The Sun Dog (Stephen King)

The Sun Dog
The Four Past Midnight series, Story 4
Stephen King
Scribner
Fiction, Horror
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Kevin Delevan of Castle Rock, Maine only wanted one thing for his fifteenth birthday: a Polaroid Sun 660 camera. But his delight soon turns to confusion, when he tries to take a picture of his family and instead gets a photo of a strange, feral-looking black dog by a picket fence, neither of which he's seen before in his life. The next photo shows the same thing... as does a fresh pack of film. Only when he takes it to local junk dealer "Pop" Merrill, who has a seedy reputation but is oddly resourceful, does Kevin notice that, in every frame, the dog is moving - as if it realizes someone has taken its photo, and is not happy about it. And when Pop smells a profit in a camera that may be possessed by an actual demon, the whole town might be endangered, because with every click of the shutter the Sun Dog comes closer and closer.
Originally part of the novella collection Four Past Midnight.

REVIEW: Stephen King delivers another solid horror story in a small Maine town, revisiting Castle Rock with a tale of a boy, his father, a greedy shopkeeper, and a monstrous being hungry for human blood. Kevin, understandably, does a lot of growing up in a short time, while his father forges a renewed connection by learning to trust his son, even about things that defy all rational thought (perhaps especially about those things). As in other King stories, most characters become fairly fully realized entities during the tale (Kevin's mother and sister being exceptions; they feel somewhat extraneous throughout in a story strongly focused on boys like Kevin, his dad, and "Pop"). The Sun Dog itself is a fearsome creature, not just bloodthirsty but cunning enough to manipulate those who hold the camera (or perhaps whatever created the Dog is responsible; again, as in many King titles, there are implications of greater forces at play in which the conflict we see is just one round in a much larger and longer game). If there are times when it feels like the tale is drawing itself out and dancing around points before reaching them, the whole comes together well enough to make up for the sidetracks and circling.

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