19. 'Sometimes They Come Back' (1974).
This next story stands alone for me as a particularly memorable and unusual. Many of King's early stories take inspiration from sources in his childhood and his own favourite authors and filmmakers ( Trucks and Duel , Grey Matter and The Blob, etc), but this feels all his own. Sometimes They Come Back Sometimes They Come Back is an updated, original take on a haunting, where the 'ghosts' take on a more solid shape. This is one of the best known of Stephen King's short stories, mainly due to the three movies it spawned (one made-for-TV, two straight to video). The material probably is meaty enough to make a movie out of, although the director took significant liberties with the source material, fluffing out a simpler, harsher story that probably would have created a more subtle, streamlined film. The story is centred on Jim Norman, a young English teacher with a dark history. As a boy, Jim narrowly escaped being killed by a gang of bullies on the way to the loca...