Richard Bachman Book Review- Rage

Wait what is this? This is not Stephen King. Who is this Richard Bachman guy? I thought I was reviewing Stephen King book on this blog? Well for those of you that do not know Richard Bachman is a pen name Stephen King when he published this book. I mean he was popular at the time with supernatural horror hwo would the public react to a grounded story that could happen at anytime? Well for whatever reason he published Rage under the name of Richard Bachman. He would do this a few more times in the course of his career.

Rage is about a troubled teen in high school named Charlie Decker. He has an abusive father, not popular and as I said is troubled. He once took a wrench to one of teachers. One day he is set off and grabs a gun from his locker. He ends up killing two teachers and taking a classroom full of students hostage for hours. The story shifts as Charlie has the students open up about personal stories of their lives and the horrors of high school. It also has flashbacks of Charlie’s life especially with encounters with his abusive father. The big shot of the high school, Ted Jones, is also one of the hostages and tries to reason with Charlie to let the rest of the class go. [BEGIN SPOILERS] With all of the talking and opening up, the class eventually wants to stay with the gunman. One student is allowed to go to the bathroom and returns to the classroom when she could of ran. The whole class could of left but stayed with Charlie. Finally Ted Jones stands up and the whole class beats him down and he has a breakdown and sent to a mental institution. Charlie is shot but lives and ends up not guilty by reason of insanity and won’t be released until he fit to return to society. [END SPOILERS].

This was a good story. It was weird the way the students ended up being like but all in all this was a down to Earth story of the horror of life. The story touches close to home in today’s political world with the issues of guns and school shootings. Now I am going to say straight up that I am for gun rights and I feel it is bad or mentally disturbed people that are the problem not the guns themselves. Yes I know assault weapons can cause mass murder but so driving your car through a crowded area. It the act of the person doing it that is at fault not the weapon of choice. Yes I don’t think people should be running around with tanks but guns should not be banned or taken away especially in this world. There is my little politcal rant on that.

The story as I said has to do with a gun and a school shooting. This is a true horror in today’s world. I finished reading this story two days before the Sandy Hook shooting so it really hit close home to me after reading a book from one of my favorite authors. It obviously hit close to Stephen King because of claims that this book was linked to school shootings. He hated that so much that he discontinued publication of this book which is why it is rare to find this book. Especially on its own. Again this book shows someone who is very disturbed and has problems and because of that he decides to commit a horrible act. There were signs of his problems before the shooting using a wrench to harm a teacher. Signs that he needed real help but no help was there. It was because of his troubled mental state that he decided to perform the horrible shooting.

The second horror of this story is high school itself. This time period could be very hard on teens especially with bullying. Not only that but stuff that just happens in high school. Weight issues, sex, popular, unpopular and so on. You hear these through the stories the other students tell while being a hostage. You can see the pain these kids feel when they tell their stories and the shock of what high school is like. It also leads to wonder why at the end the students did what they did to the popular Ted Jones.

The third horror of this story is the theme of abuse. This is presented through the relationship between Charlie and his father. Was this rage because of how his father always treated him? How he thought the principal abused him? The kid had a lot of anger and rage.

I give this book three and a half stars. It was a pretty good read and everyone should pick it up if they can find it.

Moral of the story: Watch your kids, whether you are a parent or a teacher or something. Watch for the signs especially during the troublesome time of high school where change happens all the time. Watched for disturbing signs. Be responsible about your guns and remember it is currently a right.

Well that is my first review of Richard Bachman (who is Stephen King). Have you read this book? What did you think about it? If you read it what did you think how the kids ended up being like at the end? Did you end up rooting for Charlie or were you against him the whole time? What did you think of the kid’s stories? What do you think of gun rights? I could not find a movie based on this book so there will be no movie review. The next book I have lined up is Night Shift which is a collection of short stories. These short stories also have a lot of movie attached to them with many sequels to them so it will be a awhile before I finish all of them but I will be up to the task. Please comment below and lets have a discussion. I want to hear from you.

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2
The Shining *** 
Rage ***1/2
 
 Movies Reviewed:
 Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 
Salem’s Lot (1979) **
A Return to Salem’s Lot *
Salem’s Lot (2004) ***1/2
The Shining (1980) **
The Shining (1997) ***1/2

Stephen King Movie Review- The Shining (1997)

Here is my last review of The Shining saga (or is it? **cough** Doctor Sleep). There won’t be much detail to this review as it the same story but this one actually follows the book real close.

We have our usual setup. A recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Weber) after been fired from his teaching job from beating a kid gets a job at a hotel. He brings his family along with his wife Winifred Torrance (Rebecca De Mornay) and son Danny Torrrance (Courtland Mead). His son of course has a power called the shining.

Jack Weber plays a pretty decent Jack Torrance in this. He does a lot of actions as the character does in the book and he is believable as a recovering alcoholic and someone that does seem to care for his family. He has some wooden moments in there but he pulls it off very well. He portrays the book Jack Torrance very well.

The wife is played well also by Rebecca De Mornay and is pretty strong. It matches also the book’s counterpart. I thought she held her own pretty well. The son did well also although he got on my nerves sometimes. He wasn’t the best actor but he did good catching the character from the book.

