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A scoop of Firestarter, a dash of It, and just a soupçon of Carrie and The Shining — Stephen King’s novel The Institute is like a bowl brimming with the author’s greatest hits. But does it go down smooth? That’s what the Losers’ Club asks in their episode about the 2019 tome, which takes readers inside the eponymous Institute where a mysterious gaggle of doctors, scientists, and thugs subject psychically-touched children to terrible tests, many of which border on pure torture.

Join Losers Randall Colburn, Ashley Casseday, Justin Gerber, and Dan Pfleegor as they dissect what the story has to say about friendship, U.S. foreign policy, and the youth of today. Questions abound! Can King write modern kids as well as he can those of the ‘50s and ‘60s? How does the paranoia of early books like Firestarter and The Stand factor in here? Does adding “-ster” to...

The heat is on across King’s Dominion. To cool off, The Losers’ Club put on their shades, put the top down on their 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible, and feel the breeze in Hollywood King. It’s another high-octane news episode that finds Losers Randall Colburn, Michael Roffman, and Justin Gerber cycling through the latest Stephen King headlines.

Topics Netflix’s Cujo, Mike Flanagan‘s The Life of Chuck, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, King’s collaboration with the late Maurice Sendak, the 2025 Oscars, the work of Spike Jonze, and god knows what else came to mind. They also sort through his various tweets, blues, and threads as he continues to keep adding new social channels.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers deliver their next book episode on 2019’s The Institute. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

This month’s book episode is The Institute. In anticipation, we’re unlocking this spirited ranking episode from 2023 in which the Losers talk about their favorite Bad Boys in King’s Dominion. Instead of listing and ranking, however, we’re gonna let the Boys do what they do best and duke it out with each other until only one remains.

As per tradition, the Losers use a March-Madness style Bracket to narrow down the competitors to a grand champion. Who will reign king? Billy Nolan? Patrick Hockstetter? Henry Bowers? Or maybe even Big Jim Rennie? You’ll have to tune in and see. For more of these kind of bracket episodes, join The Barrens: patreon.com/thebarrens.

Stream the episode below and return later this week when the Losers return to Hollywood King to catch up on the latest headlines. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

What happens when we die? This age-old question has confounded philosophers and religious experts alike while occupying our thoughts to an unhealthy degree. The irony is that each of us will one day have the answer, but will not be able to pass on what we find. As an author of horror fiction, Stephen King has been exploring this concept for the past 50 years with novels that run the gamut from thrilling and tense to downright nihilistic and cruel. For example, this month’s The Monkey is a blood-soaked romp through the reality of death brought to life with the icy humor of director Oz Perkins. On the opposite end of the spectrum is King’s 2018 novel Elevation. At just shy of 150 pages, this slim story explores the beautiful possibilities of leaving this world and what we can accomplish before saying goodbye.

This breezy jaunt follows web designer Scott Carey,...

“The monkey that likes killing our family is back.”

Anyone familiar with Stephen King’s massive body of work knows that no character is safe and anyone can die. In fact, the Master of Horror specializes in deaths that run the gamut from subtle and poignant to outlandish and cruel. Though Constant Readers are often devastated by the legendary author’s tendency for killing their darlings, we know there’s always a method to the madness. And sometimes it’s in reading about these horrific fatalities that we find the courage to enjoy the unpredictability of our own fragile lives.

Osgood Perkins takes this nihilistic sentiment and turns it up to 11 in his blood-soaked horror comedy The Monkey. Following twin brothers plagued by a maniacal toy, Perkins dares to laugh in the face of death while celebrating moments of beauty between cradle and grave. Delightful cameos and grisly decapitations abound...

One year after ABC’s juggernaut adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, the network hoped to reap similar success from a lesser-known King property: The Langoliers. In May of 1995, horror titan Tom Holland unleashed his take on the sci-fi oddity across two nights. The television event was a ratings success, but critics savaged it as “dull” with “ludicrous” special effects. (It’s hard to imagine anyone being scared by CGI meatballs with teeth.)

Enter The Timekeepers of Eternity, an experimental reworking of the miniseries from filmmaker Aristotelis Maragkos that chops the three-hour series down to 60 minutes while centering the story around its most compelling character, Bronson Pinchot’s Craig Toomey. More importantly, Maragkos animates the movie into a “paper nightmare” (his words), with the picture ripping, crunching, and wrapping in on itself. It’s as cool as it sounds.

In this episode of The Losers’ Club Podcast, the Losers...

