Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (20 page)

The Cannibals (2009) 

King originally attempted to write
The Cannibals
in 1978
⁴²
. His second attempt was a novel of about 450 pages, composed as a rewrite of an earlier novel written while filming
Creepshow
in July to December 1981. King previously had this to say in a footnote to his
Full Disclosure
in
Blaze
:  

In my career I have managed to lose not one but two pretty good novels-in-progress. 
Under the Dome
was only 50 pages long at the time it disappeared, but
The Cannibals
was over 200 pages long at the time it went MIA. No copies of either. That was before computers, and I never used carbons for first drafts
–
it felt
haughty
, somehow.  

King’s assistant, Marsha DeFilippo indicated in posts on his official message board in April 2008 that, “We had sections, but not the complete draft, of The Cannibals in the office.” As part of promoting
Under the Dome
King released the first 61 pages of the second manuscript on his official website on 15 September 2009; and a further 63 pages on 4 October the same year. 

In June of 2008, after the announcement King was rewriting
Under the Dome
Marsha DeFilippo reported on the official message board King had this to say:  

Those stories were two very different attempts to utilize the same idea, which concerns itself with how people behave when they are cut off from the society they’ve always belonged to. Also, my memory of THE CANNIBALS is that it, like NEEDFUL THINGS, was a kind of social comedy. The new UNDER THE DOME is played dead straight.
⁴³
 

The two sections King released form part of an America Under Siege Tale. The first section, a scan of King’s original typewritten manuscript, with handwritten corrections, is comprised of the first three chapters and the first two subsections of the fourth chapter from Part One of the novel.  

Part One is titled
Yellow Morning
(actually in King’s handwriting, crossing out three other words) and Chapter I is
The Tennis Club
. We are introduced to the Tennis Club Apartments, whose residents are immediately portrayed as isolated from society – upper middle-class, white collar people “who lived mostly for themselves in the era of withdrawal from commitment” (the story is actually set at some point in the 1980s).  

Chapter II is
Tom Hill in the Lobby
and features the first resident “to encounter the problem which arose on July 19th.” A TV station executive on the way up, Hill is heading to work around 4:45am and proceeds to the apartment buildings’ foyer and pulls on the outer door, which does not open, in fact when he pulls the door again it doesn’t budge even slightly. Hill notices the approaching daylight is more suited to one hour later in the morning (a nice piece of foreshadowing). Only slightly irritated and investigating, Hill finds the building phone is not working and decides to head upstairs. 

In Chapter III (
Pulaski
) another character is introduced, arriving in the lobby just as Hill headed back up in the elevator. We learn Dennis Pulaski is a twice-divorced Korean War veteran, a hunter and something of a “man’s man.” This section contains quite a bit of sexual content, mostly designed to establish the rigidity of Pulaski’s world-view. He’s also a racist. Pulaski discovers he too is unable to open the building’s front door.  

Meanwhile, Hill knocks on the door of the building office, looking for Ronnie Bamford, the night security guard. But there’s no answer. Returning downstairs, he meets Pulaski, who informs him the back doors are also locked. They consider exiting through the alarmed fire door, which leads to the nearby sports complex but when they try, “The square of metal did not move at all. It did not move an inch, a half-inch, not so much as a silly millimetre. The alarm did not sound. And the fire door did not open.” This disturbs the two men, who understand that locking a normal door is one thing, locking a fire escape is serious indeed.  

When they return to the lobby quite a few more residents have appeared and are milling about. Pulaski rings the building superintendent, Rinaldi, briefly advises the situation and demands he come downstairs immediately. We learn that Rinaldi is a pompous control freak and not easily intimidated. As the residents wait for the superintendent to appear Pulaski also notes the daylight, he “could not remember ever having seen a daylight quite like this one – thin, watery, almost
wavery
.” Rinaldi finally appears and also tries to leave the building. When he cannot it is revealed the external doors
cannot
be locked, as in fact they
have no locks
. 

