the world, the impact a single person can have on the universe, the importance of math, and the joy of dancing. It's hard to explain what this movie is, but it is large and, much like the title character, contains multitudes.
The Outsider is the book where King's current obsession, Holly Gibney, takes a full step to the forefront as she helps investigate a particularly interesting case where a man arrested for the brutal killing of a child has proof that he wasn't anywhere near the scene of the crime despite a mountain of eye-witness, surveillance, and DNA evidence to the contrary. Is there something deeper at play here? Perhaps something supernatural?
Rose Red is the rare mini-series that Stephen King wrote directly for the screen and is essentially his stab at playing in Shirley Jackson's Hill House sandbox. With a wild cast that includes both Nancy Travis and Julian Sands and Melanie Lynskey and a story that feels like a Greatest Stephen King Hits compilation, Rose Red is a fascinating one to look back on.
"A Death" is a lesser-known Stephen King short story from The Bizarre of Bad Dreams. Set in the Old West times, a young girl is killed and the town rounds up a likely suspect who proclaims his innocence upon deaf ears. Is this man a murderer or is he innocent, like he claims?
Larry Hama not only worked on GI Joe, he also dabbled with Wolverine, Nth Man, and Elektra. His work on Joe didn't end with the comics, either. He also penned the majority of the dossier files on the back of all the toys.
Both The Mist and our guest's latest film, Drop, are contained pot-boilers as a small group of people share the same small common area as wild stuff is happening outside. One involves creepy cell phone drops, the other tentacled monsters, but go with us with this comparison.
Carrie is the novel that started everything for Stephen King, a runaway success that set him up to be the master of horror for going on 5 decades now. It tells the story of a sheltered, awkward girl who just so happens to be telekinetic and when she's pushed too far... well, she makes her wrath known to the entire town.
Christine tells the story of Arnie Cunningham and his disturbingly close relationship with his car. What does this story have to say about toxic masculinity? How hard is it to film automotive mayhem? And what's with all the wiener grabbing? All these questions and more are asked and answered in today's episode.
Eyes of the Dragon sees a small kingdom completely upturned thanks to the murder of their King. An innocent prince is framed for his father's murder and is locked away in a tower while his younger brother takes the thrown, the unwitting lapdog of the evil wizard Randall Flagg. Thanks to our sponsors this week: Lumi Gummies and A24's Opus
Director Osgood Perkins is most famous for the recent genre smash, Longlegs, and he brings his unique point of view to The Monkey, which is out in theaters now from Neon and James Wan's Atomic Monster. Make sure to check out the movie and read Kingcast co-host Anthony Breznican's wonderful Vanity Fair profile on Osgood Perkins .
James Wan is famous for Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring, and Aquaman, but he's also produced a few Stephen King adaptations, including The Monkey, which is being released February 21st. We talk a lot about working with Osgood Perkins, how perfectly horror and comedy can work together if crafted correctly, his version of The Tommyknockers which never made it off the ground, and his love of Stephen King's It.
King drops some news about his current novel, The Talisman 3, and fields a variety of questions ranging from the adaptations of his work (stuff like the upcoming The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, and The Monkey, and classics like Cujo and Maximum Overdrive) to nerdy deep dives into his craft, his relationship with Tabby, the new Holly Gibney novel coming this May called Never Flinch, Mike Flanagan, and just what the hell is up with all the corn in his work. This episode is sponsored by Neon's Th...
The Kingcast returns from hiatus next Wednesday, January 29th, with a brand new permanent co-host. Anthony Breznican has signed up for this new tour of duty for the show and before we hit the ground running next week I figured I would post this episode where you can get to know Brez a little bit. This episode was previously only available on The Kingcast Patreon ( www.patreon.com/thekingcast , sign up now!).
Chaos reigns as Bill Skarsgard and Willem Dafoe talk with Vespe about their current flick Nosferatu as well as all their favorite Stephen King things. Both actors have King connections. Bill's is obvious, Willem will be a deep cut for King nerds.
Stephen King's The Mist is a novella about the residents of a small Maine town stuck in a grocery store as an unnatural mist rolls into town concealing all sorts of Lovecraftian horrors. Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) made a very divisive, but hugely effective, adaptation in 2007.
Originally published by Cavalier in 1972 and re-published in King's 1993 short story collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Suffer the Little Children is one of his nastier tales about an old schoolmarm who is becoming convinced her 3rd grade class is slowly being taken over by mischievous dopplegangers.
Silver Bullet focuses on young Marty Coslaw (Corey Haim), a boy in a wheelchair who is the first to figure out that the mysterious deaths in his small town are the work of a rogue werewolf. Based on a novella by King, illustrated by the late, great Bernie Wrightson, this '80s movie is one that holds up more than a lot of its contemporaries.
This one is a little more of a nerdy deep dive into King's overall body of work, but we do talk a bit about Different Seasons, Cycle of the Werewolf, One for the Road, Dreamcatcher, Storm of the Century, If It Bleeds, The Stand, Dark Tower, and The Shining, all of which give some kind of passing nod to widely celebrated holidays or at least the bone-chilling horror of New England winters.
Young George is left alone with his ailing Gramma and starts to piece together that she's may be a legit danger to him. What's up with all those occult books, Gramma? This creepy King short story was published in Skeleton Crew and has been on the minds of King readers ever since.
Based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont's adaptation is commonly thought of as one of the all-time great movies. It focuses on a wrongfully imprisoned man and his decades long bid for freedom and all the folks he impacts along the way.
This live recording of The Kingcast was done last week in Las Vegas at KingCon in a room full of Stephen King super fans. Thankfully, Tom Jane proves his King credentials as this deep dive chat covers King's books, short stories, and the adaptations that Jane has had a chance to partake in. Yes, including Dreamcatcher. Maybe especially Dreamcatcher.
Revival is King's underappreciated masterpiece about seeking for the truth behind the afterlife. The story follows a young man from childhood into adulthood as a he keeps encountering his small town preacher who is becoming more and more obsessed with piercing the veil through his experiments with secret electricity.
The Mist is Stephen King's stab at Lord of the Flies as he explores the microcosms that form when a group of small town strangers are trapped in a small grocery store while a supernatural mist hides deadly creatures just outside the doors.
What if the distance between two points could be manipulated? How aggressive can a single person be about shaving a little driving time off her commute? Turns out anything is possible in Stephen King's brain as this small town, deeply Maine, story unfolds and includes possible folding of time and space.
Whelan is the recipient of 15 Hugo awards for his work illustrating for the most popular names in genre storytelling, including Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert A. Heinlein, Brandon Sanderson, and, of course, Stephen King.
What began as a weird short story with mythological overtones about an absurdly large man who eats a ton of lawn clippings ended up as a movie about a mentally challenged lawnmower who becomes VR Hitler thanks to Pierce Brosnan with an earring. This is the movie so radically different from the source material that it inspired not just one, but two different lawsuits from Stephen King.
