Chances are you'll be familiar with Stephen King's work.
It's difficult to not be. If you haven't read any of the horror author's stories, you'll most likely have stumbled across some of them on screen, even if you haven't read any of them.
The Children of the Corn franchise alone is long enough for its own list, so we've focused solely on ranking every Stephen King movie adaptation and remake.
Some of these films are not good. You won't see some of them. Some of the Stephen King movies are adapted from the author's work.
Here's every Stephen King film adaptation that's ever been made, from the very worst to the very best.
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King's work has been used to make several horror movies. The adapted script by George A. Romero is at the bottom of the barrel. "Old Chief Wood'nhead," "The Raft," and "The Hitchhiker" are three King short stories that have been turned into horror films by Tales from the Darkside TV director Michael Gornick. They're garishly gory and could have been fun. Racist depictions of indigenous Americans and gleeful sexism that leers at women's bared breasts are what these stories are about. This is a terrible stain on both King and Romero's films.
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Billy Halleck, a plump lawyer who wants to lose weight, is the main character in Thinner. The movie has aged badly. The cursed plotline plays into stereotypes of the Romani people as vicious and deceptive. Women are portrayed as seductresses and hideous crones in a decadent amount of misogynistic imagery. It's better off left forgotten.
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Children of the Corn has been one of King's most popular children's stories. The film was based on a short story and has nine sequels and a remake in 2009. A couple stumbles into a rural town overrun by kids who worship a god that stalks the cornfields in the first film. In comparison to its King siblings, Children of the Corn pales in comparison to it. Despite splashes of blood and religious horror, its slow-burn feels more boring over the years.
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The anthology is better than the movie but not as good as Stephen King's movie. The film is based on the success of the Tales from the Darkside TV series. The short story "Cat from Hell" is the basis for King's entry, which focuses on a hitman hired to kill a cat. The most exciting segment was written by Michael McDowell. "Lover's Vow" taps into Japanese folklore for an entry that is frightening as well as sexy. Steve Buscemi is one of the stars of Tales from the Darkside.
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The presence of a big name isn't enough to save this movie. Adapted from a short story and very much feeling like an idea stretched awkwardly into a full length movie, Jeff Beesley's screen version of Dolan's Cadillac follows a man intent on revenge after his wife is killed. The method of vengeance is creative but the characters are flat and the tension never gets there.
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If you've read King's short story "Gramma", you'll know that it's an effective and frightening tale. The Peter Cornwall adaptation is bloated and messy. There's nothing wrong with the direction itself, but the whole thing just feels too stretched. The result is a movie about a little boy who might be possessed by his grandmother. Don't worry, just watch Hereditary.
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I don't think The Dark Half is one of Stephen King's better stories. It's not surprising that the movie adaptation falls so far down. The Dark Half is an entertainingly gruesome start before it goes downhill. There are better King adaptions about troubled writers further down.
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Making a good film about a possessed laundry machine was never going to be easy and, sure enough, Tobe Hooper's adaptation is about as terrible as you would expect.
Making a good film about a possessed laundry machine was never going to be easy...
John Hunton is investigating the death of an elderly worker in an industrial laundry after being pulled into the machine. The story is dumb, the special effects are ropey and dated, and there is a scene in which Hunton shoots through his own coat in order to free himself from the clutches of the Mangler.
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There are multiple characters in Needful Things and it is a long novel. It wasn't going to be easy to make a movie. W.D. Richter's screenplay does a decent job of streamlining the bulky story, which is all about Leland Gaunt, who arrives in a small town and opens up a store that offers people their heart's desire. There is too much going on here with too many underdeveloped characters that are hard to care for.
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There are a lot of Stephen King ideas that sound crazy. The Night Flier is a tale about an ancient vampire that flies in a tiny plane and kills people. Mark Pavia has done a decent job expanding the original short story into a feature length film, but his starting point is so silly that he can't really do anything. If you're not taking it too seriously, The Night Flier is a good movie to watch with a group of friends.