Chapter IV is
Jo’s Bible; Rinaldi’s Call; Pulaski’s Bat
and begins with another in the growing cast of characters – a deeply religious Joanne Page. By the time she reaches the lobby, Rinaldi, Hill and Pulaski have left for Rinaldi’s office. Rinaldi’s jaundiced, perhaps realistic view of the building’s occupants is revealed – they are each classified in his mind as Busybodies, Good Tenants, or Troublemakers. Careful to preserve his authority with the residents, and mindful of not looking incompetent to his employers, Rinaldi begins by calling the security guard’s company on a dedicated line, but not before the first of what is likely to be many clashes with Pulaski. The security company answers and Rinaldi can hear the operator, Bo Franklin, but Franklin most certainly cannot hear Rinaldi. The three men begin to show concern, in Tom Hill’s case, “he felt something pierce his confusion and harried annoyance at being late. He found nothing welcome about the new emotion. It was fear.” And so ends the first manuscript segment. 

The second section is also a scan of King’s original typewritten manuscript, with handwritten corrections, continues directly from the first section, and is comprised of the remainder of the fourth chapter and part of chapter five. 

As the story continues we learn more of Jo Page’s peculiarly individual religious fervor – she is happy to study the Bible but won’t attend church. She also notices the light which frightens her, “She’d never seen daylight of that particular sick quality; had never, in fact, seen an artificial light which was quite like it.” Looking at it, “she felt her insides go cold and numb. Her fingers and toes momentarily lost all sense of feeling, and for a horrifying space of time – perhaps only a second or two; however long it was, it seemed much longer in her mind – she was afraid she was going to wet herself.” 

Pulaski insists Rinaldi recognize there is a real problem, while the superintendent seeks to maintain his dwindling authority. More people are gathering in the lobby and they are beginning to notice the strange nature of the light, through which, “the cars in the parking lot stood out like pop-ups in a child’s activity book. They looked so real that they somehow went too far and seemed false.” The residents notice there is no traffic on the nearby Interstate highway, which at this commuting hour is impossible. When Jo looks that way she momentarily sees traffic, which disappears with next blink of her eyelids. After deliberately squeezing her eyes shut the traffic returns, and stays. Something is very wrong. 

The superintendent and the two tenants move to Rinaldi’s apartment, only to find the same problem with a normal telephone line – they can call out but no-one can hear them. When Hill calls the television station another weird event occurs – the sound of the receptionist’s voice suddenly “accelerated so rapidly that it became insectile, unintelligible … the hideous thing was somehow
organic
…”  

Back in the foyer some of the residents are losing it – one man is chanting, “The cars are there” over and over. As they watch the traffic appears and disappears, then reappears. Pulaski returns to his apartment, where he is revealed as something of a gun fanatic, but ignores the firearms and instead grabs a baseball bat.
More of Pulaski’s back story is revealed, including how he had survived what he thought was certain death in a robbery when he was driving a taxi. After that scare he started carrying the bat in his cab, and had used it when another robbery was attempted – “the junkie didn’t wake up for four days, and Pulaski heard he didn’t walk right for six weeks. Pulaski didn’t lose any sleep over it.” 

Hill is already back in the foyer when Pulaski returns with his bat, and his appearance immediately inspires both fear and respect among the milling residents. Pulaski’s intent is to smash the foyer glass but when he strikes it with full force it not only doesn’t smash, it doesn’t “so much as shiver.” Real concern sweeps the crowd. 

Chapter V is titled
The Tennis Club (II); First Weird Scenes inside the Goldmine
. It’s now 8am and almost all the residents are both awake and realize a serious problem has developed. Another group of residents forms and converge upon Rinaldi’s apartment, demanding answers and that he give them the keys to the doors that form the normal entryways to the Tennis Club.  

