Whispers

The movie industry learned that fans of superstar horror author Stephen King would flock like lemmings to any adaptation of his work, no matter how miserable the flick turned out to be. Thus it was inevitable that Dean R. Koontz, often called the "Stephen King of the West Coast," would draw the interest of producers looking for a low-risk, high-return property.

Koontz is an accomplished tale-spinner who takes some of the hoariest cliches of fiction--evil twins, talking dogs, angry blobs--and makes them fresh and fearful through sheer storytelling virtuosity and sympathetic characters. His narratives move at a relentless, cinematic pace, and at first glance Koo...