History Literature / Desperation

* TheFilmOfTheBook: The 2006 movie with Creator/TomSkerritt as Johnny Marinville, Creator/RonPerlman as Collie Entragian, Creator/StevenWeber as Steve Ames, Creator/AnnabethGish as Mary Jackson, Creator/MattFrewer as Ralph Carver, and Creator/HenryThomas as Peter Jackson, among others.

* ReligiousHorror

* AlternateUniverse: ''Literature/TheRegulators'', another book by Creator/StephenKing (and treated as a [[LostEpisode lost manuscript]] of King's alter-ego Richard Bachmann), is an alternate universe version of ''Desperation''. It has the same characters, but in different roles (a brother and sister become a married couple for example, with their parents in one book becoming their children in the other). Also, characters who were main protagonists in one book end up being minor characters who are killed off early in the other, and vice versa.

* HappyFunBall: Can tahs, small statuettes of 'low animals', corrupted by the BigBad, have the adverse effect of causing those in contact (and potentially even proximity) with it to give into their savage, normally restrained instincts. While turning the savage Up to Eleven, from the account of several characters. Some murder their loved ones, some follow Tak's will, some feverishly masturbate.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: The 2006 movie with Creator/TomSkeritt as Johnny Marinville, Creator/RonPerlman as Collie Entragian, Creator/StevenWeber as Steve Ames, Creator/AnnabethGish as Mary Jackson, Creator/MattFrewer as Ralph Carver, and Creator/HenrryThomas as Peter Jackson, among others.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: The 2006 movie with Creator/RonPerlman as the sheriff.

* SiblingSwitchSquick: Thanks to the alternate universe, the Carver family from one version of the story reverses who are siblings and who is married. In other words, David and Kirsten/Pie would be brother and sister in ''Desperation'', and their parents Ellen and Ralph, but in ''The Regulators'', they're married, and Ellen and Ralph are their children.

* {{Irony}}: Cynthia Smith survived an assault by a villainous policeman in ''[[Literature/RoseMadder Rose Madder]]''... and now she is threatened by another villainous cop. Collie Entragian is being possessed by an EldritchAbomination though, whereas Norman Daniels didn't need any possession to be thoroughly evil and insane. [[spoiler: In both this and the sequel novel, Cynthia survives unscathed, and even seemingly ends up with a decent guy in Steve Ames.]]

* DeathBySex: Averted. Becoming increasingly influenced by the power of Tak, both Cynthia and Steve are put under a heavy trance that almost makes them exit the safety of Steve's Ryder truck and go out into the roadway to have what is clearly not romantic intercourse, with a Tak talisman clenched between their teeth, among various deadly predators. The strong implication is that they'll be driven to, at the very least, murder each other during the act, or worse. A timely cell phone call comes just in time to snap them out of Tak's hold.

* SnakesAreSinister: Upon arrival in Desperation during the night, Steve decides to check out a brightly-lit house just to see if anything is amiss. Followed by Cynthia, they come upon a seemingly normal family that are seated for dinner...[[spoiler: From several days ago. The food is rotting, as well as the bloated, snake-bitten corpses of the mother, father, and baby, and rattlesnakes are slithering around the dining room table, the kitchen, and the floor. When the snakes notice Steve and Cynthia and aggressively start moving towards them as well, Steve beats feet out of there fast, carrying Cynthia who became paralyzed with fear. It should be noted however that the aggression in the snakes is largely due to the influence of Tak, and they are behaving in a way that is far from their normal behavior.

* ShesGotLegs: Subverted. [[spoiler: Tom Billingsly, getting more and more drunk, keeps looking at Audrey Wyler's long legs in her short dress. While some of the others think he's just being a lecher, Billingsly is actually pursuing a thread that he can't quite grasp because of his drinking. In the bathroom, he reaches an epiphany. He's seen her once before in the dress, and it fit her just fine, now she's having problems keeping it pulled down her legs, because SHE'S INFECTED BY TAK AT A MORE MINIMAL LEVEL AND IS OUTGROWING THE DRESS.]]

