Night Shift

Several stories in this collection serve as direct precursors or companions to his longer works, such as Jerusalem's Lot which acts as a prologue to 'Salem's Lot, and Night Surf which shares the same post-apocalyptic world as The Stand.

A significant number of these tales have been adapted into films and television projects, including notable entries like Children of the Corn, The Mangler, and Graveyard Shift.

Night Shift contains 20 stories, published in 1978 as King's first short story collection. The stories had been written and sold to magazines over the preceding several years; the collection brought them together for the first time.

A large portion of the collection has been adapted. 'Children of the Corn' spawned a film franchise beginning in 1984 that ran to twelve films. 'Trucks' became Maximum Overdrive (1986), directed by King himself. 'Sometimes They Come Back', 'The Mangler', 'Quitters, Inc.' (as part of Cat's Eye), and 'The Lawnmower Man' were also adapted—making Night Shift one of King's most heavily mined source collections.

Yes. 'Jerusalem's Lot' is set in the 1850s and functions as a prequel to 'Salem's Lot, taking place in the same location and featuring ancestors of characters in the novel. It is told as letters and diary entries—an epistolary horror story—and reveals the supernatural history of the town.

'Trucks' imagines a world in which machines—particularly heavy vehicles—suddenly become autonomous and hostile, trapping humans at a rest stop. The story was adapted into Maximum Overdrive (1986), the only feature film King directed. King has later said he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol during production and considers the film a 'moron movie.'

'Quitters, Inc.' follows a man who joins an extreme anti-smoking program run by organized crime, with consequences for any relapse. 'The Mangler' concerns a possessed industrial laundry machine. 'Strawberry Spring' is an epistolary serial-killer story set on a college campus. 'The Boogeyman' is a psychiatric case study of a man whose children are killed by a monster in their closet.