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The first movie King directed himself is not very good. It is possible that it is not as bad as the 15 percent score suggests. The author's short story, Trucks, about people who get trapped in a gas station during a machine-themed apocalypse, is the basis for Maximum Overdrive, a movie that features an AC/DC soundtrack. The movie is predictable, hammy, and dated, but there are more than a few fun moments.
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Riding the Bullet is a story about grief and coming to terms with the death of a parent. It gets lost in all the other things. Based on a King short story, Mick Garris' adaptation follows troubled college student Alan as he goes to visit his sick mother in hospital. David Arquette played George Staub, the strange man who picked him up and gave him a disturbing ultimatum. There are some moving moments in the movie, and the final five minutes are powerful, but it's not enough to save the plot.
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Firestarter is a novel based on a book by King. He (Zac Efron) has the ability to change people's will with his mind, and she can set fire to things. They're seen as weapons by a sinister organization.
In short, this tale of coming-of-age carnage has no spark.
The 1984 adaptation, which starred a young Drew Barrymore in the title role, wasn't all that great to begin with, so a remake should have been a good idea. They don't bring anything new or exciting to their version of King. It was more pointless than perturbing in my review. This story has no spark.
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There was a lot of wasted potential. It isn't the worst King adaptation out there, but it may be the most frustrating. The author's Dark Tower series is considered to be his best work. The stand looks like a short story. The series tells the tale of a battle between good and evil that takes place across multiple worlds, with a huge cast of awesome characters, one of the best endings King has ever written, and the mysterious Dark Tower at the very center of it all The movie is about dipping its toe into this world. The story is rushed and not even a strong turn from Tom Taylor can save it. The Dark Tower tries to be its own movie, but that's a problem. It's too large like the multiverse at the center of the novels.
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Adapted short stories are hard to find on this list. Graveyard Shift takes a brilliantly gory King tale about workers clearing the basement of a rat-ridden textile mill and stretches it awkwardly into a full-length movie.
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This is a good King adaptation on paper. Dreamcatcher is an IT-style story that sees childhood friends come back to life after something strange happened to them in the past. Instead of clowns, we have an alien parasites. It should be fun, but the story isn't memorable and the characters don't seem to fit in.
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It's easy to see why Vincenzo Natali wanted to work on the adaptation of In the Tall Grass, it's set in a field of grass that traps passers-by. A fun idea is about as far as it can go. The movie is a bit repetitive once you get past the claustrophobic concept. The ending isn't satisfying enough to make up for the other issues of the film.
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In 1922, Zak Hilditch's adaptation of King's novella of the same name follows a Nebraskan farmer who convinces his own son to help him kill his wife in order to stop her from selling the farm. It's a happy one. One of the story's more disturbing elements, the presence of rats, is downplayed in the adaptation. There is a dark, gory tale where the characters are hard to like.
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Cell doesn't fit the definition of a "hidden gem", but you could make a case for it being overlooked. Despite its A-list cast, the film has been largely forgotten due to the bad reception it received from both critics and the public. Is it really deserving of such a bad score? It's not a great film but it's certainly not terrible by any means, taking the fun idea of a cell phone-caused apocalypse and creating more than a few tense scenes as our main characters struggle to survive the plague's victims. The characters are a little underdeveloped, and the film loses its way in the third act, but for a casual weekend you could do worse.
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"I loved you in the 1992 classic The Lawnmower Man" is probably not one of the things people say to Pierce Brosnan when they see him. The movie is so far removed from the original short story that it barely feels like they bothered to use the source material, even though King won a lawsuit against New Line Cinema to have his name removed from the movie. The movie is an entertaining sci-fi story about a scientist who uses virtual reality to expand his subject's intelligence despite the fact that the author wants nothing to do with it.
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Baby Drew Barrymore is similar to Eleven from the hit showStranger Things. The 1984 adaptation of King's Firestarter is 100 percent fine, and she plays an eight-year-old girl whose parents developed her own telepathy after they said yes. The Shop, a government agency, got wind of Charlie's fiery powers and wanted to use them for their own benefit. The world only sees Charlie as a monster because she wants to be treated nicely.
