Movies - TV
How A Real-Life Grocery Trip Inspired Stephen King’s The Mist
By DEBOPRIYAA DUTTA
Stephen King’s “The Mist” follows a group of people seeking safety in a local supermarket as a thick mist envelopes the town and brings with it tentacled Lovecraftian beasts.
Originally published in King’s 1980 “Dark Forces” anthology, “The Mist” was later added to 1985’s “Skeleton Crew,” where it was revealed how the author got the idea for the story.
In the “Notes” section of “Skeleton Crew,” King recalled how he struggled to write a new short story for the “Dark Forces” anthology until he went grocery shopping on a stormy day.
King shared, “I was halfway down the middle aisle, looking for hot-dog buns, when I imagined a big prehistoric bird flapping its way toward the meat counter at the back.”
While waiting in the check-out lane, King added, “I was amusing myself with a story about all these people trapped in a supermarket surrounded by prehistoric animals.”
King decided to give the story a chance. He wrote a chunk of “The Mist” that night and finished it within a week, although he didn’t like the story until he later rewrote it.