Riding the Bullet is a 2004 horror film written, co-produced and directed by Mick Garris. It is an adaptation of Stephen King's 2000 novella of the same name. The film, which received a limited theatrical release, was not successful in theaters; it earned a domestic gross of $134,711. Plot Set in 1969, Alan Parker is a young artist, studying at the University of Maine, where his professor believes he is obsessed with death. On October 30, his birthday, he thinks his girlfriend, Jessica, is trying to break up with him. Alan gets high in the bathtub and begins to contemplate suicide. The Grim Reaper appears and tries to convince Alan to kill himself so that he can come to the other side. Murals of people painted on the wall also appear to be urging him to kill himself. Alan accidentally cuts himself when Jessica and a group of friends startle him by coming in to surprise him for his birthday. Alan wakes up in the hospital. Jessica says that she is angry with him for the "selfish" act he attempted to commit, but also tells Alan that she loves him. She surprises him with concert tickets to see John Lennon in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The next day, when Alan is released from the hospital, Jessica tells him that he has a wall around him, and Alan realizes that Jessica really was going to leave him. Alan gets a phone call that his mother, Jean, has had a stroke. He makes plans to go home that night, giving the concert tickets to his roommates. As he tries to hitchhike home to Lewiston, Maine, Alan remembers the funeral of his father, Julian, when he was 6 years old. He envisions the death of his mother, and then himself, with a devastated Jessica weeping at his grave. He is picked up by a Volkswagen van that is driven by Ferris, an army deserter. They narrowly miss colliding with an oncoming car, spinning out and landing in a ditch. Alan walks away from the incident shaken but alive. Alan begins to hallucinate and has multiple experiences with the living and the dead. He sees a billboard for the "Ride The Bullet" rollercoaster at Thrill Village, which triggers a memory of him standing in line with his mother to ride it, where he ultimately chickened out. He walks through a cemetery and comes across the