10 Stephen King Fan Theories That Make Appalling Sense

Stephen King – master of horror and writer of over 50 books and countless short stories – is one of modern horror literature’s greatest and most successful icons. Beyond his expansive body of fictional work, he’s published nonfiction books about his craft, had tonnes of his works adapted into acclaimed (and not so acclaimed) movies and even tried his hand at film directing himself.

Thanks to his huge body of work and legions of fans the world over, King’s books and adaptations of them have generated some wild and wonderful fan theories. For example, it’s well documented that within his oeuvre, King has crafted an interconnected multiverse in which characters and locations appear and reappear but King’s fans go even further suggesting extra-universe links between his horror works and such innocent things as kid’s films.

And then there’s the man himself. He’s won countless awards for his writing, has published books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman allegedly to test whether his success was a product of talent or luck and recently he’s been pretty vocal about his dislike for current Cheeto-in-Chief Donald Trump on Twitter.

But what do we really know about Stephen King? Could the dark mind behind some of the 20th century’s most terrifying books be the true killer of one of popular music’s greatest icons? Why exactly is he is so fixated on all things urine-related?

Read on, constant reader, you’re about to find out.

Of the many conspiracy theories circulating Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s 1977 novel The Shining the most persistent is that the movie isn’t merely a terrifying exercise in psychological horror but the director’s confession of his part in faking the 1969 NASA moon landings.

The story goes that Kubrick’s epic sci-fi 2001: A Space Odyssey was really a cover-up for a research and development project spearheaded by NASA so the director could practice creating convincingly real space scenes for the faked landing footage so the US could win the Space Race with those damn Russians without actually having to go all the way to the moon.

Kubrick obviously felt guilty for deceiving people and left several clues in The Shining that point to his involvement like stockpiles of Tang (the astronaut’s beverage of choice) in the Overlook Hotel’s pantry, young Danny Torrance’s Apollo 11 jumper and the hexagonal print carpet that decorates the hotel’s corridors and are suspiciously similar in shape to NASA launch pads.

And of course there’s Room 237, apparently deliberately changed from the Room 217 featured in King’s novel to reference the 237,000 miles that separate the Earth and Moon. Technically, it’s 238,555 miles but what’s a few space miles when you’re this far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole?

Like we said, there are plenty more crazy theories about The Shining so if this one doesn’t sit right feel free to take your pick – an indictment of the Native American genocide, a Holocaust allegory or a metaphor for CIA mind control perhaps?