Whatever one thinks about Stephen King as a writer, he undeniably has his finger on the pulse of the times. His works have increasingly reflected the burgeoning violence of the past half century in the US; so, consequently, have the 50-some films made from those works. As the essays in this book point out, the violence in King's books and films made from them has grown more graphic and is more often perpetrated against women and children. In some films, the violence is so graphic that even written descriptions made this reader queasy. Still, these essays, part sociology, part film analysis, are a valuable and necessary investigation into the Stephen King phenomenon. This reviewer particularly liked Mary Findley’s "King of Pain," in which she looks at Doctor Sleep (both book and film) and Matthew Muller’s "The Invasive Gaze," which offers meticulous observation of King's use of surveillance cameras in The Outsider. In "Lost in the Supermarket," Alexandra Reuber studies The Mist, making clear the uncanny way in which King anticipated the divisive effects of the pandemic—a microcosm of the US in a supermarket. This reviewer considers these three essays the standouts, but all the essays in the collection are well done. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.
