"The Lawnmower Man" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the May 1975 issue of Cavalier, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.
Plot summary [edit]
It's summer and Harold Parkette is in need of a new lawnmower and boy to help. The summer before, a neighbor's cat was accidentally killed when another neighbor's dog chased the feline under the mower. Harold has absentmindedly been putting off hiring new help for the summer, but when he sees an ad for a mowing service he calls. A van reading "Pastoral Greenery" soon pulls up to Parkette's home. The man working for the service is shown the overgrown back lawn and is hired. While Harold is enjoying a rest as he reads the paper when he hears the lawnmower outside. Shaken, he races to the back porch and sees the lawnmower running by itself with the naked lawnmower man behind it eating the grass which causes Harold to faint.
When Harold comes to, the lawnmower man explains what was going on and tells Harold that those who have tried the system, but don't appreciate what has been granted have been made sacrifices. Parkette, unnerved, allows the lawnmower man to return to work. As soon as the man is out on the front lawn, Harold desperately calls the police, but is soon interrupted by the lawnmower man. A brief chase ensues between Harold and the lawnmower man (and lawnmower) before Harold is brutally slaughtered.
When the police arrive, they come to the conclusion that Parkette was murdered by a schizophrenic sex maniac. As they leave, the scent of freshly cut grass hangs strongly in the air.
Adaptations [edit]
- A feature film, The Lawnmower Man, starring Jeff Fahey and Pierce Brosnan, was released in 1992 by New Line Cinema. This film was based mostly on an original screenplay — the story concerns a scientist (Dr. Lawrence Angelo, played by Brosnan) using a mentally retarded man (Jobe Smith, played by Fahey) for virtual reality experiments, who becomes more intelligent in the process but also evil — and only used minimal elements of King's story. King sued to have his name removed from any association with it as it bore basically no resemblance to his original story. A video game adaption, loosely based on film, was released for the Super Nintendo, Sega CD, PC CD-ROM and Game Boy. A sequel film, The Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, was released in 1996.
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