Well, it’s Valentine’s Day on Friday. Get ready for the same ol’ song and dance online: “Blah, blah, blah about being lonely and depressed” We all are. “Blah, blah, blah about it being a fake holiday created by Hallmark” They all are. Hopefully, this year, we can all cut the shit and accept that human beings are simply disgusting, selfish, primal souls looking to get lucky.

Sure enough, The Losers’ Club has no shame about being this self aware, and so they’re back with another smutty episode for Valentine’s Day. Last year, if you recall, they shared their favorite sex scenes in Stephen King‘s work (See? No shame! No shame at all). This time around, however, they’re back to lust over their favorite King crushes from his works.

Stream the episode below and return later this week when the Losers dive into The Timekeepers of Eternity.

In 2020, mere weeks before the pandemic, HBO released a 10-episode miniseries adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Outsider. Developed by the great Richard Price, the series stars Ben Mendelsohn, Cynthia Erivo, Jason Bateman, and Julianne Nicholson, adding a little more grit, grime, and story to the 2018 novel. Critics were impressed as were Constant Readers.

Yet so was The Losers’ Club who covered the series live half a decade ago. Now, in the wake of reviewing the novel, they’re revisiting the proverbial crime scene with a murderers’ row of co-hosts to debate whether this run of television supersedes the source material, Erivo’s take on Holly Gibney, the adjustments to character, and more.

Stream the episode below and return this week when the Losers share their favorite King crushes ahead of Valentine’s Day. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify,...

The Losers’ Club leaves Maine and heads to Flint City, Oklahoma, where a grisly murder demands the talents of Stephen King’s favorite cinephile sleuth Holly Gibney. Published in May of 2018, The Outsider is one of King’s more successful forays into the true crime genre, picking up where he left off with the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy.

It’s a story we covered in capsule form over half a decade ago, but today we’re giving it the true Lc treatment with an official, full-length book episode. Join co-hosts Michael Roffman, Jenn Adams, Rachel Reeves, and Randall Colburn as they weigh in on the balance between true crime and the supernatural, debate whether Holly adds or detracts from said balance, and how the Trump and MeToo era may or may not have had an influence on the story.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers revisit...

The heat is on across King’s Dominion. To cool off, The Losers’ Club put on their shades, put the top down on their 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible, and feel the breeze in Hollywood King. It’s another high-octane news episode that finds Losers Randall Colburn, Michael Roffman, and Justin Gerber cycling through the latest Stephen King headlines.

Topics include King’s work on a third Talisman novel, our excitement for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, whether or not HBO’s ‘Welcome to Derry’ will be this year’s biggest splash in King’s Dominion, casting updates for Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, and how everyone is waiting on pins and needles for MGM+’s The Institute.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers deliver their first book episode of 2025 on The Outsider. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

Eight years, nine seasons! The journey continues…

Join Losers Michael Roffman, Randall Colburn, and Jenn Adams as they share their highlights from 2024 before previewing all the Stephen King books, movies, and events they’re covering throughout 2025. This is their final year of new book episodes and by December they’ll be all caught up with King with his forthcoming novel Never Flinch.

Stream the episode below and don’t forget your calendar. Then return next week when the Losers return to Hollywood King to discuss all the headlines that have been popping up for King readers. For further adventures, join the Losers’ Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

You can also unlock hundreds upon hundreds of hours of exclusive content in The Barrens (Patreon) — from deep dives into uncollected King works to Dark Tower detours to feature-length King commentaries...

Stephen King and Entertainment Weekly go back a long ways.

The pair’s relationship began with a handful of grouchy letters to the editor in which King excoriated the magazine’s film critics. Kin’s barbed words, however, only motivated the outlet to recruit the author — after he reviewed a Harry Potter book for them, the editors asked him if he’d want to like his own monthly column. In July of 2003, the Pop of King, a full page of King’s pop cultural musings, debuted.

In June 2023, The Losers’ Club was initially going to discuss the column in one fell swoop in their Patreon-exclusive Archives series. However, after reading through the first year and change, they discovered there’s too much brilliance, too many bad takes, and too much pure bile to not spread this out a bit.

Join Losers Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, and Dan Caffrey as...

Yes, it’s hot, yes, it’s sweaty, and, yes, it literally takes place on June 19, 1987, but Stephen King‘s Maximum Overdrive is also a Christmas movie. Why? There’s a green comet, tons of red blood, and everyone’s forced to spend day and night together as a large truck of toys dictates their lives. If that’s not a metaphor for an American Christmas, well, we’re at a loss.

