The Great Depression: Wilfred states that for the farmers it started in 1923.Glasgow Grin: Wilfred accidentally gives this to his wife when he kills her.When the police investigate his room later on, they find Wilfred dead of apparently self-inflicted bite wounds, suggesting a Through the Eyes of Madness account.

The manuscript Wilfred writes concludes as he is attacked by the rats that have followed him and proceed to bite and tear at his body before he can finish himself off.

Henry kills himself after Shannon dies.By the end of the story, Wilfred has been forced to sell the farm to the livestock company and move to Omaha. Dramatic Irony: Wilfred talks his son into helping him kill Arlette because she wants to sell the farm to a livestock company and move to Omaha.Disposing of a Body: Arlette is dumped in a well.Didn't Think This Through: Wilfred thinks he has the plan to murder his wife and dispose of her all thought out, but when things start to go wrong he realizes how many factors he didn't take into account and how half-assed his plan actually was.Back then, if a husband said his wife had run off, that was the end of it. He believes that matters between husband and wife are no one else's business, and twenty years before, the law had agreed. The sheriff has no interest in investigating Arlette's disappearance, and is frustrated that his job requires him to make even a token effort.The thing that frightens Henry the most? If they move to Omaha, he might end up going to high school with 'black niggers'. Deliberate Values Dissonance: Henry doesn't want to leave the farm anyway, and Wilfred does everything he can to increase his fear.Diabolus ex Machina: Everything that can go wrong does.It starts off grim and only gets worse (King even discusses this in his afterword, rather ruefully noting that all the stories in the collection are incredibly bleak). Darker and Edgier: Probably one of King's bleakest works.

Apocalyptic Log: The entire story is the written confession of its protagonist.Anti-Villain: Henry and possibly Wilfred by the end.And of course, manipulating your son into acting as your accomplice in killing his mother is hardly good parenting either. Abusive Parents: Arlette might have lived longer if she hadn't been so cruel to her son.Full Dark, No Stars is a collection of novellas written by Stephen King that all deal with the themes of vengeance and retribution.Īs of 2020, three of them have been adapted into tv movies: 1922 (in 2017, starring Thomas Jane) Big Driver (in 2014, starring Maria Bello), and A Good Marriage (2014, starring Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia).Ī man convinces his son to help him in murdering his wife after she proposes moving off the family homestead.

Full dark no stars stories