As matters begin to spiral out of control Tom Hill observes “scenes both comic and tragic” that he comes to think of as “weird scenes inside the goldmine.” The term would come into common use by those trapped inside the building and had been coined by Jo Page, who’d remembered a line from
The End
, by The Doors. These “scenes” introduce more characters and we learn the building has no television or radio reception (further isolating the residents), and that the world is receding further (now the leaves on nearby trees are sometimes visible, sometimes not). Some take to booze, others to drugs. The story starts to meander at this point and the segment ends.  

It seems unlikely King will release more of the manuscript, as to do after nearly a quarter of the unpublished work was publicly available would be tantamount to full publication of an unedited and incomplete novel. We can presume many of the social issues of isolation in a limited society are dealt with in
Under the Dome
and will most likely never know what phenomenon is responsible for the isolation of the apartment building. The most compelling part of what we have read is the strangeness of the outside world and, while there are the beginnings of interesting characterisations they do seem a little one-dimensional. Of course, we are left to contemplate the meaning of the novel’s title. 

At the time of writing both sections of
The Cannibals
were still available at
www.stephenking.com
. If they are removed at some point it is likely copies will still circulate freely. 

⁴²
The Cannibals
,
www.stephenking.com
, 15 September 2009 

⁴³
http://www.stephenking.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7008&page=6#60
 

Cat’s Eye (1984) and General (1997)

The screenplay of
Cat’s Eye
is difficult to find but copies do circulate in the King community and are sometimes available from online King specialists. Often there is no final or authorised version of a movie screenplay, as they are constantly adjusted during filming and some alterations are never properly documented. This chapter was compiled from the version dated May 14, 1984. It has never been published and it seems unlikely that it will be as King allowed a different version of
part
of the script to be published, as
General
in Richard Chizmar’s
Screamplays
(1997). That piece is reviewed at the end of this chapter. As the two other parts of
Cat’s Eye
represent published King stories, there is no real justification for the full screenplay to be published as a single entity.

Cat’s Eye

The main screenplay was released as the movie
Cat’s Eye
in 1985, by Dino De Laurentiis and MGM/UA Entertainment Company
–
it is also known as
Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye
. According to Stephen Jones
⁴⁴
, De Laurentiis asked King to create another vehicle for Drew Barrymore during the mid-1983 shooting of
Firestarter
, in which the young actress starred. King’s initial treatment, over fifteen pages, was titled
The Cat
. Delighted, De Laurentiis asked King to add another two stories.

The key actors were Drew Barrymore as Our Girl/Amanda; James Woods as Dick Morrison; Robert Hays as Johnny Norris; Alan King as Dr. Donatti; and Kenneth McMillan as Cressner. The DVD was released in 2002. Director Lewis Teague also helmed
Alligator
, a 1980 movie that, according to this screenplay, was showing on TVs at an Atlantic City store. A few scenes earlier “Teague Pier” in Atlantic City is mentioned. Teague also directed
Cujo
, to which there is a humorous nod during this movie (see below).

The America Under Siege storyline presented in the screenplay involves a cat saving a little girl’s life. Carrie blamed her nine-year-old daughter’s cat, Darcy for the girl’s death, not knowing she had actually been killed by an evil five-inch tall Creature that stole her breath. Carrie attempted to kill the cat with an Uzi sub-machine gun (!), shooting out her front window and allowing his escape.

For part of an evening the cat stayed with Cressner, who called him Sebastian. That night, Cressner forced Norris to traverse the entire 32nd Floor of his apartment on a five-inch wide ledge after he caught Norris having an affair with his wife. After successfully negotiating the ledge, and a very nasty pigeon, Norris managed to force Cressner himself out on to the ledge, from which he fell to his death after kicking out at the same annoying pigeon.

Next the cat was captured by Quitter’s, Inc., an anti-smoking company with rather radical methods, including subjecting electric shocks. During the cat’s confinement the company used its methods on Dick Morrison.

