It's Always Something With Stephen King... Quiz

Answer: Thinner

Originally released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, "Thinner" was the fifth such book to be published by King without his name attached (at least, not until the secret was revealed). Hitting shelves in 1984, "Thinner" followed a lawyer who, driving (distractedly), struck a Gypsy woman in his car, killing her. When her father set a curse upon the overweight driver, it began a severe and magical weight loss struggle spanning the book and a race against the clock to stop from wasting away completely.

The novel was made into a film in 1996.

Answer: Dreamcatcher

Set mostly in the Maine wilderness, "Dreamcatcher" follows four men, friends since youth, who go on an annual camping trip only this time around, something much bigger than they can imagine is at play. What results is a good versus evil battle between factions of insidious alien forces and government entities that only complicates itself further when they're forced to use their psychic powers to overcome the evil. King published this book in 2001, but wrote the novel in the hospital after recovering from a car accident. He was on Oxycontin for most of the process.

The book also became a movie in 2003.

Answer: The Running Man

Published in 1982 under King's Richard Bachman pseudonym, "The Running Man" was the fourth of the Bachman Books and perhaps the most action-oriented. Set in a dystopian future, it follows the story of Ben Richards who, after applying to be on a deadly game show, ends up pursued by Hunters, men and women hired to locate and kill him. The goal is to hide as long as possible and evade death. His success would result in a billion dollar payout if he made it through thirty days...but no one does that.

"The Running Man" became a sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It deviated quite a bit from the source material.

Answer: Christine

Stephen King seems to have a thing for evil cars. "Christine", written in 1983, was about a supernaturally-inclined 1958 Plymouth Fury which transforms its owner for the worse. King would also write about evil vehicles in "From a Buick 8" (a novel he released in 2002) and the short story "Trucks", which would become the basis of his film "Maximum Overdrive".

"Christine", however, was picked up for adaptation by John Carpenter, previously known for creating the "Halloween" series.

Answer: Graveyard Shift

"Graveyard Shift", one of the twenty stories found in Stephen King's first short story collection ("Night Shift"), takes place entirely at a textile mill in which some of the workers are asked to clear out the lower floors (and the caves beneath) of a rat infestation. What they find, the deeper they go, is much worse than they imagined as the caves beneath the mill seem to be home to creatures unfathomable to anyone of sound mind.

Originally written in 1970, the short story was sold to "Cavalier" magazine and compiled for "Night Shift" in 1978. It became a film in 1990.

Answer: 'Salem's Lot

King's second novel (and one of his longer early ones), "'Salem's Lot" follows the events that occur in a small Maine town as vampires spread their influence through the townspeople, quickly taking over from within Marsten House. The book became the focal point for a series of tales, notably short stories found in "Night Shift", before being continued through the character of Father Callahan in the later books of the "Dark Tower" series.

The book came out, originally, in 1975; the first adaptation, a two-part miniseries, released in 1979.

Answer: The Raft

First released in "Gallery" magazine in 1982, the short story "The Raft" ended up becoming one of the short stories compiled in Stephen King's second short story collection, "Skeleton Crew", published in 1985. In the story, a group of hikers head out on a lake on a makeshift raft only to be surrounded by a shimmering, oily patch that threatens to kill them if they touch it.

The short story became one of the vignettes featured in the 1987 film "Creepshow II", a collaboration between King and horror filmmaker George A. Romero.

Answer: Desperation

Released in 1996 alongside the Richard Bachman book "The Regulators", "Desperation was set in and around the Nevada desert town of Desperation as different groups of travellers and locals found themselves brought together by forces beyond their comprehension to go head-to-head against an otherworldly foe known only as Tak, a being able to temporarily infiltrate the bodies of living things.

The book became a TV film released in 2006.

Answer: The Man in the Black Suit

Originally published on Halloween 1994 in "The New Yorker", "The Man in the Black Suit" was noteworthy for winning the O. Henry Award for Best Short Fiction. It was later compiled as one of the fourteen short stories in "Everything's Eventual", released in 2002.

The story involves a young boy's encounter with a man revealed to be Satan in a human form as he appears to him by the riverside. The story also won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, King's second time taking that prize (the first was for "The Reach" in 1982.

Answer: Cujo

While lacking on the supernatural side, "Cujo" is one of King's more disturbing novels of the 1980s. Written at a time during King's struggles with substance abuse, he claims not to remember most of the book, a story about a woman and her son, trapped in their car during a visit to a mechanic out in the country. When they arrive, they find themselves stuck in place due to a rabid dog out in the yard; much of the story involves their being terrorized by none other than Cujo.

Published in 1981, this King story got adapted into a film in 1983.