Stephen King is one of the most influential horror authors of all time, and he has inspired plenty of great art as a result. It's no doubt that the writer has given inspiration to plenty of video games, with titles like A Way Out taking inspiration from The Shawshank Redemption, but the game that takes the cake for paying homage to King is definitely Alan Wake. Even if Remedy Entertainment hadn't explicitly say that King's work heavily influenced the title, there are some pretty clear signs to point towards the connection between the two.
After all, Alan Wake's premise of a writer who's being haunted by his own creations in a mysterious small coastal American town already feels like a plot ripped straight out of a Stephen King novel. This isn't to say that Alan Wake doesn't wear its other inspirations on its sleeves like Twin Peaks or The Twilight Zone, but after starting the game up, many players feel like they're playing a video game adaptation of one of King's works. While there are some small homages to the writer, Alan Wake has plenty of heavy-handed references to his body of work that are pretty hard to miss.
Alan Wake's Opening Monologue
In Alan Wake, Alan gives a running narration of everything that's going on as well as providing details of his own thoughts and feelings regarding the different twists and turns that the story takes. The game opens with one of Alan's monologues, and the first two words that he says are literally "Stephen King." He quotes the author saying, "nightmares exist outside of logic and there's little fun to be had in explanations." That quotation serves as something of a thesis that the game explores in-depth over its playtime. It also helps set the tone as it lets players know that the author will be making a few appearances throughout the course of the story.
The Shining's Iconic Ax Scene
There are a lot of iconic moments in The Shining, but perhaps the most memorable scene is when Jack tries to break a door down with an ax to get to Wendy who's clutching a knife in terror. One shot in the film focuses on the door as the ax first breaks through, with Wendy screaming in the background. Alan Wake recreates this moment during Alan's first encounter with the Taken in Episode 1. Carl Stucky, the owner of a gas station, gets possessed by the Darkness and chases Alan through a logging mill only to be outrun and shut out by a door. Stucky uses his ax to try and break the door down, but is unsuccessful. The shot from The Shining is recreated just before Alan gets a gun for the first time.
Stephen King Inspired Alan's Writing
In Alan Wake's third episode, Alan remarks about how Stephen King served as inspiration to him in his teenage years. He quotes King again, saying that "no one is safe in a horror story, certainly not the protagonist. That's what makes them fun." This quotation occurs to Alan when he first encounters the Poltergiests, inanimate objects that have been possessed by the Darkness to hurl themselves Alan's way, a theme often explored by King.
Christine Attacking Alan
Christine is a story written by Stephen King about a possessed car that attacks anyone who has damaged it in the past. In Alan Wake, the Darkness possessed plenty of different inamate objects to attack Alan, but perhaps the most memorable are the various vehicles that try to run him over. These sections are clear homages to Christine. What's more, 1958 Plymouth Fury, the car that Christine is based on in the 1983 John Carpenter film, makes an appearance in Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the spinoff-sequel to the original Alan Wake.
The Shining Hedge Maze
Episode four of Alan Wake starts with Alan trapped inside the Cauldron Lake Lodge, a psychiatric institution run by the untrustworthy Dr. Hartman. While the lodge itself doesn't necessarily resemble the Overlook Hotel featured in The Shining, the hedge maze that Alan needs to navigate through certainly shares a lot with the maze featured in the film. The Shining's climax takes place with Jack chasing Wendy and Danny through the maze until the two eventually escape. Jack remains lost in the maze and freezes to death overnight. Alan Wake's hedge maze isn't covered in snow like the one in The Shining, but it certainly feels like a second homage to the classic horror title.
Agent Nightengale's Insults
There are a lot of smaller, secondary antagonists in Alan Wake, with many of the residents of Bright Falls serving as bosses to defeat once they've been taken over by the Darkness. Agent Nightengale, however, serves as a driving force and major antagonist for the story, as he's a rogue FBI agent who has it in for Alan. Throughout the entire game, he patronizes Alan by calling him by the names of other famous writers. Although they can't necessarily be classified as insults since the writers he mentions are all wildly successful and influential, it's clear that Nightengale is trying to make fun of Alan with the names. In episode 5, Nightengale calls Alan "Stephen King" just before he's taken by the Darkness. This is the last name that Nightengale calls Alan, and it bears some significance since Alan had mentioned before how influential King was to his work.
Alan Wake Remastered is available on October 5 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.