Basically what I am saying this was a good mini-series and I can see why it is called Stephen King’s The Shining as it has almost everything in the book from it. Of course it is toned down because it was on broadcast TV and could not show the more intense violent or sexual parts but the creepiness is there and follows the vision of what Stephen King’s story. They included such scenes as the beehive scenes, the hedge animals and the ending to the actual book. SPOILER—-You saw when the dad snapped out of it and wanted to redeem himself—–END SPOILER. It was a good representation and if you read the book you will enjoy this movie mostly. Yes it is mini-series quality but it expresses the best of what has been made what Stephen King wanted in the story.

As I said before this show is about a beacon of evil being the hotel where bad things have happened which seems to pop up in some Stephen King stories. However, the heart of the story is addiction, obsession, abuse, and family. You can see the journey of Jack Torrance as he tries to fight his demons both literally and inside of him. This movie could be a metaphor for addiction and what it does to your life even if there are evil things trying to get at you and your family. The supernatural element is there but it is the addiction that is the true horror.

Sorry these last two reviews have been short but it has been a few months since I watched these movies as I didn’t have time to blog them. Hope you enjoyed the little I did put there. Next up I will stray from Stephen King and review a book by Richard Bachman (who is that guy and what does he have to do with Stephen King?) called The Rage. It is a very controversial book.

Did you watch the mini-series of The Shining? What did you think about it? Did you like it better than the 1980 version of The Shining? Do you feel this is the true version? Let me know with your comments below. I want to hear from you. Since this movie was close to the book and had decent acting and creepiness to it I give it three and half stars. Here is a trailer for the movie in case you want to check it out.

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2
The Shining *** 

 
 Movies Reviewed:
 Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 
Salem’s Lot (1979) **
A Return to Salem’s Lot *
Salem’s Lot (2004) ***1/2
The Shining (1980) **
The Shining (1997) ***1/2

Stephen King Movie Review- The Shining (1980)

Wow has it been a long time since I did one of these reviews. I actually watched the Shining movies back when I did the book review but have been so busy that I did not have time to review them on this blog. Well as I said I am going to try to write in the blog more along with my other projects I have going on. So with that in mind here we go.

Why oh why did I read the original book and then see this movie? Growing up this movie was an awesome freaky movie that I enjoyed. It had some good scares in it and what I thought was a great Stephen King movie. However, I can see why Stephen King was a little upset and it is now known by a lot of fans as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

The basic premise is there. A troubled recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (played by the amazing Jack Nicholson) gets a job as a caretaker of an old hotel in Colorado with a dark history. Like the book he brings his family along, his wife Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd), to the hotel to stay with him during the winter. Again like the book Danny has a special power called the shining and he also meets the cook Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) who also has this power and explains to Danny. The hotel’s dark history is there also as in the book and in turn causes Jack to lose his mind to want to murder his family.

With the basic premise there it follows the book in that manner; however that is where it stops. While it has great atmosphere and an amazing performance by Jack Nicholson it is very different from the book. For starters Jack Torrance is a recovering alcoholic but from the onset you already think this guy is not right in the head. He already seems crazy (probably because Jack Nicholson is crazy) and it does not see like a big jump he lost his mind completely. He already seems to hate his family as expressed in the drive up to the hotel and seems annoyed of them also. The addiction story is there but it does not seem like the major driving force as it is just the ghosts and the supernatural turning him more. Then [SPOILER] at the end of the movie there is no redeeming factor to the character or redemption as there was in the book, he is just on his rampage. The ending was changed totally from the book and left with a strange image of him in the painting [End SPOILER].

The character of Wendy played by Shelley Duvall was a letdown. She does not even portray Wendy as she was in the book. She was weaker and quite frankly a little annoying. It was just hard after reading the book to see the character of Wendy portrayed like that. Danny did not seem like he had much character development. You get a little here and there but not like the book. Plus his shining powers are not much displayed and of course it was not revealed as it was in the book where he was getting his messages from.

The beacon of evil is still there in the form of the hotel. You could say that the evil is stronger in this movie as it was more of a ghost story then of addiction and such. It further shows that a place can be a place of evil.

It is very hard on me to bash this movie but I can see why Stephen King and his fans do not like this movie a lot. There was just too much deviation from the story and major things were changed by the director. Do not get me wrong this movie still has a special place in my heart but I will only have to give it two stars because of the divergence from the book. However, not taking the book into account I would give it four stars because it is a pretty good horror movie with great atmosphere. So what did you think of the movie? Have you read the book and compared it to this movie? What is your favorite part of the movie? Is there a beacon of evil in your life? Please leave comments and discuss below I want to hear from you. Next movie is the TV Miniseries of the Shining so be sure to look out for that. Also yes I know there is a new Carrie movie coming out and I will see that and review it on here also. Here is a trailer for The Shining.

 

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2

The Shining *** 

 
 Movies Reviewed:
 
Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 
Salem’s Lot (1979) **
A Return to Salem’s Lot *
Salem’s Lot (2004) ***1/2
The Shining (1980) **