Or, we’re just lazy and making you engage in another ludicrous holiday movie debate. Whatever the case, the Losers head to Dixie Boy Truck Stop to finally review the lone directorial effort by the Master of Horror. Together, they discuss the kills, the thrills, and the incessant AC/DC pumping out of the speakers of every car.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers kick off the new year. For further adventures, join...

A couple of months ago, we learned that Djimon Hounsou (A Quiet Place Part II and A Quiet Place: Day One) is set to star in The Monster, a horror thriller that Darren Lynn Bousman will be directing from a screenplay by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer, the writers of Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane. It was announced soon after that Lauren Lavera – who played heroine Sienna in Terrifier 2 and the recently released Terrifier 3 – was joining Hounsou in the cast. Now, Deadline reveals that Alicia Witt (Longlegs), Gina Philips (Jeepers Creepers), Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers), Mia Healey (The Wilds), Michael Lombardi (The Deuce), David Call (Insidious: The Red Door), Victor Del Rio (Precognito), Cedric Benjamin (Luke Cage), Zac Jaffee (Hustlers), Renés Rivera (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Hari Bhaskar (First Shift), Kristina Krasniqi (Celebrity Ghost Stories), and rapper Jacob Lukas Anderson, a.k.a. Prof, are also in the cast.

In September 2018, journalist and bestselling author Otegha Uwagba tweeted, “Men should be glad women want equality and not revenge.” Espoused in response to the #MeToo Movement, her statement reflects justifiable rage for a world that seems intent on taking away female rights and treating women as less than human. Shortly before this collective culmination of fourth-wave feminism, Stephen King explored the concept in his 2017 novel Sleeping Beauties. Written with his son and fellow novelist Owen King, the sprawling story imagines a world without women and places the future of patriarchy entirely in the hands of a small group of female survivors.

In the latest episode of Bloody FM’s The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast, co-hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Dan Pfleegor, and Julia Marchese dig into this extensive text while contemplating the authors’ intended audience. What kind of creature is Eve Black and does she have additional connections to King’s Dominion?...

Holiday dinners can be minefields. Your pretentious cousin won’t stop talking about her year abroad, your mom keeps asking when you plan to have kids, and your drunk uncle just spilled red wine all over the green bean casserole. Sometimes the tricks don’t end with Halloween and even the best sweet potato casserole can’t make up for the stress of listening to your dad go on yet another political rant.

But Constant Readers may rest assured that no matter what horrors may lie under your granny’s covered casserole dish, they won’t be as bad as the terrible families lurking in Stephen King’s Dominion. From the Cunninghams to the Hartsfields, the master of horror seems to delight in showing us the dark secrets that lie within every hearth and home.

This episode features a sour 16 of sinister clans, each duking it out to be named...

The heat is on across King’s Dominion. To cool off, The Losers’ Club put on their shades, put the top down on their 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible, and feel the breeze in Hollywood King. It’s another high-octane news episode that finds Losers Randall Colburn, Ashley Casseday, Michael Roffman, and Jenn Adams cycling through the latest Stephen King headlines.

Topics include King’s next novel Never Flinch, Mike Flanagan‘s totally necessary remake of Carrie, a potential third Talisman novel, King’s animated short “Lily”, casting updates for Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, and whether or not King will stick around Twitter (this was recorded prior to his exodus to Threads).

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers rank King’s worst families ahead of Thanksgiving. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts,...

With their Bag of Bones mailbag episodes, The Losers’ Club answers questions submitted by their patrons. Each Bag features assorted Qs that traditionally range from absurd to essential, genius to gross, and weird to wild. As such these are freewheelin’ outings for the gang that are as unpredictable as they are hilarious — and they’re for everyone.

Join All the King’s Men — Michael Roffman, Dan Caffrey, Justin Gerber, and Dan Pfleegor — as they assemble on Election Night to answer questions like “Which Stephen King villain would you rather have run the country?”; “Which King character would you want to share a slice of pound cake with?”; “What is the best moment or piece of writing that lives in a “bad” King book?”; and more. Want to ask them a question in the future? Become a patron at www.patreon.com/thebarrens.

Stream the unpredictable chat below and stay tuned...

Friday was All Saint’s Day, so we thought: Why not celebrate the greatest saint of all?

Join the Losers below as they remain in Castle Rock post-Gwendy’s Button Box to discuss Lewis Teague‘s 1983 Stephen King adaptation, Cujo. Starring Dee Wallace, the film is world renown for being the de facto killer dog movie. But, it’s much more than that as the Losers argue to reclaim the film as one of the great King adaptations.

It’s a conversation that doubles the runtime of the film itself.

