Stephen King - Night Shift

[dem bones]

Stephen King - Night Shift (Nel, 1979: 1987)

John D. MacDonald - Introduction
Foreword

Jerusalem's Lot
Graveyard Shift
Night Surf
I Am The Doorway
The Mangler
The Boogeyman
Grey Matter
Battleground
Trucks
Sometimes They Come Back
Strawberry Spring
The Ledge
The Lawnmower Man
Quitters, Inc.
I Know What You Need
Children Of The Corn
The Last Rung On The Ladder
The Man Who Loved Flowers
One For The Road
The Woman In The Room

Blurb:

A collection of horror stories that includes Children Of The Corn.

NIGHT SHIFT is a shudderingly detailed map of the dark places that lie behind our waking, rational world.

These are tales to invade and paralyse the mind as-the safe light of day is infiltrated by the creeping, peopled shadows of night. As you read, the clutching fingers of terror brush lightly across the nape of the neck, reach round from behind to clutch and lock themselves, white-knuckled, around the throat.

This is the horror of ordinary people and everyday objects that become strangely altered; a world where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where the familiar and friendly lure and deceive. A world where madness and blind panic become the only reality.

Stephen King's screenplay for Cat's Eye is based on —The Ledge and Quitters, Inc. — both in this collection.

Yeah, the Stephen King. Hey, don't turn your nose up like that!

Bad beer that can reduce a man to a pile of gunk; model soldiers who wage war on a ruthless hit-man; a festering corpse lurking in a closet; the Great God Pan's day job; a zero tolerance approach to the evil weed - re-reading Night Shift, the first and, IMO, most consistently entertaining of his three collections (Skeleton Crew and, especially, Nightmares And Dreamscapes really over-do the bloat), it's heartening to be reminded what great FUN a Stephen King story can be when he takes the no nonsense, all-out horror approach of his beloved E.C. comics and leaves the bloody 'poetry' well alone.

Graveyard Shift: Super giant rodent fun which nods at Henry Kuttner's timeless scream-fest The Graveyard Rats. Gates Fall, Maine. The underpaid, overworked employees at the decrepit hellhole of a mill are offered overtime to clear out the filthy, rat-infested ground floor over the holiday. Foreman Warwick is a bully who persecutes the entire workforce, although he reserves the bulk of his contempt on rootless drifter Hall who he despises as a "college boy". When Hall discovers a trapdoor leading to a forgotten sub-basement, he hits on a deliciously ghoulish plan to be rid of the bastard for good .....

The Boogeyman: Essentially David Keller's The Thing In The Cellar (although King significantly ups the body-count), moved to a closet and reworked as a tribute to Tales From The Crypt artist ghastly Graham Ingles!

Lester Billings, a twenty-eight year old redneck, explains to psychiatrist Dr. Billings why he believes he was responsible for the 'accidental' deaths of his three little children - Denny, Shirl and Andy - through his refusal to heed their inane ramblings about the "Boogeyman" in the wardrobe.

Strawberry Spring: "The Jukebox played Love Is Blue that year. It played Hey Jude endlessly, endlessly. It played Scarborough Fair."

New England, 1968. A killer stalks the fogbound campus, butchering a succession of girl students and a dinner lady and despite making several arrests, the police never find 'Springheel Jack'. Three years on and the narrator knows better than most why Jack is about to return and continue his grisly work ...

Battleground: "They were bivouacking by the footlocker, damned if they weren't. Miniature soldiers ran hither and thither, setting up tents. Jeeps two inches high raced around importantly. A medic was working over the soldier Renshaw had kicked. The remaining eight copters flew in a protective swarm overhead, at coffee-table level."

Shortly after carrying out the hit on businessman Hans Morris, founder and owner of the Morris Toy Company, hired assassin John Renshaw receives a parcel in the post from the dead man's "number one idea's girl" - and is soon reenacting Vietnam in the comfort of his own home!

One For The Road: A few years after Salem's Lot burnt down at the climax of the vampire epidemic, a stranger from New Jersey bursts into Tookey's Bar in Falmouth during a snow blizzard. Lumley already shows signs of frostbite following his six mile trek from the Lot so things aren't looking too good for his wife and daughter, stranded in their broken down car.

Tookey and our narrator, Boothe, both the wrong side of seventy, bravely accompany him on his heartbreaking mission. They find the car, but the women are missing. Then, from the dark comes a voice "like little tinkling silver bells" and Janey - "the most beautiful woman I had ever seen" - beckons to her husband. He is doomed, and the elderly men are surprised by Francie, the little girl ...

The Lawnmower Man: Harold Parkette comes to grief at the hands, teeth and lawnmower of a nude, cloven hoofed Pastoral Greenery & Outdoor Services employee. The first page made me laugh out loud but the rest is .... bonkers.

more to follow; i'm on a bit of an SK kick just now .....

