The Raft is, for all intents and purposes, a monster of the week short born from the murky depths of Kings mind. This ode to innocence lost sees a group of teens stranded on a lake aboard the storys the titular vessel, as a lethal oily substance circles them. This glaringly good tale has slithered up the list not because of its end of the summer nostalgia, or innovative gore face melting during the throes of passion is a standout death in Kings vast oeuvre of doom but due to the monster itself, which is both terrifying and beautiful (the colours) at the same time. As a heads up to readers, King claims to not own a copy of this story, which originally featured in Playboy aping skin magazine, Gallery, back in 1982. So if any of you ardent fans out there have a copy, the author may be willing to take it off your hands.
Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing.
He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.
