Well, from what I heard several of his movies WW and J&TJP, he did not want his name on credit but was forced to.
Supposed to be unbelievably freaky-and the movies supposed to be really scary. Maybe too much so for it to be an entertaining read...
the movie is extremely campy - and no where near as entertaining as the book. The book like most Stephen King books is more surreal than horrific - it can be frightening at times, but for the most part it is more weird than straight horror. Edit: Other favourites include The Regulators, and Desperation - those two books are easily his more surreal work to date. Especially The Regulators - that book felt like I was reading a bad dream. Another good writer like King is Clive Barker - easily as strange in his story telling, and probably twice as disturbing in his imagery.
It was actually before his cocaine use kicked in, Tommyknockers and the books right after it were his drug fueled books. My favorite King books is The Dead Zone, and has a great movie adaptation by David Cronenberg. I'd also recommend his new novella Blockade Billy. I love that little book. And Joe Hill, yeah, Horns is simply incredible, and I much prefer it to Heart Shaped Box. Can't wait to meet him at the WHC next year.
The Dead Zone was my first SK book, and I really liked it a lot. I can't say I liked the movie though; like most book-to-movie adaptations, it simply doesn't do anything in the book proper justice... I literally picked up 5-6 other SK books but have just not gotten around to reading them (bad habit). Trying to decide what to start next... either The Shining, It, or Rose Madder. Hmm... EDIT: I also really, really liked Needful Things. I think it's one of my favorite books out there! Watching how the town and its residents turned against each other was fun fun fun
The Stand was my first Stephen King books and one of the best I've ever read. I plan on reading "It" as soon as I can find it, as it seems to be sold out almost... everywhere...
Jesus, the movie was amazing! I feel the CGI got better as it went along, do you agree? The tentacles at first SUCKED. But yes, go watch the Mist, it is amazing.
I have read a load of them, I personally adored Desperation, Rose Madder and Lisey's Story. The latter is really important to me as it reminds me of someone special to me who recently passed on. It's all about personal taste, I know people who love the hell out of a certain one of his books, while it'll have the exact opposite taste on another person. BTW, IT (The Clown) is a given.
I thought he started to weird a little too much from Dolores Claiborne. The Stand is amazing but be sure to get the unabridged version.
I love Steven King and I find his short stories and novellas to be some of his best work - Different Seasons and Everything's Eventual are my two favorites. The Talisman was also great, but I didn't really care for the follow-up Black House
