The BBC did a dramatazation of Pet Sematary several eyars ago. I listened to it recently with delight -- before I started the never ending journey called Under The Dome. The BBC does a great job, but I would have preferred an American production.
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As I listened, I was drawn in. Radio was actually a great medium for this novel. Almost better than the big screen -- and I liked the movie. Radio is the theater of the mind.
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Now think about it -- the number one complaint almost all of us King fans have about the Stephen King movie adaptations is that the special effects are so low budget. (Just check out that warewolf in IT. My parents laughed outloud.) When we see them on the screen, scenes we've read about never match up.
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Movies SHOW us, while books play to the mind. However, radio rushes to the same spot: The Mind. So, the special effects budget is unlimited. After all, on radio: I've flown with Superman, been to the signing of the U.S. constitution (via a radio program called YOU ARE THERE!), and I've even been to the top of the Empire State building. And every time, it was the most believable thing in the world, because my own mind produced the images.
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Arch Oboler --
The Stephen King Of His Era
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A short detour, okay. . .
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I love old radio. My wife listens to Jack Benny, Burns and Allen and Fibber McGee and Molly. But not me! Give me a chance, and it's Arch Oboler's Lights Out Everybody. This is seriuous stuff. Actually, I can't believe they let these radio plays air! They are all out creepy, scary and wonderful.
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Oboler was very much like the Stpehen King of his era. He was spooky, gifted, a very good writer and able to generate a seemingly massive output. He also did much more than just horror (like NBC's Arch Obolers Plays). Like Stephen King, he used his art as a medium for polotical commentary -- anti Nazi at the time. He liked to introduce his own plays, kinda like our friend Mr. King likes to write chatty introductions to his books and stories.
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But anyone who remembers Arch only really remembers how incredibly scared this guy could get us. I mean, sweating shaking scared! And I didn't grow up in a radio generation. I grew up in the 80's! But still, this stuff is the best.
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Arch Oboler opened Lights Out like this, "This is Arch Oboler bringing you another of our series of stories of the unusual, and once again we caution you: These Lights Out stories are definitely not for the timid soul. So we tell you calmly and very sincerely, if you frighten easily, turn off your radio now." SWEET!
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King writes, "no discussion of the phenomenon of radio terror, no matter how brief, would be compelte without some mention of the genre's prime auteur -- not Orson Wells, but Arch Oboler, the first playright to have his own national radio series, the chilling Lights Out." (Danse Macabre, 124)
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I wish Arch was around to turn Stephen King's work into radio plays. King says, "Arch Oboler, a restlessly intelligent man who was also involved in the movies and the legitmate theater, utilized two of radio's great strengths: the first is the mind's innate obedience, its willingness to try to see whatever soemone suggests it see, no matter how absurd; the second is the fact that fear and horror are blinding amotions that knock out our adults pins from beneath us and leave us groping in the dark like children who cannot find the light switch." (danse Macabre, 125-126)
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A few of my favorite Lights Out Episodes:
The one where everyone disappears, and the couple is at the top of the Empire State Building. I forgot the title, though.
Murder Castle , State Executioner , Sub-basement (there were dinosaurs down there! Reminds me of Graveyard Shift) , Cat People. Forget it! I like them all.
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The Mist
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Another Stephen King story turned radio play is The Mist. This was done in 3D sound, and actually was my first introduction to the book. The play follows Kings story pretty closely.
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George Beahm writes that The Mist "has been optioned and dropped three times -- because the special effects for a movie would be extremely challenging. They are easily manufactured in your mind, which is one of the unique things about either reading, or in particular, listening to that particular story unroll. The special effects that your mind makes are perfect." (The Stephen King Companion, p.275)
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Beahm also comments specifically on the radio drama, "The Mist is one of King's most visual stories, rich in imagery, best visualized in the mind's eye: skull cinema. With headphones on, the story comes alive, slowly enveloping you ina world where the unbelievable becomes believable. Anyone who has seen the grade-B monster flicks of the fifties will find this dramatization a blast from the past." (Companion, p.131)
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Star Wars
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You know, all three of the Star Wars films were turned into radio plays. Interestingly, each one was much short than the previous. Star Wars for the radio? yep! And it worked great. Why? Because of the power of the mind.
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Now, if they can give us: Star Wars, Murder Castle (Oboler), The Mist and Superman on the radio -- I want to ask: Don't you think radio would be a great venue for Stephen King's work?
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War Of The Worlds
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October 30, 1938 Orson Wells scared the entire nation by airing War of the Worlds. How'd he do it? Well, he put his story together as if it were a news cast. Very innovative! And, he whooped every single movie that followed. People drove off the road when they heard on the radio that Martians had landed -- but no one ran out of the theater when they saw it happen on the Big Screen.
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Why it's such a good medium:
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King hismelf said in Danse Macabre, "My first experience with real horror came at the hands of Ray Bradbury -- it was an adaptation of his story Mars Is Heaven on Dimension X." (p.120)
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Radio really works for King's stories for several reasons:
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1. Radio is a lot more frightening than the movies. You see what they tell you to see.
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2. Radio plays, like soap operas, can go on episode after eipisode. So please, go ahead, give us a 30 hour edition of The Stand!
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3. Radio plays can take you right inside someone's head. That's what King is really good at, too. He has the gift of taking you right in a characters thought life. On radio, they do this through monolgues -- and a little bit of echoe. Oboler was the master of the monologue (well, Shakespear was the master of it -- but he didn't write radio plays.)
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A Few Suggestions:
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Here are a few of King's stories I think would be great for radio:
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1. The Stand. Always have to start there! But Larry Underwood in the tunnel would be awesome on radio!
2. Graveyard Shift. Movies can't really take you down into the dark. There always has to be light from somewhere! But radio can drop you down into a dark basement full of rats. Ulgh, I can almost feel them!
3. The Langoleirs. The entire move stunk bad and ruined a great book. But radio could pull this off.
4. Under The Dome. But the audio edition of this is so powerful, it comes close to a radio production. Just the way the reader does the different voices, very good.
5. The Ledge. This was done in Creepshow pretty well, but I think would be even scarier on radio.
6. Eyes of the Dragon.
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Now what wouldn't work on radio. . . Maximum Overdrive.
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May I say: Forget the dollar babies. Forget the big budget films. Forget the mini-series and the comics. Why doesn't someone give us a string of truly scary Stephen King radio plays? I'll get the lights. . .
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Links:
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