Stephen King Rainy Season

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RainySeason is a short horror story by Stephen King, first published in the Spring 1989 issue of Midnight Graffiti magazine, and later included in King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. It ended a bout of writer's block from which King had been suffering.[1]

A young husband and wife on summer vacation rent a house in a small town called Willow, Maine, only to be warned repeatedly (if vaguely) to leave by the local inhabitants. They do not comply and, having purchased groceries, return to the house. They learn the price for prosperity the citizens of Willow must pay: every seven years a husband and wife will go there from outside and will stay, despite protests, to become sacrifices during the rainy season. When the "rain" starts, the couple learns the nature of the precipitation: an army of grotesque black toads the size of footballs, armed with needle-sharp teeth and able to chew through doors and walls. After the carnage, the toads melt away into poisonous sludge that is washed away easily. Two residents debate the price that is paid for their prosperity, but decide there is nothing they can do about it.

"Rainy Season" has been adapted by artist Glenn Chadbourne for the book "The Secretary of Dreams" a collection of comics based on King's short fiction released by Cemetery Dance Publications in December 2006.

"Rainy Season" has been adapted into a 2017 short film of the same name, written and directed by Vanessa Ionta Wright and produced by Above the Line Artistry. 2019 has been another adaption by Patrick Haischberger, played by Thomas Stipsits, Sabrina Reiter, Inge Maux, Fritz Karl and Wolfgang Hbsch.

Wiater et al. compared it to Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery",[3] an idea reinforced by the fact that one of the story's characters directly references Jackson's story at one point. Writing at Tor.com, Grady Hendrix called it a "time passer" that was likely expanded from a single surreal image.[4]

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Rainy Season is the thirteenth story in the 1993 short story collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It is set in the small town of Willow, Maine, and follows a young couple as they arrive just in time to play their part in a terrifying ritual.

John and Elise Graham arrive in the tiny village of Willow, where they plan to spend the summer. (John, presumably a teacher or professor at the University of Missouri, intends to write a book on "the in-migration of the French during the 17th century.") As they make their way to the supermarket, an old man by the name of Henry Eden greets them. He has been expecting them, he says, and tells the couple that they "might want to spend tonight out of town." They are joined by another of the town's residents, Laura Stanton, who reiterates Eden's suggestion, mentions that "rainy season" comes for one night every seven years. Tonight is that night, they say, and Stanton matter-of-factly informs them that this means it will soon be raining toads. They are informed that a room has been reserved for them at a motel in a neighboring town, and Eden tells them that, if they do choose to stay, they will want to close the shutters.

The Grahams, of course, believe that they are the victims of a local joke, and think little else of the toads. That night, however, they are awakened by thuds from the roof and outer walls, as well as the sound of breaking glass. Initially, they believe the residents of Willow are simply trying to frighten them. This thought is quickly discarded as they see the hordes of toads invading the house. Unlike normal toads, these have teeth.

John and Elise retreat to the cellar, and after dispatching the dozen or so toads that accompanied them from upstairs, they barricade the windows with a piece of old plywood. Unfortunately, they neglect to address the abandoned coal chute, and it soon gives way, subjecting them to an avalanche of the carnivorous toads.

As the sun rises, the toads are "evaporated," leaving behind only a cloudy white substance which drains into the earth in short order. Laura Stanton and Henry Eden discuss "the ritual," revealing that "rainy season" always brings a young couple, who are always advised of the danger and always ignore it, and who always meet the same end as the Grahams.

A young couple vacationing in a small town receive repeated warnings to leave before rainy season begins. Soon they find out the precipitation has nothing to do with the weather. Based on Stephen King's RAINY SEASON.

[Cora Newall] was a grainbag of a woman, incredibly wide across the hips, incredibly full in the butt, yet almost as flatchested as a boy and possessed of an absurd little pipestem neck upon which her oversized head nodded like a strange pale sunflower. Her cheeks hung like dough, her lips like strips of liver; her face was as silent as a full moon on a winter night. She sweated huge dark patches around the armholes of her dresses even in February, and she carried a dank smell of perspiration with her always.