But that’s not all: As a special bonus — consider it a late Halloween treat — The Losers’ Club executive producer Michael Roffman speaks to the film’s star Dee Wallace, who delivers an Oscary-worthy performance here. Note: This was recorded live at this past September’s Creep I.E. Con and the beginning was lost. Still, the majority of the chat remains intact!

The Losers turn the clock back half a century and return to Castle Rock for Stephen King and Richard Chizmar ‘s 2017 collaboration Gwendy’s Button Box . Together, they discuss the timeline of the book, the implications of the titular box, and the ways it may or may not dovetail with what we know of Mid-World.

Bottom line: You can finish the book before you finish this episode. It’s that read.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers remain in Castle Rock for Cujo . For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , RadioPublic , Acast , Google Podcasts , and RSS . You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon) .

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The post ‘Gwendy’s Button Box’ Is a Breezy Stroll for Constant Readers [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

A couple of days ago, we learned that Djimon Hounsou (A Quiet Place Part II and A Quiet Place: Day One) is set to star in The Monster, a horror thriller that Darren Lynn Bousman will be directing from a screenplay by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer, the writers of Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane. Now, our friends at Bloody Disgusting have revealed that Lauren Lavera – who played heroine Sienna in Terrifier 2 and the recently released Terrifier 3 – is in talks to join Hounsou in the cast.

Details on the characters Hounsou and Lavera will be playing haven’t been revealed, but we do know that the story follows two millennials who make quick money by leasing incredible New York City apartments they don’t own to people who don’t know they are being scammed. The con works brilliantly until they run into an apartment owner with a dark...

Back in July, Djimon Hounsou signed on to star in a shark thriller called Beneath the Storm alongside Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) and Whitney Peak (Hocus Pocus 2), with Tommy Wirkola (Violent Night) writing and directing for Sony Pictures and producers Adam McKay and Kevin Messick of HyperObject Industries. While we wait to hear more information about that project, Hounsou is already moving on to another interesting film, one called The Monster. Deadline reports that Darren Lynn Bousman will be directing the film from a screenplay by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer, the writers of Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane.

The Monster is set to begin filming in Danbury, Connecticut in November. The story follows two millennials who make quick money by leasing incredible New York City apartments they don’t own to people who don’t know they are being scammed. The con works brilliantly until they run into an apartment...

The heat is on across King’s Dominion. To cool off, The Losers’ Club put on their shades, put the top down on their 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible, and feel the breeze in Hollywood King. It’s another high-octane news episode that finds Losers Michael Roffman, Randall Colburn, and Jenn Adams cycling through the latest Stephen King headlines.

Topics include the new red band teaser for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, the forthcoming miniseries for The Institute, updates for Edgar Wright‘s The Running Man and Mike Flanagan‘s The Life of Chuck, a big drop for Paul Greengrass’ Fairy Tale, which film scares Stephen King today, and his affinity for Taylor Swift.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers return to Castle Rock for Gwendy’s Button Box. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts,...

Half a decade later, Gary Dauberman ‘s long-awaited and much-delayed adaptation of Stephen King ‘s ‘Salem’s Lot has hit… Max. The Losers assemble outside the Marsten House to a record a review for the ages, finally sinking their teeth into a production they’ve been covering nearly since the beginning of the podcast.

Join co-hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Michael Roffman, and Kyle Orozovich as they draw their stakes and give their takes. Together, they take inventory of the cast and debate whether or not they’re even playing characters, theorize on the alleged three-hour cut, and try to confirm if anyone can even see anything.

Stream the episode below and tell us your favorites in the comments. For further adventures, join the Losers’ Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , RadioPublic , Acast , Google Podcasts , and RSS . You can also unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive...

Stephen King is no stranger to murderous cars. From Christine and From a Buick 8 to the malevolent Goblin truck haunting the roads of Maximum Overdrive, the master of horror knows his way around gory gear shifts, sinister steering wheels, and dangerous drivers. In 2014, he released Mr. Mercedes, a crime novel pitting Bill Hodges, a retired detective, against Brady Hartsfield, a criminal mastermind disguised as the ice cream man. Both survive the novel’s explosive conclusion, though Brady is left in a vegetative state. After a brief detour into the world of rare publications with the 2015 sequel Finders Keepers, King catches up with the disabled criminal and his newfound psychic powers. End of Watch sees Hodges once again match wits with his old nemesis aided by partners Holly and Jerome.

Hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Rachel Reeves, and Ashley Casseday hop back into the blood-soaked Mercedes to conclude their coverage of this confounding trilogy.

Stephen King considers himself a novelist, but he loves a good short story.

