Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (22 page)

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Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King
, Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller (editors), page 79
 

Chinga (1998) and Molly (1997) 

King originally wrote a screenplay for an episode of the hit FOX television series,
The X-Files
titled
Molly
. Chris Carter, the creator of the series, added and significantly changed material and both writers were credited with the new teleplay,
Chinga
, making Carter one of King’s few collaborators. The episode is also known as
Bunghoney
in the UK and some other markets (the change of title for non-North American markets was caused by the belief that Chinga can mean “fuck” in Mexico in certain circumstances). 

While the screenplay has not been published copies freely circulate in the King and X-Files communities. There is also the possibility that all
The X-Files
scripts will see publication at some point. 

King originally approached Chris Carter to talk about writing an episode for
Millennium
but was convinced to write an episode of
The X-Files
instead, although at least one source has King becoming a fan of the program after meeting David Duchovny on
Jeopardy!
, later finding his kids were “junkies” and then becoming one himself after Carter sent him the first season tapes.
⁴⁷
 

Research confirmed that the first teleplay (in two drafts) King did for
The X-Files
was titled
Molly
. King’s office also confirmed that first teleplay was
not
an early version of
Chinga
but a totally different one, which will become obvious later in this chapter. After King and Chris Carter discussed the changes Carter would want made to
Molly
, King went in a different direction and wrote a completely new teleplay, later further changed by Carter and filmed as
Chinga
.  

King super-collector Chris Cavalier kindly provided a copy of the
Molly
teleplay to assist with research for this chapter and a letter from Carter to King dated 8 December 1997 in which Carter sought King’s agreement for King to take credit for the teleplay of
Chinga
. At some point in the next two months King and Carter obviously agreed to take joint credit for the script. In one part of the 8 December letter Carter writes, “Believe it or not, yours is the first episode we’re filming that’s come from a writer completely outside the staff.” And, “To have you write Mulder and Scully, to put them through their paces, it’s been a thrill and an honor. A giant honor.” Thanks go to Chris Cavalier for providing the teleplay to assist in the writing of this chapter. 

Chinga 

Chinga
first aired on 8 February 1998 as an episode of
The X-Files
(Series Five). Among the credits are: Teleplay by Stephen King and Chris Carter; Director – Kim Manners; Actors – David Duchovny (Fox Mulder); Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully); Jenny-Lyn Hutcheson (Polly Turner); Larry Musser (Captain Jack Bonsaint); Susannah Hoffmann (Melissa Turner). The episode is available on DVD as part of
The X-Files: The Complete Fifth Season
. 

The X-Files
ran on the FOX network in the US from 1993 to 2002 and was a worldwide sensation, winning many awards, including a number of Emmys. The series followed FBI agents Mulder and Scully (Fox Mulder, played by David Duchovny, was replaced towards the end of the franchise’s run by John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick) as they investigated the strange and paranormal while “hidden forces” worked to impede their efforts. A huge ratings success at a critical time in the expansion of Rupert Murdoch’s US network, it is also a major syndication success and a best seller in DVD format.
 

In this Maine Street Horror storyline an FBI agent visits an unnamed small Maine coastal town while on a weekend break. Polly Turner’s fisherman father had found a Doll in a lobster pot and given it to his daughter. He was killed three days later in a freak boating accident involving a grappling hook. 

Later, people began to act strangely around the Doll, clawing their eyes, suffering strange accidents, and killing themselves in odd and gruesome ways. Those who said no to little Polly also faced the wrath of the Doll. Polly is said to be autistic, an affliction also suffered by Annie Wheaton, the “heroine” of King’s screenplay,
Rose Red
. 

In one incident the FBI agent, Dana Scully, entered the town Super Saver store just as Polly and her mother Melissa exited, leaving many people inside attempting to claw their eyes out. Intrigued, Scully discussed the incident with the town police chief, Captain Jack Bonsaint. She also called her partner, Agent Fox Mulder, who suggested that St. Vitus’ Dance (or “Dancing Sickness”) might be a cause of the problems in the town. Scully responded that particular illness had not been diagnosed since the Middle Ages. 

Among the Doll’s victims was Jane Froelich. She had once been the proprietor of the day-care center Polly Turner attended but, after slapping Polly’s face, lost her license. Inside the Super Saver she glared at Polly and her mother. Later that day she cut her own throat with a broken record. The butcher at the Super Saver, Dave, had an unrequited love for Melissa and, when the shoppers started clawing their eyes, he stabbed a knife into his own right eye, and died. 

Another victim was a waitress at a fast food restaurant, who caught her very long ponytail in a milkshake mixer after upsetting Polly and, presumably, the Doll. 

Under the Doll’s direction Melissa Turner tried to kill herself with a hammer but survived thanks to the intervention of Bonsaint and Scully. Realizing something was not right with the Doll, Melissa prepared to burn down her house with herself, her daughter and the Doll inside. Scully arrived in time in to prevent this, threw the Doll into the microwave, and turned it on.  

In typical X-Files tradition, however, this was not the end of the Doll, and another fisherman later pulled it, still burnt, from another lobster trap. 

Interestingly, Carter and King chose to center this episode on Dana Scully, the skeptic of the two FBI agents (Mulder was the “true believer”), placing her in this small Maine town while it was briefly under siege from the apparently possessed Doll. 

It seems the storyline is set about October 1997 on the basis that the expiry date on a bottle of orange juice in Mulder’s refrigerator was for that month.  