Appropriately, the least likely suspect proves to be the werewolf (it was simply impossible to think of that person, of all persons, being the killer. Neary would have believed his mother the killer before he would have believed that). In a terrific scene, the monster (in human form under a waning moon) is finally unmasked on Halloween night by a trick-or-treating child.

As seen most recently in Under the Dome, King is a master of the small-town-besieged storyline. Never though, has he written more succinctly and entertainingly on the subject than in the dozen episodes of this calendrical narrative. The months fly by like minutes in Cycle of the Werewolf, a gripping (and at times grisly) work of American Gothic short fiction.

Note: While best known as a chapter within the King novel The Tommyknockers, this piece was also published as an ostensible short story in a July 1984 issue of Rolling Stone, in an October 1985 special hardcover edition of Skeleton Crew, and in the 1991 anthology I Shudder at Your Touch.

Lesser hands might have reduced this story to the literary equivalent of an episode of 1000 Ways to Die, but King, with his knack for colorful characterization and the dramatization of small-town intrigue, has produced a memorable piece of American Gothic fiction.

The episode features another visually striking scene of Schisma-frenzied blackbirds turned into feathery kamikazes. I have to wonder, though: would there actually be birds flying above the snowy Maine landscape in the middle of wintertime?

Castle Rock cannot be faulted for the ambition of its storytelling, but personally, I was not a big fan of the whole parallel-worlds plotline. The favoring of unsettling ambiguity over on-the-nose horror is a likewise admirable approach, but the show veered into obliquity and accordingly did not arrive at a satisfying resolution. Rather than positively chilled, the season finale ultimately left me feeling lukewarm.

During the dry season (December to April), it seldom rains in much of the country. For stretches of weeks, or even months, it might not rain a single drop. In fact, in some regions like northern Guanacaste Province, forests turn brown towards the end of the dry season, many of the trees lose their leaves, and there are even fires in the hills.

Costa Rica has a few different travel seasons: the high season (December to April), the peak season (the weeks around Christmas, New Years, and Easter), and the low season (generally May to November, but sometimes hotels consider July and August to be high season too).

Those are some of the big reasons that you should consider visiting Costa Rica during the rainy season. If you plan your visit right, you can enjoy paradise (almost) all to yourself, for less, and still not get rained on all day. Here are some more tips to help you plan.

I visited Quepos/Manuel Antonio in Early May last year and it was amazing. I felt like the only Gringo around, I had the entire place to myself, the beaches, the National Park. I think it rained twice for about an hour the week I was there. And even the rain was fine,I mean , come on, you are in paradise!!

Hi Mark, If you mean the Sardinal in Guanacaste near Playas del Coco, that should be fine in late June. Northern Guanacaste had an extremely dry dry season this year, and is just starting to get its rain for the season now. A little rain is good because otherwise the landscape there is really brown and dead looking. We visited this area at the end of April and many communities were even rationing water. But in June, it should be greening up nicely and also not too rainy.

We went to Costa Rica this past June because of an amazing online deal we found through United Vacations. It included hotel, food and airfare. All we paid for in addition were our trips outside the resort. Costa Rica is an amazing gem of a place! We had two days where it rained for an hour or two and one of those days, it rained at night! It was so green, quiet, almost deserted everywhere we went! We are seriously considering moving to CR in the next four years! We loved Guancaste the best.

Glad you had a great trip, Sunny, and great weather too! It is very easy to fall in love with Costa Rica- just look what happened to us. Guanacaste is a nice area, with so many gorgeous beaches. Just be sure to visit during the dry season before deciding to settle there because the climate is quite different that time of year (much more arid and a lot less green). Pura vida!

My Fiance & I are going to the Guanacaste/Sardinal/Matapalo area this October 19-25 for our honeymoon. We are prepared for rain but want to do a number of sight-seeing and excursions (volcano, waterfalls, hotsprings, white water rafting, animal life) . How is the typical weather this time? Will it interfere with any sight-seeing? Do you have any recommendations? Are we headed for a week in a non-stop storm lol? Just looking for an honest, well informed opinion ?

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