[killercrab]

I have this copy which I was reading selected pieces from last year. The Boogeyman is excellent - but I think Children Of The Corn is pure unadulterated Steve King at his best. The movie ain't half bad too!

ade

[Johnlprobert]

I love this collection & that's the copy I've got.

I'd agree - Children of the Corn is excellent, & I like the film too! The reviews slated it when it came out but it's got a deliciously creepy atmosphere, helped a lot by Jonathan Elias' music score which I bought on vinyl when it came out.

The Boogeyman is bloody terrifying, The Mangler is great fun, and stories like Trucks, The Ledge and Sometimes They Come Back were almost as formative to my childhood love of horror as Birkin, Bloch & the Pan books. Great stuff. I love Skeleton Crew as well

[dem bones]

We have a lively Stephen King thread on the old board I was thinking of ripping the guts from as we tackle each book, though it's preferable if those responsible shift their own bits across. For example, you do an excellent number on on Children Of The Corn, ade; hint, hint.

I've got the scan and details of Skeleton Crew and Nightmares & Dreamscapes to go up, too, but we might as well concentrate on this one for the time being.

[killercrab]

One I prepared earlier - on the cob.:-)

Children Of The Corn

In an attempt to patch up their failing marriage , Burt Robeson and his wife Vicky are driving through the Nebraskan bible belt , after the inevitable squabble over her map reading , Burt runs over a small child. The child however has had his throat cut. The Robeson's being overall decent citizen's take the body to the local dustbowl town of Gatlin to find it deserted. As Vicky gets more agitated , Burt enters the church to find the iconography has been perverted - a corncob Christ indicating all is not right . He hears his wife's scream and runs out to see children brandishing weapons , surrounding their car - Vicky frantically hitting the horn.
'
' It's not so bad , being sacrificed by pagan devil children in the corn is not so bad ,having your eyes ripped out of your skull according to the laws of Moses'


This sort of runs like numerous American tv movies of the mid 1970's - it's a comment on the zealousness of the Bible Belt though seems to be ill thought out at times. The creature that stalks the swaying corn fields is a great device , sketched in enough to instill fear , yet the reasons for it's existence and why it dominates the children is never really explained. King careully sets up the relationship of his main characters before suddenly meting out their fates , it's quite harsh on two ostensibly decent people - but maybe that's the power here. The commune of children reminds me of an old Star Trek episode , where Kirk and co. , visit a planet where the children rule and there is a hint of LOGAN'S RUN in there too as Burt flees into the cornfields .

Whilst fans of THE WICKER MAN might like this green man tale - it's an odd fit in some ways. It's neither a Christian perversion nor an old religion tale. That said it's a tightly written piece , spawning seven movies !

KC

[sean]

This is without a doubt one of the classic horror collections of all time - I'd put it up there with Leiber's Nights Black Agents, Bradbury's The October Country, Campbell's Dark Companions and Barker's Books of Blood. Some seriously good stuff lurks in the pages of Night Shift and anybody who avoids it 'cos the don't like King is missing out on a whole bunch of horror gems.

Here's the edition I've got, a NEL reprint from 1983, which I think is the same cover-wise as the 1979 one:


....and the blurb:

'You will encounter all manner of night creatures,' warns the author of this book. 'None of them are real. The thing under my bed isn't real. I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle...'

Despite describing himself as 'the nicest sort of fellow you'd ever want to meet', Stephen King is the author of four hugely sucessful horror novels, Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining and The Stand. In the foreward to Night Shift he gives a fascinating insight into why he writes horror - and why people will always be enthralled by it. Night Shift is your guide through the darker side of the human mind.


A few special favourites are I Am the Doorway (a nice bit of SF tinged horror), Sometimes They Come Back (revenge and evil forces that it may be possible to call up, but which could prove difficult to get rid of), Trucks (shame about the film!), Strawberry Spring and the wonderful little piece The Man With the Flowers.

[dem bones]

The Mangler: Another story that maybe goes a little too barmy toward the end but you can't really complain 'cause it's such a ghastly giggle getting there.

The industrial presser at the Blue Ribbon Laundry develops a taste for blood sacrifice after that ditsy Sherry Ouelett, fresh out of high school, carelessly cuts her finger - while daydreaming about boys and "pop groups" no doubt! Henceforth the Mangler contrives a series of "malfunctions", each more dangerous than the last, culminating in the atrocious demise of poor Mrs. Frawley, literally pressed and tidily folded to death ("They took her away in a basket .... what was left of her"). Police Officer Hunton, a veteran of the fatal accident game, and his learned pal Prof. Mark Jackson rightly deduce that the hulking brute of a machine is possessed and set out to perform an exorcism ....

Finally, after all the gleefully sick and twisted escapism, we get The Woman In The Room, a story surely more deserving of the title "Misery" than the novel he would later publish under that name. The woman in room 312 at Lewiston Hospital is Johnny's sixty year old mother. She's bedridden, incontinent, dying of cancer. King treats us to a running commentary on Johnny's observations - meditations on the hopelessness and indignity of terminal illness for the most part - as he strives to summon up the courage to perform a mercy killing. It's an incredibly powerful piece, maybe the single best story in here, and truly jarring if read directly after something like Gray Matter. Not a good one to attempt if you're paying regular visits to Hospital, that's for sure.