There’s something to be said for a shorter, more intense experience. It can be invigorating, sometimes even shocking, like a waltz with a stranger you will never see again, or a kiss in the dark, or a beautiful curio for sale laid out on a cheap blanket at a street bazaar. And, yes, when my stories are collected, I always feel like a street vendor, one who sells only at midnight.

I spread my assortment out, inviting the reader – that’s you – to come and take your pick. But I always add the proper caveat: be careful, my dear, because some of these items are dangerous. They are the ones with bad dreams hidden inside, the ones you can’t stop thinking about when sleep is slow to come and you wonder why the closet door is open,...

Like most of his Constant Readers, Stephen King certainly has his own share of fears. Trying his hand in any literary form is not one of them, however, a notion he once again proves in his 2015 collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. Spanning 20 tales, a number of them include his knack at poetry… and even one particular parable about his favorite sport.

In the first of two episodes dedicated to this bewildering Bazaar, Losers Dan Caffrey, Michael Roffman, Dan Pfleegor, and Jenn Adams begin their ranking of the 20 tales — from the bottom to the top. Now, keep in mind, these aren’t necessarily their least favorite. They’re just ranked as such. Stay tuned next week for the concluding coverage with the top 10.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers conclude their coverage of Just After Sunset. For further adventures, join the Losers’ Club over long...

Constant Listeners, yes, we originally planned to drop our Bazaar of Bad Dreams coverage this week. However, given Stephen King’s renewed interest in Hearts in Suspension, we opted to unlock our coverage of the collection from The Stephen King Archives. For those not in the know, The Stephen King Archives is our Patreon exclusive imprint in which your Losers search the vault of Stephen King material – dusting off unpublished short stories, long-forgotten interviews, coffee-stained manuscripts, and alternate versions of your favorite tales.

Published in 2016 and edited by King’s longtime mentor Jim Bishop, Hearts in Suspension features an original essay by King entitled “Five to One, One in Five”, four installments of “King’s Garbage Truck”, a reprint of King’s novella “Hearts in Atlantis”, 12 essays by fellow students and friends from King’s college days, and a gallery of period-specific photographs and documents. Note: This particular entry was...

In 2018, the second season of David E. Kelley’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes aired once again on the Audience Network. Instead of adapting the second book in the true crime novel franchise — 2015’s Finders Keepers — the show’s sophomore season jumped ahead to the finale of the Mercedes trilogy, 2016’s End of Watch.

In this episode of The Losers’ Club, co-hosts Randall Colburn, Justin Gerber, and Dan Pfleegor gather to discuss the curious season and its efforts to find drama in holding patterns. They also touch on the season’s shocking ending, a wild deviation from the source material, and anticipate our coverage for the third novel in September.

Stream the discussion below and start reading Bazaar of Bad Dreams for the end of the month. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

The heat is on across King’s Dominion. To cool off, The Losers’ Club put on their shades, put the top down on their 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible, and feel the breeze in Hollywood King. It’s another high-octane news episode that finds Losers Michael Roffman, Dan Pfleegor, Justin Gerber, and Dan Caffery cycling through the latest Stephen King headlines.

Topics include Frances Lawrence’s The Long Walk, Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, the forthcoming miniseries for The Institute, and all the projects by King that he recently teased such as Always Holly, The Talisman 3, etc. They also sort through some tweets, which ranges from greatest film scores to King’s 1999 accident to recent horror like In A Violent Nature.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers unlock an episode from The Stephen King Archives. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

After taking a quick (and bleak) detour with the macabre Revival, Stephen King returned to the characters he introduced in 2014’s Mr. Mercedes with 2015’s Finders Keepers. The second in a trilogy of novels about aging detective Bill Hodges, Finders Keepers follows a young boy whose discovery of a trunk filled with cash (and moleskin notebooks) puts him in the crosshairs of a psychopathic bookworm.

In this episode of The Losers’ Club, hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Rachel Reeves, and Ashley Casseday slip on their pocket protectors and duct-taped specs to discuss King’s return to the obsessed fan archetype. Along the way, they touch on parasocial fandom, rare book dealers, butts, and whether the story even needs Hodges and co.

Stream the episode below. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also...

Today, The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast is unlocking the debut episode of the Dark Tower Detour, their Patreon-exclusive series that studies the minutiae of Roland Deschain’s epic quest. Hosted by Dan Pfleegor and Dan Caffrey, this sidecast covers a range of topics that interest those who remember the face of their father.

No character is too small. No detail too obscure.

