Danse Macabre [Paperback]

Before he gave us the “one of a kind classic” (The Wall Street Journal) memoirOn Writing, Stephen King wrote a nonfiction masterpiece inDanse Macabre, “one of the best books on American popular culture” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

From the author of dozens of #1New York Timesbestsellers and the creator of many unforgettable movies comes a vivid, intelligent, and nostalgic journey through three decades of horror as experienced through the eyes of the most popular writer in the genre. In 1981, years before he sat down to tackleOn Writing, Stephen King decided to address the topic of what makes horror horrifying and what makes terror terrifying. Here, in ten brilliantly written chapters, King delivers one colorful observation after another about the great stories, books, and films that comprise the horror genre—fromFrankensteinandDraculatoThe Exorcist,The Twilight Zone, andEarth vs. The Flying Saucers.

With the insight and good humor his fans appreciated inOn Writing,Danse Macabreis an enjoyably entertaining tour through Stephen King’s beloved world of horror.Danse Macabre

CHAPTER I

October 4, 1957,
and an Invitation to Dance

For me, the terror—the real terror, as opposed to whatever demons and boogeys which might have been living in my own mind—began on an afternoon in October of 1957. I had just turned ten. And, as was only fitting, I was in a movie theater: the Stratford Theater in downtown Stratford, Connecticut.

The movie that day was and is one of my all-time favorites, and the fact that it—rather than a Randolph Scott western or a John Wayne war movie—was playing was also only fitting. The Saturlă!