Stephen King recommends this dark crime thriller on Peacock

Stephen King famously wrote an editorial for EW calling for this Kill Bill: Volume 1 as “dumbly full of himself” at the time the film was released. While I don't agree with King's interpretation of this Tarantino feature, the author did sneak in a recommendation at the end of the piece for a film he really admires.

In the last part of his article, King recommends The way of the weapon. I remember recording the film on VHS back in college. I don't think I've seen it since. But I remember the film as a tough ordeal with a talented cast. King remembers the film very fondly. He concludes his essay by discussing what it feels like to be pleasantly surprised by an important film.

This Stephen King-approved crime thriller plays out like this:

They don't make excuses. They don't ask for forgiveness. Her story is uncompromising, brutal and simple. For contemporary desperadoes Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro), crime means survival at all costs. Her impromptu plan to kidnap surrogate mother Robin (Juliette Lewis), just weeks before Hale (Scott Wilson) and Francesca Chidduck's (Kristin Lehman) son is due to be delivered, seems like a quick way to grab a hefty ransom and get herself on the way to make border. But their haste actually makes waste.

“Every time I go, I go with the highest hopes, my ticket money in one hand and my heart in the other,” King says of the moviegoing experience. “Most of the time the film turns out to be a bitch, but sometimes you find a real classic like it.” The way of the weapon, Billy Elliotor Mystical river. If that happens, I can steal the slogan from this year’s World Series and put it to even better use: I live for it.”

While the author doesn't go too deep into why he loves the film, he does have a pretty impressive track record. King introduced me to many films that I greatly appreciate. In this case, it's an image that I already liked. This gives me even more incentive to navigate to Peacock and pay The way of the weapon a repeat visit.

Was this recommendation actually intended in part as an insult?

One final thought on King's recommendation: The way of the weapon has been described by some as Tarantino-esque. I remember it as a dark crime thriller with certain similarities to the work of the Oscar-winning filmmaker. And that makes me wonder if King did that on purpose. If he was so disillusioned with Tarantino that he suggested film lovers watch a film that reflected the director's style rather than one of his actually films (Kill Bill)? You never know. King is, after all, a master of shadows. And that may have been his intention. Or it could have been completely harmless.

Stay tuned to Dread Central for more recommendations from your favorite genre creators as we discover them. Don't forget it either follow us on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (for me it will never be X) so you never miss an update.