When your name is Stephen and your nickname is "The King of Horror," there isn't much room for mistaken identities. Author Stephen King has been captivating audiences with his books for decades, which has helped make him a decent pop culture barometer for his fanbase. Particularly when it comes to projects that go bump in the night. It probably won't come as a surprise to learn that King is a big fan of Netflix's new (and superb) horror series Stranger Things, and he saw a little something familiar in it. Here was his response.
Who's this Steve King guy he's talking about on his Twitter page? Must be related to that Richard Bachman fellow.
Honestly, Stephen King would have to be absolutely blind not to see his massive influence laid out like a spiderweb all over Stranger Things. While it doesn't have any killer clowns or buckets of pig blood or world-destroying plagues, the Netflix series embraces many of the less terrifying things from King's library of tales, such as innocent kids facing dangerous threats and supernatural elements that are perfectly fine communicating with normal humans. And you can't tell me David Harbour's lawman wouldn't be right at home chatting it up with some of Maine's finest, a-yuh.
In fact, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have been pretty open about Stephen King being a major influence in the show. The brothers were extremely influenced by the novella The Body, in particular, which served as the source material for Rob Reiner's classic coming of age drama Stand By Me, and both the film and story's tone is captured perfectly, at least when the narrative is centered on the kids. The fourth episode, understandably, is even called "The Body."
King didn't just compliment the show's ability to call upon his own works, though. Here's what else he had to say about the show and its lead actress.
Stephen King will have his own TV shows and movies to talk about in the relatively near future, assuming each project's fate comes out better than a lot of the author's characters. We're finally getting big screen versions of such iconic novels as IT and The Dark Tower (although the latter isn't an exact adaptation.) His novella The Mist and full-length Mr. Mercedes are also being developed for the small screen, where his 11.22.63 wrapped up a critically acclaimed run earlier this year through Hulu.
Stranger Things Season 1 is currently available to stream in full right now on Netflix. You can check out everything else hitting the streaming schedule in the coming months with our Netflix schedule.