Escaping again the cat then made its way to eight year old Amanda’s house in Westport, Connecticut where she named him General. Amanda’s mother, Sally-Anne, also believed cats could steal a child’s breath, having heard this myth from her mother, a Polish or Russian immigrant, and determined to see the cat out of the house. After the Creature re-appeared and killed Amanda’s pet parakeet, the cat was once again unfairly blamed. Amanda’s mother took him to an Animal Shelter to be destroyed, but he escaped, yet again! The Creature again tried to steal Amanda’s breath but the returning General fought it and the Creature was thrown into a fan and killed.

It should be noted that the screenplays of
General
and the last part of
Cat’s Eye
(Scenes 385 on) are the same story, although they have significant enough textual differences to be called versions, rather than variations. For instance, the last part of
Cat’s Eye
has Amanda’s town as Westport, Connecticut. No town name is given in
General
. Most characters recur in both
General
and its equivalent section in
Cat’s Eye
. However, the Cat is known only as General in
General
; but as Darcy, Sebastian and General in
Cat’s Eye
. In
Cat’s Eye
neither of the attendants at the Animal Shelter are named, however in
General
one is called Billy.

The screenplay effectively has three parts –
General
, an original story; and versions of King’s short stories,
The Ledge
and
Quitter’s, Inc.
, both of which are significantly different from the original stories. In
The Ledge
and the screenplay Mr. Cressner and Marcia Cressner are recurring characters; but Norris is known as Stan in the original short story and Johnny in the script. The Pigeon does not have a nickname in the story but is known, rather humorously, as “Yassar Arafat” in the screenplay.

As to
Quitter’s, Inc
the characters recurring in both versions are Donatti – Vic in the story, but simply Donatti in the screenplay; Jimmy McCann; Sharon McCann (her first name is not given in the screenplay); Morrison – Richard in
Quitters, Inc.
, Dick in the screenplay; Morrison’s wife – Lucinda or Cindy in the story, Cindy in the script; the Morrison’s child – Alvin (a boy) in the story but Alicia (a girl) in the screenplay. The founder of Quitters, Inc is not named in the screenplay but is Mort Minelli in the story.

One of the joys of reading any screenplay, but most particularly one penned by King, is the little side-notes and information provided for the actors or directors by the scriptwriter. In these cases the reader is afforded further information about characters or scenes. From these notes and the storyline it is possible to provide the following potted summaries of certain key characters.

The Creature that killed the little girl (Carrie’s daughter) later stalked Amanda and tried to kill her, but General saved her. He was about 5 inches high, humanoid with yellow eyes, green blood, clawed fingers and fanged teeth. He wore a breachclout or loincloth, wore a cap of bells and made a chittering sound. During a fight with General he was thrown into a fan and killed.

The Cat was a male angora with green eyes. Carrie blamed the cat, known as Darcy, for stealing her daughter’s breath and thereby killing her, although it seems the Creature actually killed the girl. Carrie attempted to shoot Darcy but he escaped and began roaming the streets. For part of an evening he stayed with Cressner, who called him Sebastian. He was then captured by Quitter’s, Inc. and subjected to electric shocks but escaped after Morrison’s fight with employees of the company. He then traveled to Amanda’s house in Westport, Connecticut where Amanda gave him the name General. Unfortunately, Amanda’s mother took him to the Animal Shelter to be put down after the Creature killed Amanda’s pet parakeet, Paulie but he was able to escape, return home and save Amanda from the Creature.

The man who forced Norris onto the Ledge was Cressner (his first name is not given), a silvery haired crime boss aged about 60. His penthouse was on the 32nd Floor of Westlake Towers in Atlantic City. He caught his wife, Marcia, fooling around with Norris, a tennis-pro and former con, and had him kidnapped and brought to his apartment. He presented Marcia’s severed head to Norris and then forced him at gunpoint to travel around the entire 32nd Floor of his apartment on a five-inch wide ledge. Norris managed to successfully negotiate the ledge, got Cressner’s hired hand’s gun and then forced Cressner himself out on to the ledge, from which he fell to his death.

