I’m watching this movie based on another of those Stephen King stories, one both you and me have never heard of, with some of the same actors from FIRESTARTER. David Keith is great as this retarded handyman persuaded to participate in a genetic experiment by his boss, the white-haired Dr. Kripps. After the treatments, Dave claims he “don’t feel no different no how”. Kripps then lies him down on a table, injects him with a drug that knocks him out, then wraps him in a sheet and leaves. Tense minutes tick by. All at once, there’s movement from beneath the shroud. A double row of banana fingers slowly creep from beneath the folds of cloth. Waves of crimson color seep into the appendages. Suddenly, the sheet is thrown off, and a monstrous creature leaps to its feet. It resembles one of those illustrated man model kits, all skeleton, ligaments, and sinewy musculature prominent without any covering of skin. Its enormous domed head is a grinning scarlet skull lined with strands of veins and taut gristle. The hands are oversized as are the Alley Oop-sized calves, ankles and feet. Kripps returns and is pleased. He immediately sets in motion an insidious plan: this crimson monster is destined to act as saboteur on the next space shuttle flight! Suddenly, I’m in the movie! I find out about Kripps’ plan and know that I’m the only one who can stop him. But how? This once kindly, gentle fellow, now a foul denizen of Hell, has already murdered one astronaut, peeled off the guy’s face with Kripps’ special equipment, and assumed the dead man’s identity. It’s up to me to somehow get on the flight and stop him! And the countdown’s already begun!

copyright,  © 1989, 2008 Chris Desjardins pka Chris D.

composed circa 1985-86; originally published in DOUBLE SNAKE BOURBON, reprinted in A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE.    

A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE is an epic, career-spanning anthology of Chris D.'s writings, published by New Texture. Buy it here.