This kickoff episode — recorded in September 2021, mind you — sees the Dans joined by courageous Kingslingers co-hosts Scott Daly and Matt Freeman. Together, this blessed ka-tet bring its expertise to the ill-fated Battle of Jericho Hill, a tragic bloodbath mentioned in passing across several installments of the series.

If you recall, the event was finally explored in full during a five-issue Marvel comic book run that ran from December 2009 to April 2010. Using that as a stepping stone, your heroes will examine the minds behind these comics,...

In 2014, Stephen King took a turn toward the macabre with Revival. A sprawling opus about the intersection of faith and science, the novel has since become a favorite amongst Constant Readers, who consider it to be an all-timer with an ending that haunts you forever.

Today, the Losers step up to be healed by Minister Charles Jacobs as they discuss the unnerving novel. Together, they weigh in on the themes, how they relate to King’s own faith, and whether or not this is the most harrowing work in King’s ouevre.

Stream the episode below. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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The post Stephen King’s ‘Revival’ Is Bleak As Hell [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!

The Losers’ Club find themselves in Hell, where they’re surrounded by the most scorching Stephen King hot takes they’ve read to date. How scorching? Take a gander at a few: “The Hodges Trilogy is actually really good…”; “Christine is not a really enjoyable read”; Susan Delgado is an underwritten character; and praise for The Tommyknockers.

Once again, the Losers are back with another installment of Firestarters, which sees the Club sift through myriad hot takes submitted by their Overlook patrons. After waiting for them to pile up, each one is then classified as mild, medium, or hot, and, let’s just say, you’re gonna need some milk as this episode rolls on.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers head to church — or the state fair — for Revival. For further adventures, join the Losers’ Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

As Constant Readers, we love to wander through Stephen King‘s small towns, whether it’s the main street of Castle Rock, the barrens outside of Derry, or in the thick of the woods surrounding Harlow. But author Sharon Kitchens actually walked those paths herself in real life, and she lived to tell the tale.

Well, she lived to write the book! It’s called Stephen King’s Maine: A History & Guide, and it’s an essential tome for Constant Readers. Today, Sharon joins Losers’ Club co-host Michael Roffman to discuss how she assembled this incredibly rich read and shares her 10 favorite King spots … all of which you can visit yourself.

Stream the conversation below and start reading Revival for our book episode at the end of June. For further adventures, join the Club via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of...

To celebrate the release of Stephen King’s latest shortest story collection You Like It Darker, The Losers’ Club is unlocking their premiere episode of The Stephen King Archives, a Patreon exclusive imprint in which your Losers search the vault of King material – dusting off unpublished short stories, long-forgotten interviews, coffee-stained manuscripts, and alternate versions of your favorite tales. In the past, they’ve covered the stories within “The Body”, the uncollected Creepshow tales, and King’s EW columns.

This particular episode, recorded in 2021, zeroes in on King’s earliest stories, specifically 1956’s “Jhonathan and the Witchs”, 1963’s The Aftermath, and 1965’s “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber”. What are these stories? Where did they come from? Listen ahead as Losers Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, and Michael Roffman parse through these early, early works. And to help us out, they even consulted the one and only Bev Vincent. And, as you’ll hear,...

The heat is on across King’s Dominion. To cool off, The Losers’ Club put on their shades, put the top down on their 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible, and feel the breeze in Hollywood King. It’s another high-octane news episode that finds Losers Randall Colburn, McKenzie Gerber, Jenn Adams and Justin Gerber cycling through the latest Stephen King headlines.

Topics include King’s new short stories collection You Like It Darker, Edgar Wright‘s The Running Man, Neon picking up Oz Perkins‘ adaptation of The Monkey, and Francis Lawrence‘s The Long Walk heading into production this summer. They also check in on King’s recent online antics, like his bizarre claim that he was never a Neil Young fan and his new friendship with Ice T, which leads to a meditation on the divergent paths of devoted posters in old age (and dramatic readings of Ice T’s best...

On August 9, 2017, a TV show premiered with two huge names attached — Stephen King (one of the most successful writers alive) and David E. Kelley (one of the most successful TV creators alive) — and no one saw it. That show? Mr. Mercedes, an adaptation of King’s 2014 novel, the first in a trilogy about a detective named Bill Hodges and the psychopath that got away. But while your mileage may vary when it comes to the book — and the work of Kelley, who created shows like The Practice and Ally McBeal — neither of them are to blame. The problem was that it premiered on the Audience Network, a pay channel owned by AT&T that nobody knew how to find.

After the Audience Network folded in 2020, Mr. Mercedes, which somehow managed to get three full seasons, rolled over to Peacock. A good thing, too, as it’s got a cast to die for — Brendan Gleeson,...

