I enjoy writing about the world of Stephen King, because I'm a huge fan of the guy's work. I've even met him a couple of times and he has to be one of the humblest famous people I've ever met. The first time was way… way… way back when I was still in high school. He was in Las Cruces, New Mexico (I lived in El Paso, Texas) for a screening of "Cujo", a lecture afterwards and a book signing. Mostly he was there to help raise money for a school library where an old friend of his worked. Everything went pretty well for most of the night and his lecture was terrific, even going so far as to point out the obvious flaw in the movie we just saw. Or rather… the hideous change that was made. (Let's just say in the movie… the kid lived…) His book signing was quite a bit different, in that there was an unexpected turnout of people who didn’t even bother to go to the screening or the talk. There were a couple thousand people in line, where they only expected a couple of hundred.

S.K. stayed for as long as he could, but then two miraculous things happened. First he walked out of the library after about 3 hours and announced that he was going to have to shut the doors because he was due to fly out and couldn’t stay. That's right… he walked out himself and addressed the crowd. No publicist, no lackey… the man took care of his own. If I ever admired him before, it was increased tenfold. The second was that I was amongst the last 10 people ushered through the door before it shut. I still have a 20 x 30 print if him signing my book, a print that he signed the next time I met him, "For Mike, Beast Wishes, Big Steve King…"

Some people might think that experience might have jaded me when it comes to all things Steve, but that's certainly not the case. I do not 'love' every book, and I certainly don’t 'love' every movie based on said books. There are some awesome flicks mixed in there along with some bottom of the barrel muck. So I get leery of anything that offers to be a Stephen King Collection, especially when it comes to the movies. Generally it means that there might be one good movie packaged in with some… well… not so good movies. This is partially the case with Paramount's new 4-movie "Stephen King Collection." The movies vary in quality so I'll list them in order. "The Dead Zone" (excellent), Pet Cemetery (pretty darn good), "Silver Bullet" (fair) and Graveyard Shift (really, really bad).

I would imagine most of you are at least somewhat familiar with these films, so I won't go into too much detail as to the plots, but I can tell you a little about the discs themselves. "The Dead Zone", which was directed by David Cronenburg is undoubtedly the best of the set, in part because the movie offers such a great version of the book (and chilling performances by Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen), but also includes a fair amount of special features. They come in the form of four featurettes that taken together equal about an hour's worth of material. Each focuses on a different aspect of the film, from general memories and the overall look of the movie to the more horrible sequences and politics involved. They mix scenes from the film with behind the scenes footage and photos, interspersed with newer interviews from Cronenburg, actress Brooke Adams and various other members of the crew. There are, unfortunately, no interviews with Walken and only snippets of a much older interview with Sheen. Still, even without Walken's presence, this disc alone is a must have.

"Pet Cemetery", while not the best adaptation is still a pretty creepy entry into King's movie canon. Very moody and that kid…. Gage. Creepiest ever. It was a favorite book of mine, and the fact that it dealt with the horrible death of a child… not to mention his resurrection resonates with me even more now that I have a 3 year old child of my own. This disc also includes a set of featurettes totaling about 40 minutes. These three featurettes go into quite a bit of detail about the production and are set up similar to those on "The Dead Zone", with interviews woven throughout scenes from in front of and behind the camera. Here the newer interviews come from director Mary Lambert, actors Dale Midkiff and Brad Greenquist, director of photography Peter Stein and author Douglas Winter. There are also some older interviews with Denise Crosby and the late Fred Gwynne. Even better are some sequences of an older interview with Stephen King, where he shares his personal attachments to the story as he walks around the set. Add to this a fairly straightforward commentary from director Mary Lambert and you have another disc worth the price of the set.

"Silver Bullet", which was actually based on King's originally limited release of "Cycle of the Werewolf", is a about a wheelchair bound boy who believes that his town is being ravaged by a werewolf. The book was great… the movie was only adequate, but not terrible. It's a little campier in style than I would have liked, but it does get the job of translating the story done. There are no extra features to be found here.

Finally, we have "Graveyard Shift", which was loosely based on one of King's short stories. Without getting too much into it, we get to see a bunch of guys fight giant rats-things in a Maine textile mill. That's about the gist of it. The original short story was great but the movie was amongst the worst of the bunch. However, if you get drunk enough late on a Saturday night it has just enough poorly made monsters to give you a good laugh. No extra features here either.

Personally, I like the idea of having every movie that is based on a Stephen King story on DVD, but that's the collector in me. Even the bad ones, while still bad, are at least kind if fun in their badness. Whether or not you get this collection depends on whether or not you already have the movies in your collection. If you don’t, you might as well grab a set.

The Dead Zone
Directed by: David Cronenburg
Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Nicholas Campbell, Martin Sheen
Extras: Memories from the Dead Zone, The Look of the Dead Zone, Visions and Horror from the Dead Zone, The Politics of the Dead Zone, Theatrical Trailer
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
MPAA Rating: R

Pet Cemetery
Directed by: Mary Lambert
Starring: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne
Extras: Commentary by Director Mary Lambert, Stephen King Territory, The Characters, Filming the Horror
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
MPAA Rating: R

Graveyard Shift
Directed by: Ralph Singleton
Starring: David Andrews, Stephen Macht, Brad Dourif
Extras: None
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
MPAA Rating: R

Silver Bullet
Directed by: Daniel Attias
Starring: Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim
Extras: None
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
MPAA Rating: R

Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 9/26/2006
Region 1
Website

We'll give The Stephen King Collection a B-.