Movies - The Road Virus Heads North

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	Movies - The Road Virus Heads North

"The Road Virus Heads North" is a short story from the collection Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King. It was adopted into a short film with the same title in 2004.

Storyline

The story follows a horror writer named Richard Kinnell as he drives back to his home in Maine. Along the way, he comes across a yard sale, where he buys a bizarre painting of a sinister-looking man driving his car somewhere. The painting, which is apparently titled "The Road Virus Heads North," was painted by a tortured genius who finally killed himself, stating that he couldn't stand what was happening to him. Kinnell takes no hesitation in buying the painting from the woman running the sale.

As Kinnell travels north, he shows the painting to his aunt... but he realizes that the image of the painting has changed in some details. As he makes another stop, he sees that the painting is continuing to change. Finally too creeped out for his own good, he throws out the painting.

He returns to his home, but finds that the painting has followed him here as well. He hears on the news that the woman running the yard sale was brutally murdered and he knows that the man in the painting was somehow responsible and might be targeting his aunt next. He burns the painting and decides to take a shower. During the shower, he passes out and has a nightmare about the various things he's encountered that day.

When he awakens, he realizes that the man in the painting is walking through the house. Kinnell tries to escape, but ultimately fails, and the painting gets him as well.

Compared with Other Stephen King Stories

The plot of this story involves a changing painting, an idea which was also used by King for Rose Madder.

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