'Grey Matter' – Stephen King

It feels like I can't move an inch online without being bombarded by adverts for 'Creepshow' on Shudder. To be fair, that's not a bad thing; I was late to the movies but they're fun and I will probably check out the show at some point. Those clips of the disembodied head in the doll's house are really creepy...

A little look over the Wikipedia page told me that, in the spirit of the movies, the new 'Creepshow' has adapted at least one Stephen King short story and it's a favourite of mine, 'Grey Matter'. As much as I love meandering through one of King's rambling epics, I think he does some of his best work in his short stories and tonight seemed like as good a time as any to dig out my old copy of 'Night Shift' and read through it again.

'He was Richie Grenadine's kid and he looked like he'd just kissed the wrong end of the baby. His Adam's apple was going up and down and his face was the color of old oilcloth.

“Mr Parmalee,” he says to Henry, his eyeballs rolling around in his head like ball bearings, “you got to come. You got to take him his beer and come. I can't stand to go back there. I'm scared.”

And just like that, a group of elderly men shooting the breeze, in an all night convenience store, are about to faced with the kind of thing that only Stephen King can come up with. By the end of 'Gray Matter', you will never touch a beer if there's even the slightest hint that it's gone off and you will become very good at the kind of maths that our narrator finds himself running through his head. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, 'Grey Matter' is really easy to get into and hard to put down until it is done.

Part of this is down to the way that King mixes the ingredients of his plot together. Everything is normal to start off with but King gradually introduces some pretty icky body horror into the proceedings, gradually unfolding the story, just quickly enough to keep the plot flowing but slowly enough that your interest remains piqued throughout. This approach draws the tension out as well; as you find out more about what has happened to Richie. Everything comes together so smoothly; the journey to the flat sees Henry's story end and us get to see the true horror of what Richie has become. He's not just drinking beer anymore...

Like all the best horror stories, 'Grey Matter's ' conclusion is left deliberately open ended so that the reader can't help but think about it, even after the story ends. Some gunfire and then... what? I know how I'd want it to end but that would be too easy.... or would it? That's the beauty of this vague conclusion, it really keeps you second guessing yourself and this in itself is really unsettling.

I'm going to have to watch 'Grey Matter' now, just to see if they do the short story justice. They've got a lot to live up to, this story is gold.