#Spooktober ‘Skeleton Crew’ by Stephen King

Welcome to my latest re-read in the universe of Stephen King’s Castle Rock-this time I am focussing on stories taken from the short story collection, ‘‘Skeleton Crew’.

Several of these tales have been adapted for the small and big screen, most notably, ‘The Mist’, which has been both a Frank Darabont directed movie and a Christian Torpe directed tv series.

About the book…

The Master at his scarifying best! From heart-pounding terror to the eeriest of whimsy–tales from the outer limits of one of the greatest imaginations of our time!

Evil that breathes and walks and shrieks, brave new worlds and horror shows, human desperation bursting into deadly menace–such are the themes of these astounding works of fiction. In the tradition of Poe and Stevenson, of Lovecraft and The Twilight Zone, Stephen King has fused images of fear as old as time with the iconography of contemporary American life to create his own special brand of horror–one that has kept millions of readers turning the pages even as they gasp.

In the book-length story “The Mist,” a supermarket becomes the last bastion of humanity as a peril beyond dimension invades the earth. . .

Touch “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands,” and say your prayers . . .

There are some things in attics which are better left alone, things like “The Monkey” . . .

The most sublime woman driver on earth offers a man “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” to paradise . . .

A boy’s sanity is pushed to the edge when he’s left alone with the odious corpse of “Gramma” . . .

If you were stunned by Gremlins, the Fornits of “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet” will knock your socks off . . .

Trucks that punish and beautiful teen demons who seduce a young man to massacre; curses whose malevolence grows through the years; obscene presences and angels of grace–here, indeed, is a night-blooming bouquet of chills and thrills.

The stories in this collection include several Castle Rock related ones, including ‘The Mist’, which I have looked at, in detail, and filed under the #CastleRock  category on this blog(Links to come)

Those not explicitly related to the town which is so central to many of King’s works, are-

Here There Be Tygers- In this palate cleanser, after the awful happenings of ‘the Mist’, A cruel and unusual (but massively deserved) punishment awaits 2 bullies in the basement toilets of Acorn Street Grammar School. I love how King inhabits the voice of a child, fearful of the rules, and how, once the correction of the wrongs have taken place, Charlie returns to the class, as if nothing has happened. Delicious, evil and short.

The Monkey-A rather longer tale, this time , dealing a moth eaten remnant of Hal Shelburn’s childhood which turns up somewhere it shouldn’t. Having to move house after losing his job, Hal, his wife and 2 sons discover the grinning relic in a box, when, Hal knows it should be rotting at the bottom of a well. Every time the monkey claps its symbols, the sound is a portent of doom, who will meet their maker when the monkey starts dancing? A neat story, well told, of belief, superstition, and family ties.

Cain Rose Up-This tale appears to be  riff on the school shooter at a time when events like these, were thankfully much rarer than they are these days. It is hard to imagine how impactful and remote such a spree killing could have been, back then, and so sad to see it become part of the commonplace. King has written a Kindle single named ‘Guns’ where he shares his views on the accessibility of Americans to guns, and has had his own novel, ‘Rage’, removed from his pseudonymously published quartet, ‘The Bachman Books’, due to the alleged influence of that story on school shooters. It seems to me, that this story is about cannibalism, crossing boundaries which should not be crossed, and rising up from being the underdog. This is the narrative of a no-one who wants to be a someone, and behaves like the anti-thesis of the archetypal college student leaving for the summer.

The Jaunt- The closest to a ‘The Twilight Zone’ story that this collection has, a family are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime, they are going to ‘jaunt’ to Mars. As the father tells his wife and children about how the inventor, Victor Carune, came up with the concept, as they are waiting to be put to sleep. It has a truly horrifying finale, that will leave you shaken.

Wedding Gig-A pseudo mafia type tale, of a band asked to play the wedding of a mobster daughter. It has a Shawshank-esque vibe that I kind of enjoyed and again, it provides a break between the horror. Not really much more to say than this.

Paranoid:A Chant-The first of two poems included, I’ll be honest, I didn’t get this at all. If anyone does please let me know! It might be a reflection of the post McCarthy era , it might just be someone who is actually not paranoid but there really are people out to get him. Who knows?!

The Raft-Included as part of the movie, Creepshow 2, this is a bit of an oddity. Yes it is a pure monster story, of 4 kids who go swimming to a raft, in a middle of a lake, and find more than they expected in the water. But it has nasty undertones which I really didn’t enjoy, the casual sexism and non-consensual scene between LaVerne and Randy was uncomfortable. There is no explanation for what lies under the raft, maybe it is something to do with Project Arrowhead? Anyway, these kids do everything they aren’t supposed to, and come a cropper as a result.

