THE REGULATORS - RICHARD BACHMAN

 THE REGULATORS

Richard Bachman - The Regulators

- Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) -

I've been through a handful of Bachman books in the past year and I have firmly come up with my opinion of him - he is like Stephen King's backwoods cousin who lives in an isolated shack and was once neighbours with the Unibomber. It seems to me that some of King's books are 'out there', a good toss away from the crowd. But Bachman's...they are like a hail mary throw a hundred yards down the field. The Regulators proves no different.

A small, quiet street, in a small, quiet midwest town, is turned into a terrifyingly horrific bloodbath! A mysterious looking van (not the kind that offers free candy and puppies but much worse) starts the chaos with what seems like a random drive by shooting. After that, more futuristic looking vans cruise down the street shooting up people and houses. It doesn't take long before the death count is half the citizens that live on this tiny road. The houses are on fire or blown to bits and the survivors are barely surviving. The situation becomes more incomprehensible when they try to run away and realize they can't...the borders of the street turn into a vast unpassable desert (also full of crazy looking beasts). Then the houses start to transform. Soon everything resembles the Old West. There is a two pronged battle with the supernatural force that is playing havoc on this street - both a physical battle and a mental fight. I'll spoil the end of the book and tell you that the evil is sent away, but there is a heavy toll to pay. 

Even after the final battle it's not quite clear that the evil spirit / phantom villain is actually dead/destroyed. There are hints in a backstory, that this ghostly evil can live for thousands of years buried in the earth until it finds a host. Is the evil spirit cast away for good, or did it just pull a Voldemort and is now hiding away until it finds another victim. This opens up a whole new story - I'm thinking that Stephen King's book Desperation takes on this tale. 

Now stop reading if you don't like spoilers.

The thing I found interesting about this book was the idea of using the mind of a child to create a new reality. I loved the idea of the beasts in the desert looking like child drawn monsters, and the landscape too (complete with a smiley moon face). Bachman obviously perverts this idea of an innocent child's mind and turns it into a violent deadly killing machine. 

But, what if you took it the other way? Looked at the regular child's mind. It made me think, what would my Poplar Street look like if my mind was hijacked when I was eight?

I used to like to draw cars and airplanes. I'd decorate them with music notes and the suits from cards (spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds). My landscapes would be no more than a horizon line. Sounds cute.

What worries me is the toys I played with. What if they came to life. I was a big GI Joe fan. Lots of guns, bazookas, and vehicles with lasers. I guess my Poplar Street would be very similar to the one in The Regulators.

Is King trying to make a social statement in this book? A critique on the toys we allow our kid's to play with? Maybe he is. A sly crusade to bring attention to the violent games and toys we encourage our youth to play with, imagine with, normalize!

This is actually more horrifying than the novel!