When asked why most of his output was horror or supernatural, he was frank:
“It’s built in. That’s all. The first movie I saw was a horror movie. It was ‘Bambi.’ When that little deer gets caught in a forest fire, I was terrified, but I was also elated. I can’t explain it. My wife and my kids drink coffee. I like tea. My wife and kids would never touch a pizza with anchovies on it. “
It seems that King was already innately drawn to horror, and “Bambi” simply confirmed that his interests were innate. Of course, this is a common push and pull that we have with anything that inspires us. Did art inform our personalities, or did our already formed personalities simply and unexpectedly adapt to certain artists? Curiously, King only mentioned the scary forest fire in “Bambi” and not the film’s famously tragic death. About halfway through “Bambi,” the titular deer’s mother (Paula Winslowe) is in an open meadow, a dangerous place for deer. They know there is no shelter in the meadow and can be easily targeted by hunters. Bambi’s mother is shot and killed in that meadow, which has famously traumatized several generations of children. King, however, remembers the forest fire.
When asked if he was ashamed of having frightened his readers in such a way, King was not the least bit apologetic:
“No. I thought it was really fun to scare people. I also knew it was socially acceptable because there were a lot of horror movies out there. And I cut my teeth on horror comics like ‘The Crypt of Terror.'”
Never be ashamed, Stephen.
Leave a Reply