With the start of September, we have officially reached the start of scary season, and so it’s only appropriate that this has been a rather big week for Stephen King fans. On Tuesday, the floodgates opened for movie critics to share their thoughts about director Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk, and the dystopian horror movie once thought to be unadaptable has earned near universal acclaim so far (you can read by four-and-a-half star review for CinemaBlend). And if that’s not enough for you, the past few days also saw the release of King’s second book of 2025, with Hansel And Gretel, featuring artwork by the late, great Maurice Sendak, arriving in stores everywhere. Those are sizable developments ––and they both help provide the background for this week’s collection of King Beat headlines.
The lead story in this week’s column is inspired by the extreme violence that’s depicted in The Long Walk, with Stephen King making the argument that it has a superior approach to the material than what’s featured in PG-13 blockbusters these days, but that’s not all, as I have a recommended way to check out the aforementioned Hansel & Gretel, and we can all now mark on our calendars when we’ll finally get to see the premiere of HBO Max’s IT: Welcome To Derry. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!