Word Processor Of The Gods-In which wrongs are righted, courtesy of a home built word processor that takes the command ‘delete’ very seriously. Very seriously indeed.

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands-A return to the New York building where stories are told and bartered by an exclusive clientele, this time, George Gregson takes the floor with a neat story of an over excited newcomer, and a man cursed to bring death. Chilling and creepy, I wish that King would re-visit that particular brownstone with its butler, Stevens, always appearing with the perfectly mixed drinks.

Beachworld-Another space travel story, this time, the astronauts land on a world completely made of sand. The quiet, the lack of contact and the vast emptiness drives one of the men insane. Or does it?

The Reaper’s Image-I LOVED this one, it’s very Shirley Jackson-esque, and reminds me of his other story, ‘It Grows On You’ Simple, neat and with a satisfying payoff.

For Owen-A poem for King’s youngest son, walking to school, I don’t pretend to understand why it is included here, or what it really means. It’s a charming imagining of the children as fruit, and you can see him making up the story to pass the time walking in the morning. Possibly my least favourite along with ‘Paranoid’ but that is possibly because I am not clever at deciphering poetry. Someone else may get more from this (please tell me if you do!)

Survivor Type-the subject of an animated Creepshow Halloween special, this genuinely made me so frightened which I had never thought possible from a) having read the story and b)never being scared by an animation before. If anyone is going to get stranded on an island, a doctor is a good bet as they can maximise their chances of survival. Greed has brought the protagonist to this point, shipwrecked with minimal supplies and plentiful cocaine. Which is a great anaesthetic. As he slowly starts to cannibalise himself, he goes mad in the process, and the ending is open. Do you hope he is rescued, or do you imagine he is left there, a rotting surprise for whoever finds him.

Morning Deliveries(Milkman #1)-Another strange one, this forms the first half of one tale about a milkman who leaves deadly deliveries with your daily pint. If you ever wondered what a serial killer milkman tale would be like, wonder no more!

Big Wheels:A Tale of Laundry Game (Milkman #2)-The same milkman from the previous tale has to deal with two laundry workers who are out for revenge. It’s ok…nothing special. I think milkmen have been ruined for me as being an object of fear since I found my husband’s best friend once got run over by one. Since then, I can’t help but laughing like crazy at the idea of any milkmen being frightening (sorry Anthony, you had sooooo much time to get out of the way!!! Crazy, mun!)

The Ballad Of Flexible Bullet-this one, for me , went on a little too long. The story of a story about a famous writer who thought creatures named Fornits brining him story ideas, appears to be a sardonic take on King’s most asked question at parties, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’

The Reach-Tonally , very similar to ‘‘The Woman In The Room’, it is the tale of Stella, who has spent her entire life, all 95 years of it, on the island of Goat Island. Feeling her end is imminent, she decides if not now, then she will never cross the now frozen Reach, to the mainland. As she journeys, she talks to and is visited by ghosts from her past. It is one of those beautiful, melancholic tales which takes you closer to the end the further you travel, and whilst we now live in a  world which is instantly accessible thanks to the internet, there are many people, some of whom I have met, that have never left their town, or their valley, in their entire lives.’ Why leave?‘ is the common refrain, ‘when everything I need is here?’ Why indeed.

So there we are, a whistle stop tour of the stories , so if you interested, look out for the stories which link to Castle Rock which will be spread out throughout the day!

Let me know if there are ones that you have enjoyed, if you plan on reading it and so on in the comments section.

Click here to listen to the Kingcast, and a bunch of more sensible people , discussing their ideas about the different stories in this collection. I haven’t listened to it yet, but based on past Kingcast releases, it is going to be a complete banger.

Another bunch of King fanatics much cleverer than me, look at this book more closely here The Loser’s Club is my joint favourite King related podcast. and they have one hell of a backlog of episodes to go through if you decide to look them up!

Links to other King works-

Pg 139-I think the books that Charlie is reading and the posters in his classroom, are also in ‘It’ and ‘The Library Policeman (HereThere Be Tygers’)

Pg 141- Hal Shelburn was sacked from the same Texas Instruments factory where a certain Stu Redman from ‘The Stand’ also worked.

About the author…

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, ‘Mr Mercedes’, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both ‘Mr Mercedes’ and ‘End Of Watch’ received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel ‘Sleeping Beauties‘ with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘, ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘It‘.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine

Links-https://www.stephenking.com/

Twitter @StephenKing

@HodderBooks