External links
- "Autopsy Room Four" at StephenKing.com
- "Autopsy Room Four" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Autopsy Room Four at IMDb
| "Autopsy Room Four" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Six Stories |
| Publisher | Philtrum Press |
| Media type | Magazine (1st release) |
| Publication date | Anthology |
"Autopsy Room Four" is a short story by American writer Stephen King. It was first published in King's limited-edition collection, Six Stories, in 1997.
The story is set in King's fictional town of Derry, Maine.
Howard Cottrell awakes from some form of unconsciousness to find himself laid out in an autopsy room. As the doctors prepare to begin, Howard struggles to come to grips with what is happening.
After realizing that he is not dead, Howard deduces that he is in a paralysed state. Howard tries to somehow inform the doctors of this fact before they cut into him.
While prepping Cottrell's body, the doctor in charge, Katie Arlen, finds shrapnel wounds around his nether regions. While she is absent-mindedly examining these, an intern rushes into the room to inform them that Howard is still alive. Katie looks down – to find herself holding Howard's erect penis.
In a humorous afternote, Howard explains that he was possibly bitten by a Peruvian Boomslang snake, causing the deathlike paralysis. Another one of the doctors discovered that same snake in his golf bag and was promptly bitten. Howard adds that he and Katie dated for a while, but parted due to an embarrassing issue in the boudoir (he was impotent unless she was wearing rubber gloves).
The plot of "Autopsy Room Four" is based on the set-up of the short story "Breakdown" by Louis Pollock, originally published in Collier's Magazine in 1947, in which the protagonist is paralyzed in an automobile accident, and must prove that he is alive. At one point in King's story, the protagonist explicitly thinks about a television adaptation of "Breakdown" which aired on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1955.
"Autopsy Room Four" was first published in King's limited-edition collection Six Stories in 1997. It appeared in the anthology Robert Bloch's Psychos later the same year. In 2002, it was collected in King's collection Everything's Eventual.
Stephen J. Spignesi describes the story as "a horrifying literary nightmare about a guy who is mistaken for dead and who is fully aware of the preparations for his own seemingly inevitable autopsy". Publishers Weekly describes it as "a black-humor horror about a man who wakes up paralyzed in a morgue." Ailsa Cox describes the story as "[King's] update of the premature burial theme [...] made horribly vivid, and all too plausible", stating that it "...keeps the ultimate terror at bay by using humour." Cox further describes the story as "...an example of what we might call the tall tale".
