Alan Wake: Stephen King Quote Sets the Tone for the Game

The critically acclaimed game, Alan Wake, opens with a powerful quote from renowned horror author Stephen King. The inclusion of this real-world crossover adds depth and relevance to the game’s theme. Surprisingly, Remedy, the game’s developer, only had to pay a mere dollar for the rights to use the quote, as revealed by creative director Sam Lake.

Sam Lake’s Desperate Desire for King’s Quote

According to a report by Eurogamer, Sam Lake expressed his intense desire to commence the thriller with a quote from Stephen King. Fortunately, King himself was on board with the idea, hence the minimal cost involved.

Lake shared, “Creating the original Alan Wake, I really, really desperately wanted a quote from him to start it off. It’s my understanding he wanted $1 for us to get the rights to use it. [It was] so very generous.”

While King has not explicitly mentioned Alan Wake or tweeted about it, his involvement adds credibility to the game’s storyline.

The Unforgettable Quote

The quote, spoken by the game’s protagonist Alan Wake, sets the tone for the entire gameplay experience:

“Stephen King once wrote that ‘Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear.’ In a horror story, the victim keeps asking ‘why?’ But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end. My name is Alan Wake, I’m a writer.”

Interestingly, the quote is not from one of King’s published books. Instead, it is an excerpt from an EW article where King explores his perspective on horror in Hollywood. In the article, King highlights the 2008 thriller The Strangers and argues that smaller horror films generally have more impact as they avoid unnecessary explanations that can diminish the thrill.