After releasing The Colorado Kid and Joyland via the Hard Case Crime imprint, Stephen King made his grand debut into the world of hard-boiled crime fiction with Mr. Mercedes. The first in a trilogy, the 2014 novel introduced readers to Bill Hodges, a crusty, retired detective who finds his golden years interrupted by the taunts of a psychopathic killer he failed to apprehend.

A divisive book among the King faithful, Mr. Mercedes is nonetheless an important one, as it introduces Holly Gibney, a recluse-turned-investigator King would go on to feature in four subsequent novels (and one novella), including last year’s Holly.

Join The Losers’ Club’s Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Ashley Casseday, and Rachel Reeves as they detail the book’s origins, how it differs from the author’s previous forays into crime, and the ways in which it reflects evolving societal fears about domestic terrorism. They also discuss the...

The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast closes out April with another trip to prom with Carrie White, only this time there’s no Brian De Palma, no Sissy Spacek, and no Amy Irving. Instead, they dial back to 2002, when NBC aired a new vision of Carrie that may or may not have been the backdoor pilot for a would-be TV series.

Join Jenn Adams, Ashley Casseday, Dan Pfleegor as they jump in the limo to burn through this early aughts nightmare. Together, they discuss Bryan Fuller‘s “vision”, the digital aesthetics, the garish CGI, Angela Bettis and Patricia Clarkson’s performances, how it hews closer to the page, and more. Never seen it? It’s streaming on Tubi.

Stream the discussion below and stay tuned next week for their coverage on Mr. Mercedes. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify,...

“Life was a wheel, its only job was to turn, and it always came back to where it started.”

The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast heads to Frazier, New Hampshire to review Stephen King’s 2013 novel, Doctor Sleep. The sequel to 1977’s The Shining follows a much-older Danny Torrance, whose battle with alcoholism becomes all the more complicated when he crosses paths with a young child who also has the shine.

Join Losers Randall Colburn, Michael Roffman, and Dan Caffrey as they discuss the True Knot, dirty dishes with poundcake, and debate if King should have ever burned down The Overlook Hotel. Note: This episode was recorded in 2019 and is being re-released today as part of their ensuing chronological read-through.

Stream the discussion below and stay tuned next week for an episode on Bryan Fuller’s Carrie. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

“And then the world exploded.”

Fifty years ago, Stephen King published a slim novel about a lonely girl finding her power and the world of horror has never been the same. We all know the story by now. Outcast Carrie White gets bullied by her classmates and abused by her ultra-religious mother. Good Girl Sue Snell convinces her boyfriend to take Carrie to prom in her place. Mean Girl Chris Hargenson orchestrates a plot to get Carrie voted Prom Queen then coronates her with a bucket of pig’s blood. They all laugh and Carrie unleashes her deadly powers of telekinesis. King’s story of high school morality and bloody revenge has woven itself into the fabric of American life, extending its reach well past genre limits. To mark this milestone, The Losers’ Club celebrates the birth of a legend with a Twinner book episode on the 1974 novel Carrie.

Already an accomplished short story author,...

The Losers head down to North Carolina for a summer job at Joyland circa 1973, a time when Rod Stewart was still in Faces, Dark Side of the Moon was the cutting edge new album, and moments could only be captured by Hollywood Girls and their professional cameras. It was also a time when local legends could flourish and remain mysterious enough to linger in our minds. And that’s of major interest to us today as we try to unravel the eerie murder within Stephen King‘s Hard Case Crime novel Joyland.

Published in 2013, King’s second Hard Case Crime novel brought the author even closer to his crime era with The Bill Hodges Trilogy, while also paving the way for his then-highly anticipated sequel to The Shining, aka Doctor Sleep. As they discuss in today’s book episode, Joyland has several connects to the entities, particularly The Shining. They...

In 2009, Stephen King asked his fans what they’d rather get first — a sequel to The Shining or a new Dark Tower book. They voted for Shining sequel, but the Dark Tower book came first anyway. That book? The Wind Through the Keyhole, a (relatively) trim tale that revisits our favorite gunslinger and his ka-tet in between the events of Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. In it, Roland spins an eerie tale from his youth over a roaring fire as a starkblast rages outside. As far as Dark Tower stories go, it’s a cozy one.

Join The Losers’ Club‘s Randall Colburn, Dan Caffrey, and Dan Pfleegor as they palaver about its nesting story structure, fairy tale detour, and emotional peek at a young gunslinger in the throes of grief. More importantly, was this book the one that best presaged King’s drift towards crime fiction?...

