Blood, violence, and untimely death are things Stephen King has built a career on—at least in fictional form—and it's something he's never shied away from. The same can't really be said about superhero movies, which are generally sanitized and family-friendly. In a new interview with The UK Times, King criticised Marvel and DC for too often depicting massive amounts of destruction without any genuine consequences. Entire cities can be levelled by a villain, yet the audience rarely sees blood or human suffering.
"If you look at these superhero movies, you'll see some supervillain who's destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood. And man, that's wrong. It's almost, like, pornographic... I said [for The Long Walk], if you're not going to show it, don't bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie."
King contrasted this with his own novel The Long Walk, which Francis Lawrence is currently adapting into a feature film. Unlike the superhero genre, this story will not hold back from violence or its brutality, just as it was described in the book. The plot follows a dystopian competition where teenage boys are forced to march without stopping, and anyone who falls behind is executed. The film stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill, and is set to hit U.S. theatres on September 12.
Do you agree with King's take?