* VerbalTic: Sheriff Collie Entragian has a habit of adding "TAK!" to the end of random sentences. He was [[spoiler: possessed by the eponymous UltimateEvil at the time]].

** BigBad: Tak, an extra dimensional entity that came from a dimensional gateway in the mines called an ‘ini.’ The being possessed various people in the town of Desperation and killed everyone in a brutal fashion, leaving the town seemingly deserted. It possessed Collie Entragian, the local sheriff and kidnapped people traveling past the town.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: As it turns out, [[spoiler: Audrey Wyler. Seemingly just a desperate survivor like everyone else, the core group takes her in. However, she's been partially converted by Tak. Tom Billingsly notices that her dress is short and she keeps pulling it down over her long legs, but is also drinking and only saw her wearing it once before briefly. Tom finally connects the fact that the dress once fit her perfectly, and now doesn't, because she's growing due to Tak's influence, but he figures out too late to save himself. He's able to warn the others she's dangerous with his dying words. They do manage to keep her from killing David, however.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: As it turns out, [[spoiler: Audrey Wyler. Seemingly just a desperate survivor like everyone else, the core group takes her in. However, she's been partially converted by Tak. Billingsly notices that her dress is short and she keeps pulling it down over her long legs, and figures out too late to save himself that when Audrey put it on, she was the right height, but because of Tak's influence, her body is outgrowing it. They do manage to keep her from killing David, however.]]

* ForTheEvuls: A lot of Tak's actions while possessing Collie Entragian. In the early part of the novel, [[spoiler: He murders Kirsten Carver and Peter Jackson largely because he feels like it.]]

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Played literally. [[spoiler: Knowing its current host body of Ellen Carver is about to disintegrate, it kidnaps Mary Jackson and locks her in a shed, which it fills with various deadly insects and plenty of venomous snakes. Its assumption is that locked in there with so many things that can kill her, Mary will be too terrified to try to escape. It works temporarily, until Mary realizes that the creatures CAN'T kill her, because they'll make her body useless to Tak as a host. At one point, during her escape, she has to move aside huge Diamondback rattlesnakes to find an exit.

* {{Irony}}: Cynthia Smith survived an assault by a villainous policeman in ''[[Literature/RoseMadder Rose Madder]]''... and now she is threatened by another villainous cop. Collie Entragian is being possessed by an EldritchAbomination though, whereas Norman Daniels didn't need any possession to be thoroughly evil and insane.

* ShipTease: Steve and Cynthia immediately hit it off, despite their age difference. Nothing more comes of it during the course of the story.

* AlternateUniverse: ''Literature/TheRegulators'', another book by Creator/StephenKing (and treated as a [[LostEpisode lost manuscript]] of King's alter-ego Richard Bachmann), is an alternate universe version of ''Desperation''. It has the same characters, but in different roles (a brother and sister become a married couple for example, with their parents in one book becoming their children in the other).

* ThoseTwoGuys: Between this novel, and ''Literature/TheRegulators'' Steven Ames and Cynthia Smith are not only among the few characters who remain virtually unchanged in appearance and manner in both books. [[spoiler: They're also the only two major characters to survive BOTH books, and in both books, it's hinted they they may end up romantically involved.]]

* DugTooDeep

* TheAlcoholic: Johnny Marinville used to be one, and Tom Billingsley is one.

* CellPhonesAreUseless: Desperation has very poor cellular reception, if it has any at all. With the story being set in the 90's. and in a small, backwater town in the middle of the Nevada dessert, this was to be expected. Notably averted twice. First, Marinville is able to get a phone call through to his following-chauffeur Steve Ames (Johnny is riding on a motorcycle, Steve is there to pick him up if the weather gets too foul, etc.), alerting him to the danger. And later, thanks to God temporarily boosting the phone's reception, David is able to call Steve to tell him and Cynthia to meet them at the movie theatre.

* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:Tak murders Kirsten Carver for no reason other than sadism.]]

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler:Averted. Poor Pie.]]