Derry, Maine: A Town of Unspeakable Evil (Pt. 3)

Derry, Maine: A Town of Unspeakable Evil

Part 3 – Dreamcatcher and 11/22/63

This is the final installment about the small town of Derry.

In 2001, Derry was once again the scene of a series of horrific events.  A group of four friends decided to take a hunting trip to the woods, which was an annual outing for them. Gary “Jonesy” Jones, an associate professor of history at John Jay College in Boston, was still recovering from a severe injury that he received after being struck by a car.  Henry Devlin, a psychiatrist, had been suffering from depression and was even contemplating suicide. Joe “Beaver” Clarendon, a carpenter, was an alcoholic who had few friends other than his childhood buddies. Pete Moore, a car salesman, considered “hunting a hobby, beer a religion.”

The four men had grown up together in Derry and had shared many adventures running the streets and playing in the Barrens. As children, the four friends had helped Douglas “Duddits” Cavell, a boy with Down Syndrome, when a bully was beating tormenting him. As a result, Duddits had become the fifth member of their little gang.  The five of them had been involved in the rescue of a missing girl who had fallen in a well. They remained friends for the rest of their lives.

After arriving at their cabin, known as Hole in the Wall, a mysterious hunter named Richard McCarthy visited Jonesy while the others were out getting supplies. McCarthy was suffering from some unknown illness.  Devlin and Moore discovered a female hunter on the road as they were heading back to Hole in the Wall.  The woman also appeared to be suffering from some sort of illness.

After a series of events, the four men discovered that the military had quarantined the area surrounding Derry due to the crash of an alien spacecraft. The military personnel conducted a search for an escaped alien. The area was also infested with a virus codenamed ‘The Ripley Virus’ by the military.

The friends became locked in a battle for survival against the invading alien beings, the widespread virus and the military.  In order to survive, they called upon their childhood friend Duddits to help recapture a psychic connection that they five of them once shared. (To read the full adventures of these childhood friends, see Dreamcatcher, 2001)

Stephen King wrote Dreamcatcher while recovering from injuries that he received after he was struck by a van while jogging. In 2003, it was adapted to film by veteran screenwriter William Goldman who also wrote the screenplays for Misery, Hearts in Atlantis and Dolores Claiborne (uncredited).

In 2011, Derry returned to the center of activity for the adventures of Jake Epping aka George Amberson.  Epping, a high school English teacher, discovered a unique feature in the town of Derry – a “bubble” that allowed a person with enough courage to step back in time.  Epping was not the first to discover it.  In fact, he was shown the time-warping“bubble” by local restaurant owner Al Templeton. 

After the encouragement of Templeton, Epping walked into the past with a mission at hand.  He then set out on a multiple-layered adventure that leads him into a destined meeting with historical figures and events in American history.  In 1958 Derry, Epping made the acquaintance of several residents previously discussed including Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh.

 In Epping’s adventures in the “Land of Ago,” he traveled from Maine to Florida, and then through Alabama to Texas. He discovered that every action made in the past leads to a consequence in the future.  This phenomenon, known as “the Butterfly Effect, was first identified in the writings of Ray Bradbury.  Epping learned that the past will fight to protect the future; a lesson hard learned. (To read the full adventures of Jake Epping, see 11/22/63, 2011)

NOTE: Since 11/22/63 was recently released, I intentionally gave vague descriptions about it in this article. 

Stephen King wrote 11/22/63 between January 2009 and December 2010.  King visited many, if not all, of the places discussed in the book including the locations in Dallas associated with the Kennedy Assassination.  He states in the "Afterword" that he first started this book in 1972, but decided to put it on hold until a later time. Thankfully, King returned to this idea and completed it.

Only time will tell what the future holds for Derry!

Derry: A Town of Unspeakable Evil, Part 2

Derry, Maine: A Town of Unspeakable Evil

Part 2 – 1958 to 1998

In the first installment of this profile of Derry, I discussed the town, its history, and a few of its famous residents. Now I will discuss events that have been documented in King’s stories. Derry plays a significant role in the world that King has built. Due to the number of stories that take place in Derry, this will be a three-part series.

 

One event that must be discussed covers a time span from 1958 to 1985.  In 1958, children in Derry were disappearing or being killed at an alarming rate.  One of these victims was Georgie Denbrough who was killed while playing with a paper boat that his brother Bill made for him. Bill Denbrough and six of his friends created a club called “the Losers Club” while playing in the Barrens where they spent their childhood afternoons building a dam in the creek that flows through it.  The boys become convinced, due to things that they saw and experienced, that an evil murderer was stalking their hometown.  In 1958, they track the “murderer” into the sewers to exact revenge and stop the murders.  They believed that they were the only ones who could stop the murderer.



The Losers Club



In 1985, children started to disappear and be murdered again; This was also the same year of the Great Flood in Derry, which did damaged the city extensively and cost millions to repair. Mike Hanlon, the city librarian and a member of the Losers Club, contacted all of his childhood friends about the recent activity. They had made a promise as children to return if the murders started again.  Six of the seven members returned to Derry and faced the child-killing monster again.  In the course of their stay in Derry, Mike Hanlon was stabbed and one of their friends was killed. (For more about these events, see IT, 1986)

IT was inspired by the classic Norwegian fairy tale “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” according to The Complete Stephen King Universe.

In 1994, Derry resident Ralph Roberts begins a descent into a type of madness created by insomnia and the loss of his first wife, Carolyn.  Ralph, who is a senior citizen, begins to see strange people-like beings that he calls “the little bald doctors.”  Ralph develops a sixth sense that allows him to see the auras of people around him.  One of the hardest things about Ralph’s newly developed abilities is the way that he can see death hanging over someone’s head.  Ralph described it as being able to see a “black balloon” over their heads.  This is not a pleasant gift to have in the town of Derry because death is a daily occurrence.

Ralph Roberts also develops the ability to know evil when he sees it.  Ralph decides that he must take action when he learns that his neighbor, Ed Deepneau, is planning an assault on the Derry Civic Center where Susan Day, a pro-choice activist, is speaking.  A mysterious force known as the Crimson King is manipulating Deepneau’s thoughts and wants the man to kill a child named Patrick Danville, who has an important place in history.  (To read about Ralph Robert’s life, see Insomnia, 1994).

To promote the release of Insomnia, Stephen King made a ten-stop tour of independent bookstores across the United States on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. This trip helped inspire two novels, Desperation and The Regulators, which were released in 1996.

In 1998, Mike Noonan, a best-selling novelist who calls Derry home, finds his life changed in a significant way.  Noonan’s wife, Jo, dies from an aneurysm that occurs when she is expecting their first child.  Noonan becomes emotionally distraught and finds it difficult to pen another story.  He decides to leave Derry for a while and stay at their summer home at Dark Score Lake.  The home is called “Sara Laughs.”  The author believes that the writer’s block may be broken by staying at his summer home.




Mike Noonan (portrayed by Pierce Brosnan)



While staying near Dark Score Lake, Noonan becomes involved in a couple of different events.  He rescues a child from the street and then finds himself in the middle of a custody battle between the child’s mother, Mattie Devore, and her father-in-law, millionaire Max Devore. Noonan also begins receiving messages in various ways from spirits, one of which he believes to be his deceased wife. He also starts to investigate the possibility that his wife had an affair prior to her death.  The truth was much darker.  His wife had been investigating the rape and murder of a Jazz singer named Sara Tidwell that occurred nearly a century earlier. (Mike Noonan’s story can be found in Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, 1998)

Bag of Bones was adapted for television in 2011 and aired on A&E.  Stephen King read the audio version of this novel.

To Be Continued...