Why author Stephen King tried becoming a movie director in 1986

Pet Sematary, yet another film version of the horrornovel by writer Stephen King, began playing in theatres in 2019.

Back in 1986, many of his books including Carrie, The Shining,The Dead Zone and Cujohad been made intofilms whenKing decided he would direct one himself.

On the CBC program Midday, interviewer Katherine O'Hara wanted to know what motivatedKing to direct a film.

He got letters

"People would write letters ... they really started to floodin after The Shining," he said. "What they were all saying really seemed to boil down to, 'Where the hell were you?'"

The Shining, of course, was directed by Stanley Kubrickin 1980.

In 1986 King took on the task of directing Maximum Overdrive, a movie starring Emilio Estevez and that was based on King's short story Trucks.

"There's a spirit in writers' works, even thoughit's just print on thepage," he added. "And sometimes the director gets that."

"And I was curious, if I did it myself, what would happen? Would people say, 'you ruined it yourself,' or would they say, 'yeah, we got what we want'?"

A healthy perspective

King said he didn't have enough distance from the project to say whether the job he'd done had been any good.

He thought fans would like it, but had no greater expectations.

'I'm not rehearsing my Academy Award speech."

He was right not to: Maximum Overdrivewas met with lukewarm-to-scathing reviews.

"That King plans not to direct again soon is not cause for uncontrollable grief," wrote Jay Scott of the Globe and Mail.

The Toronto Star didn't mince its words.

"Stephen King makes the worst Stephen King movie ever made," said the headline on its review.

When the writing is 'tight and right'

'You know it's tight and right'

38 years ago

Duration 2:16

Author Stephen King says he knows when he's written something especially scary.

Earlier in the interview, O'Hara asked King if he ever scared himself with his writing.

"Not very often," he said. "A lot of times, what you feel surfacing on your face is this sort of grin ... because you know it's tight and right."

But he said there was a bathtub scene in The Shining where he scared himself.

"And in Pet Sematary ... I just felt very, very wired, very uncomfortable with what I was writing about."