The basic storyline of an evil doll is not entirely original (in fact Chucky, from the
Child’s Play
movie series which premiered in 1988, is even mentioned by Mulder) and it is possible this was a story concept King had previously considered but did not use until this opportunity arose. 

Unlike some authors King has chosen to incorporate as much of the real world in his fiction as possible (trademarks, the cultural trends of the day and so on). He has also found it of interest on occasion to step into the “realities” created by other writers or artists.  

He has, for instance, stepped into the following fictional worlds – Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (
The Doctor’s Case
); H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos (
Crouch End
and
N
); Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey (
Wimsey
); and the X-Men (
Heroes for Hope: Starring the X-Men
). He has also paid homage to Poe, in
Dolan’s Cadillac
and
The Old Dude’s Ticker
, among other tales, and adapted Ray Bradbury’s
Something Wicked This Way Comes
. 

X-Files
fans and critics do not rate this episode as one of the best from the franchise but King fans will find this small diversion into another mythology of interest. The teleplay forms the base of a reasonably interesting episode of a landmark science fiction series, adding to both the mythology of that “reality” and linking its major characters, Mulder and Scully, into King’s Maine Street Horror Reality.
The
X-Files
is also mentioned in another Maine Street Horror story,
Dreamcatcher
. 

If readers cannot access a copy of the screenplay they can at least view the produced episode to appreciate this work. 

Molly 

As stated earlier, King’s first original screenplay for
The
X-Files
was actually
Molly
(the cover page reads
The X-Files
/ “Molly” / written by / Stephen King). It seems clear that it was written in 1997, after discussions between King and Chris Carter about a possible episode for
Millennium
turned into an episode for
The
X-Files
. The script is of 79 scenes over 57 pages. 

King’s cast list for
Molly
is Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Melissa Turner, Polly/Molly Turner, Jack Bonsaint, Mr. Bierce, Jane Froelich, Agent In Charge (Hal), Agent Two (Buddy), Agent Three (Jose), Agent Four (James), Rebecca Callahan, Supermarket Woman, Supermarket Man (Older Gent), Cop, Kid, Waitress, Man in Uniform, Prison Matron and Little Girl. 

The story is set in Ammas Beach, Maine (this fictional town does not appear in any other King fiction). Dana Scully is staying with her college friend, Rebecca Callahan (could she be related to Father Callahan?). Scully visits the Ammas Beach Supr Savr, where Melissa Turner is shopping with her five-year-old daughter, Polly. Jane Froelich is also in the shop, “about sixty, with stern, narrow face … The vibe is similar to the old lady who wanted to scrag Toto in
The Wizard of Oz
.” All this is being recorded by a security camera, timing from 2.14:09 PM. After Polly sees Froelich her eyes narrow and, shortly afterward, Froelich begins slapping herself across the face and smashing a box of cookies into her forehead. A woman who tries to help also begins uncontrollably slapping her own face! The “epidemic” spreads to other shoppers, with many dancing or screaming uncontrollably. As she tries to help, Scully begins to slap herself and to dance – the market is in total pandemonium. Cut to Melissa, who orders Polly to, “‘Stop it!’ Polly says nothing, but her frightened eyes say it all: ‘I can’t’.” Her eyes cut left and we see “The Polly Doppelganger”
inside
a frozen food case, “peering out through the frost-etched glass with MALEVOLENT HATE.” Meanwhile, the chaos continues… Following this introductory scene, the Opening Credits were due to roll. 

In Act One Mulder arrives at the Portland Jetport and joins Scully, who tells him there is video of the incident in the supermarket, “No flying saucers, Mulder. No little gray men. As for the rest, see for yourself.” Scully, Mulder, Mr. Bierce (the Supr Savr manager) and Ammas Beach Chief of Police Jack Bonsaint review the video from the four different security cameras. Mulder speculates what they are seeing is “The Dancing Sickness,” from the 14th century Rhineland. Starting about 1370, it spread across all of Europe within six months and burned itself out within two years, although thousands died. “One school of thought believes the Dancing Sickness was caused by a kind of contagious psychokinesis, and may have started with as few as half a dozen telekinectic senders. Maybe only one.” Scully demurs that most people think it was caused by an organic hallucinogen in the wheat used in bread at the time. 

Carefully reviewing the tapes Mulder notices that neither of the Turners is slapping, dancing or leaping and that Melissa is looking at one of the frozen food cabinets, “her face caught in a look of surprise.” Bonsaint tells the FBI agents that Melissa’s husband had “died in an accident about three years ago” and that Polly is autistic (as was Seth Garin in
The Regulators
; Annie Wheaton in
Rose Red
; and, of course, the version of Polly Turner appearing in
Chinga
). There was also bad blood between Melissa Turner and Froelich, with Melissa having been involved in the closing down of Froelich’s daycare, after Froelich continually lost her temper, and sometimes hit the kids. Finally, she broke little Todd Carter’s nose. When Bonsaint interviewed the woman she admitted hitting the boy but claimed, “I never slapped any of the others … they slapped themselves.” 

Mulder decides to get an enlarged print of the frozen food cabinet’s glass doors, “On it we see what looks like a cloud-shadow … or a ghost image.” When the agents and Bonsaint visit Mrs. Froelich she refuses to talk to them, saying it would be “unwise” and that they are “not the right ones” for her to talk to, suggesting they visit Mrs. Turner and, “that bad little girl of hers.”