Stephen King Mash-Up Mania

Posted by Joe Costal

Nailed IT! That’s what Hollywood’s screaming after the newest Stephen King reboot “floated” (ahem) away from the competition, earning a staggering $180 million opening weekend.

With those kinds of numbers, Hollywood may be scrambling to find the next King-sized retelling. We here at Quirk, ever the visionaries, think they should consider going in a different direction: “The Stephen King Character Mash-ups You Didn’t Realize You Were Dying For!”

 

 

Pet Semetary 3: The Grave of Cujo

Plot: Dr. Creed and his zombie wife have settled in quite nicely, thank you. He, a pillar of the New England necromancers association. She, a PTA mom with a mouth full of mealworms. But hilarity ensues when Tad Trenton (drink if this was the pseudonym for your erotic novel) (still played with precocious cuteness by Danny Pintauro) shows up with a certain titular St. Bernard corpse. One night buried in Micmac, and viola, Cujo’s back for some bat-eyed, slobbery fun.

Key Scenes: Cujo, back from the dead, eats that creepy yellow-eyed cat in a single gulp. No one mourns.

Jud Crandall returns from the grave…in full Herman Munster make-up but wearing his My Cousin Vinny robes and Southern drawl.

 

 

 

The Girl Who Loved Red Redding

Plot: When Trisha gets hopelessly lost in the woods, thirst and exhaustion cause her to conjure a vision of her favorite long-time Shawshank inmate, Red Redding. With Red on the scene, narrating Trisha’s every move in the voice of Morgan Freeman, that bear doesn’t stand a chance!

Key Dialogue:

Red (narrating): “That was my friend Trisha—she crawled through a river of poop, and came out clean on the other side. Sometimes watching her makes me sad. She doesn’t know which way to go. How could she? She was just a little girl…

Trisha: “Please. Stop talking. Find us water.”

Red (narrating): “That was my friend Trisha all right—lots of moxie. Especially when she’s tired. Tired from wandering around the woods all day. Always walking the wrong way…”

Trisha: (yelling) “Why are you using the third person? I’m the only one HERE!”

Red (narrating): “That was my friend—Trish, my friend. I’m sure gonna miss her when she dies.”

 

 

Gerald’s Misery Game

Plot: When psycho nurse Annie Wilkes recovers the body of kinky lawyer Gerald Burlingame, she traps him in her remote home and ties him to the bed. Gerald loves it. Annie is flummoxed, and after years of breaking each other’s ankles with sledge hammers, hitting each other over the head with typewriters and shaving each other’s legs using only lawn mowers–the happy couple retires to Clearwater, Florida.

Key Dialogue:

Annie: “You’re a dirty birdy.”

Gerald: “I am. I am a dirty birdy.”

Annie: “I…ok, whatever.”

 

 

 

Here’s Shining At You, Carrie

Plot: It’s Casablanca, but with Danny Torrance in Rick Blaine’s role, and Carrie White as Ilsa Lund. Dick Hollaran as Captain Louis Renault. The Nazi’s won’t stand a chance, and neither will love, when these two “play it again, and again and aga…”

Key Dialogue:

Danny (to Carrie, in his mind, with that Shining face he makes): Carrie, put down that plane.

Carrie (aloud, but holding the plane aloft with her mind, so, you know, also making that face): What about us?

Danny (not aloud): We’ll always have Paris-themed prom.

Carrie drops plane in massive, field-engulfing inferno.

Danny (in Tony finger voice): I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Mrs. Torrance.

 

 

Stand By It: The Musical

Plot: When the night, has come . . . The Losers Club meets Gordie and the boys for a boot stompin, knee-slappin, toe-tappin’ musical excursion over railroad tracks and through the sewers in search of the body of a dead clown.

Key Songs: Keifer Sutherland’s Ace Merrill & Michael Cole’s Henry Bowers duet (featuring the Bangor Maine Boys Choir): “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Crazier” (aka “Any Cat You Can Kill, I Can Kill More Disturbingly”)

Benjamin Haystack Hanscom & Vern Tessio: “Chubby Kids Need Love Too” (aka “We’re Not Just a Plot Device, Mr. King”) song features rap interlude by Lardass Hogan which earns Lin Manuel Miranda his long-awaited EGOT.

Opening Number: “When You Gave Me Some Skin, You Gave Me Your Heart” culminates in dance off between the Losers’ Club and Gordie and the boys. The issue is put to rest when the dance-off is won by the precocious cuteness of Danny Pintauro.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE: Musical also contains NO sewer orgy.

Joe Costal

Joe Costal

Joe Costal knows too much about stupid Halloween songs. His writing has appeared in dozens of magazines and journals, most recently Philadelphia Stories and The Maine Review. His poetry is included in Challenges for the Delusional II by Diode Editions. An excerpt from his novel is forthcoming in Painted Bride. Joe teaches writing at Stockton University. Visit him online at joecostal.com.