Back later, after I've topped myself ....

[sean]

Actually, after seeing this thread I've decided to give this one another read. Its been a while...

[sean]

Jerusalem's Lot
Back to the 1850's for this story about a familiar sounding place - although it isn't a vampire story as such, and has quite a Lovecraftian feel to it (there is a mention of yog soggoth and such like), especially 'The Rats in the Walls' which it resembles in many ways.

Told as a series of letters (mostly from Charles Boothe), it focuses on the return of the last of a 'cursed' family line to his forebearers old stomping ground. There is much gossip among the locals, some forking of fingers to ward off evil, a large smattering of people avoiding the shunned house (where at least two of Boote's relatives have died - well, kind of) etc etc. A visit by Boothe and his gentleman's gentleman to the nearby, abandoned town of Jerusalem's Lot reveals (along with a coded book and the recollections of a washerwoman) the terrible secret of the Boothe's family history...

(there is another Boothe in the later Lot tale 'One for the Road')

Night Surf
The world has been hit by the superflu (see also 'The Stand') and this short piece tells of a small group of teenagers who are living out however many days are left to them on a beach. Gloomy.

[benedictjjones]

^definetly my favourite King collection.

[sean]

Its certainly a collection that avoids many of the faults which some find with King's later work. For starters, the stories here are reasonably short, and very concise.

I Am the Doorway
A retired astronaut, crippled upun his crafts re-entry, begins to have some trouble with his hands. It appears that something alien and malevolent is invading him. For instance, the sore patches on his hand develop into eyes...

Trucks
A small group of people find themselves stranded in the restroom of a petrol station, whilst outside, trucks and all sorts of other vehicles have seemingly come to life.

A tense little piece, ends on a grim note.

[dem bones]

ade's already written on the grisly delights of this one, but having reread it last night I felt compelled to add my own appreciation as it's truly a thing of rare and horrible beauty.

Children Of The Corn. Burt and Vicky head for the coast in a doomed attempt to rescue their marriage and start afresh. Things are going reasonably well until they take a wrong turning and wind up hopelessly lost in the never-ending Nebraskan cornfields. To make matters worse, as they bitch at one another, a youth appears in the road as if from nowhere and Burt can't slam on the brakes in time to avoid him. The kid goes under his wheels, not that it matters - his throat had already been cut. Burt scoops up the bloodied bundle of rags, dumps him in the boot and heads for the nearest town to report the matter to the sheriff. The town turns out to be Gatlin, creepy and seemingly deserted. Against a hysterical Vicky's wishes, Burt explores the local church and it's awful depiction of the Saviour:

"The Christ was grinning, vulpine. His eyes were wide and staring, reminding Burt uneasily of Lon Chaney in The Phantom Of the Opera. In each of the wide black pupils, someone (a sinner, presumably) was drowning in a lake of fire. But the oddest thing was that this Christ had green hair ... hair which on closer examination revealed itself to a twining mass of early-summer corn ...."

A blast on the car horn alerts him to Vicky's danger. Youngsters are converging on the car in great numbers, each of them brandishing an improvised weapon. The Children of the Corn have come to claim their next sacrifice and He Who Walks Behind The Rows is smiling greedily ....

I rarely find King's stories scary. The inevitable but still shocking when it comes conclusion to The Children Of The Corn is an exception.

Excellent.

[benedictjjones]

sOMETIMES THEY COME BACK - a teacher is haunted by both the death of his older brother and being attacked at a previous school, which caused a breakdown. while taking a remedial class he begins to remember the details of his brothers murder and then a strange pupil is transferred in who the teacher seems to remember foloowed by another and another until he is faced by the unchanged faces of his brothers murderers. there seems to be no way to escape the past repeating itself - or is there...

[erebus]

WOW Never seen that old paperback above with the skull thingy and Bat. That did suprise me. Must be very few of these around. Keep a firm grip on that my friend.

[ripper]

I read a few of King's earlier novels but stopped when they began to become unwieldy, and my exposure to his short stories has been even less. I've had a battered old copy of Night Shift for ages, so long in fact that I have no idea where it came from. At a loose end, I dipped in and read a few stories, and overall quite liked what I read.

The Mangler: Very good except for the ending. I squirmed at King's description of the guy getting his arm ripped off.

The Ledge: Not bad, but I thought Contents of the Dead Man's Pockets from Pan 1 had it beat for vertigo-inducing scares.

Battleground: Reminded me a little of General Jumbo and his toy army from the comics I read as a child. Pretty good and I was cheering on the toy soldiers.

Night Surf: Depressing and a little reminiscent of On the Beach. Also seemed to end rather abruptly.

Grey Matter: Nasty. Probably my favourite of the ones I have so far read. King's descriptions of the half man-half slug were suitably creepy and nauseating.