Lobstrosities is a Patreon-only segment of The Losers’ Club that journeys into the barren wastelands of Stephen King movies and sequels. In the past, they’ve covered Pet Sematary 2, Creepshow 3, A Return to ‘Salem’s Lot, every sequel to Sometimes They Come Back, and a third of the Corn franchise. Today, in light of its 25th anniversary, the gang is unlocking their 2020 installment on the 1999 sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2.

Directed by Katt Shea, the direct sequel to Brian De Palma‘s Carrie follows Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl), the younger, also-telekinetic half-sister of Carrie White, who learns that her best friend’s suicide was prompted by a group of dickhead male classmates who exploited her sexually. The film brings back Amy Irving as Sue Snell and stuffs enough connective tissue between the cracks to make this whole thing work as a sequel.

Read: ‘The Rage: Carrie 2’ Twenty Five Years...

“Question not my judgment, Malachai. I am the giver of His word.”

It’s the summer of 1984. The pavement is hot, the corn is high, and the eerie voices of children can be heard singing in a distant barn. Something sinister walks behind the rows. Is it a cult of killer children ripped from the Old Testament? Is a vengeful deity who demands human sacrifice? Is it a roving mound of dirt speeding through the corn or a loud little girl who draws in her sleep? In the latest episode of The Long Watch, The Losers’ Club will pick up their scythes and venture into the fragrant fields to unearth the secrets of Fritz Kiersch’s Children of the Corn.

Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are driving across the country when a detour off the main highway takes them straight through a never ending sea of corn. When...

With their Bag of Bones mailbag episodes, The Losers’ Club answers questions submitted by their Overlook patrons. Each Bag features assorted Qs that traditionally range from absurd to essential, genius to gross, and weird to wild. As such these are freewheelin’ outings for the gang that are as unpredictable as they are hilarious — and they’re for everyone.

Join Losers Randall Colburn, Dan Caffrey, Ashley Casseday, and Justin Gerber as they answer questions like: “How has Stephen King informed or influenced your personal vocabulary?”, “What should be the first Stephen King adaptation for A24?”, “Which Muppets would you cast for The Dark Tower?”; and “What are the three best and worst Stephen King sequels?”

Stream the unpredictable chat below and stay tuned next week when the Losers celebrate 40 years of the original Children of the Corn. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts,...

Nearly three decades ago, Stephen King stumbled upon a copy of Lars von Trier‘s Danish miniseries The Kingdom in a dusty Colorado video store. Roughly seven years later, ABC premiered Kingdom Hospital, the author’s own take on von Trier’s haunted hospital. While conceived as a miniseries, King was so excited about the project — developed alongside his Storm of the Century and Rose Red collaborators — that he was ready to start work on a second season. The series premiered strong, but ratings dwindled and ABC pulled the plug just months later.

Join The Losers’ Club as they unpack both the 13-episode series and King’s candid thoughts about the adaptation and its swift cancellation, which he detailed in a 2004 EW column. Was it ahead of its time? Are the Twin Peaks comparisons warranted? And just how much did it inspire season 2 of American Horror Story? These questions and...

The Losers return to a very familiar place: ‘Salem’s Lot. But things look a tad different in 2004.

Starring Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, Samantha Mathis, and the late and great Andre Braugher and Rutger Hauer, this TNT miniseries updated the 1975 novel by shifting the vampiric action into modern times. This affords the narrative a more topical lense, particularly the mutual feelings of a nation still reeling from 9/11 and the ensuing war overseas.

Join the Losers in the popular Stephen King town as they weigh in on the miniseries’ 2004 vibes, the eerie connection to Wolves of the Calla, the changes to the source material, and the phenomenal cast — particularly Sutherland and Brauer. They also debate whether it’s cynical or earnest, why all the characters are jerks, the edge lord vibe of it all, and its connection to a more recent miniseries cut from the same cloth: Chapelwaite.

Tune in and return...

Since Valentine’s Day is next week, we thought we’d unlock a sweet treat for you: Our Valentine’s Day special from last year! We called it The Sweetest Slice, because in this episode, we played Kinky Cupid and tore out our favorite sex scenes from Stephen King’s works. So, if you want two hours of sensual smut, aka poundcake, stream below … with a cool glass of milk!

But, don’t forget to return next week as the Losers head to ‘Salem’s Lot circa 2004 with Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, Samantha Mathis, and the late and great Andre Braugher and Rutger Hauer. For further adventures, join the Losers’ Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

You can also unlock hundreds upon hundreds of hours of exclusive content in The Barrens (Patreon) — from deep dives into uncollected King works to...