The Quitter’s, Inc. company could best be described as original in their tactics. Its logo was a cigarette in a circle with a red line drawn through it. If smokers did not desist, or were caught sneaking cigarettes, the company would take retribution on them or their family, escalating at each breach until such time as they either gave up the habit or were killed. They even kept a disturbed man on their books to rape the wives of recalcitrant patients! Dick Morrison, a new client, learned a bitter lesson when he was caught sneaking a cigarette. His wife Cindy was brought in to the office and given electric shocks. Morrison had been introduced to the company by Jimmy McCann, whose wife was missing a little finger, which she probably lost during her husband’s time as a client of Quitter’s, Inc.

There are a number of apparently deliberate homages to King’s work in this screenplay:

• Scene 7: The girl’s mother’s name is Carrie (
  Carrie
  )
  
• Scenes 33-35: Darcy chased by a St Bernard dog (
  Cujo
  )
  
• Scene 34: Darcy nearly hit by a 1958 Plymouth with a red body and white top. Behind the wheel was a bespectacled kid. The car carried a bumper sticker reading, “Rock and Roll Will Never Die” (
  Christine
  )
  
• Scene 36: A ten wheeler truck sped past Darcy, ruffling his fur (
  Pet Sematary
  )
  
• Scene 55: One character’s father was a bookie from Terre Haute. Donald Merwin Elbert (“Trashie”) spent time in an institution there in
  The Stand
  
• Scene 260:
  The Dead Zone
  movie was showing on TV in the Morrison living room, with scenes featuring Dr. Weizak
  

No timeline is given for the story, but it must occur well after
The Dead Zone
movie was released in 1983, as that was showing on the Morrison’s television.

Cat’s Eye
is best described as fun. It was not intended to have the highbrow content of a movie like
The Shawshank Redemption
but was positioned in the comedy-horror genre. It did not fare well at the box office, taking only $8 million in the US, but for King fans it did provide one original tale and entertaining adaptations of two short stories.

General

King allowed a different version of part of the
Cat’s Eye
script to be published as
General
in
Screamplays
, published in 1997. Edited by Richard Chizmar, the book carried an introduction by horror writer Dean Koontz. The other screenplays, all published for the first time were:
The Legend of Hell House
by Richard Matheson (based on his book
Hell House
);
Moonlighting
(adapted from his
Ormond Always Pays His Bills)
and
Killing Bernstein
(from his short story of the same name)
by Harlan Ellison;
Dead in the West
by Joe R Lansdale (based on his novel);
Track Down
by Ed Gorman (also based on his own novel); and an original script,
The Hunted
by Richard Laymon.

The collection is the only form of publication for
General
. The book can be sourced via second hand booksellers and the usual online King sources.

As noted, while the screenplays of
General
and the last part of
Cat’s Eye
are the same story they have significant enough textual differences to be called versions, rather than variations.

In short summary, in this America Under Siege story a cat saves a little girl’s life. Amanda’s parents, Hugh and Sally-Ann had blamed her cat, General, for the death of her pet parakeet Paulie, not knowing the cat had been fighting an evil five inch tall creature that had intended to steal the girl’s breath and kill her. The mother took General to an animal shelter to be put down but he escaped and returned to the family home, where he jumped through Amanda’s bedroom window and again saved her from the Creature, this time killing it.

In the movie
Cat’s Eye
Candy Clark played Sally Ann and James Naughton appeared as Hugh. Other than its originality, the key interest in this piece for readers is the fact that it represents one of only four published King screenplays, along with
Storm of the Century
,
Silver Bullet
and
Sorry, Right Number
, which appeared in
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
.

⁴⁴
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide
, Stephen Jones, p42-43