It's an utterly OK narrative thanks to clever fire and fan-heavy special effects and a solid cast including tiny Barrymore setting cinder blocks and agents ablaze. It's all about that score.
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The fact that dogs in Hollywood usually come in the form of happy, waggy-tailed companions that may or may not eventually break your heart makes you think that St. Bernard might have been a difficult sell.
You'd think a murderously rabid St. Bernard might have been something of a tough sell.
It does work in Cujo. It does up to a point The tension and claustrophobia that made King's novel such a classic is what the movie borrows from. It doesn't borrow enough of it and the dog isn't as frightening as it could be, so it's bound to look a little dated nowadays. It's still pretty enjoyable.
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It's fair to say that King's screenwriting record is a bit patchier than his prose writing. Silver Bullet is a werewolf flick that gives off a strong b-movie vibe.
A brother and sister are on the trail of a small town monster that wreaks havoc in the community. Despite the not-so-great-by-2020s-standard special effects, you might have a good time watching this one on a Friday.
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Cat's Eye is King's first credited script. One of the better horror anthologies in his filmography is a collection of short stories called Quitters, Inc.
Cat's Eye was named after a framing device that follows a stray cat through three twisted stories. It's bad news for his wife. His internal struggle with addiction is conducted by a madcap Alan King as a grinning mob boss. The other two stories have more violence and Drew Barrymore in her second King role. This is a good time and it's funky. It has easter eggs from the King films that precede it.
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I thought that most of the King movie adaptions could be grouped into the great or the bad. Films like A Good Marriage show that it isn't that way.
Peter Askin's adaptation follows a wife and mother who one day discovers her husband is hiding a horrible secret, based on one of the author's more unpleasant novellas. The direction, acting, and script are all solid, but A Good Marriage lacks some of its source material's tension as we don't burrow as deep into Darcy's fears and anxieties as the book does. The Clovehitch Killer is one of the better movies that tells a similar story.
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I think the second part of Andy Muschietti's IT revival is a bit weaker than the first part. It's still a lot of fun, with some excellent performances from James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, and Bill Hader, another disturbing turn from Bill Skarsgrd, and an almost show-stealingly grouchy title character.
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Christine would be the better choice for the car's origin story. The movie version of King's 1983 automobile horror novel was directed by John Carpenter and features a possessed 1957 Plymouth Fury that wreaks havoc on its passengers. The legendary Halloween director's ability to weave tension and fear from seemingly standard car functions is characteristically outstanding. The famous "show me" scene in which Christine repairs herself is absolutely amazing.
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The rest of King's screen adaptation is odd. The movie is based on a novel that the author didn't even publish, and it's about a guy named Ben Richards who is trying to escape from a murder game show
I don't care if the movie is accurate to the source material. Most of the cast is famous for something other than acting, including football legend Jim Brown, a bunch of pro wrestlers, and '70s game show host Richard Dawson. They kill it thanks to the kind of campy, absurd action filmmaking that was popular in the late '80s. He turned on his Family Feud energy to schmooze with old women in the audience while being an abusive nightmare to his crew behind the scenes.
Arnold chokes a hockey player out with razor wire before saying that he was a pain in the neck in The Running Man.
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We are going to say that this one is a hidden gem. It's a long way from being the best King movie adaptation, but Scott Hick's coming-of-age mystery still packs a heavy punch of nostalgia and features some great acting turns. The story follows a lonely 11-year-old boy, Bobby, who befriends a man who moves into the apartment above him, only to discover he has unusual abilities and is on the run from some shadowy figures.
The title of the book, Hearts in Atlantis, is the title of a collection of five linked stories, the second of which is called Hearts in Atlantis and is all about college students addicted to drugs. The movie is a straight adaptation of the first story in the book, which does not include any mention of Hearts or Atlantis. This one is worth watching.
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John Turturro plays the villain in Secret Window, a film about a writer trying to find solace from his divorce when a stranger shows up on his doorstep. There is an unpleasant, escalating cat-and-mouse game which is equal parts horror and psychological thriller, with writer/director David Koepp keeping the tension and dread mounting until the movie's conclusion.
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It's hard to separate the two. The movie was directed by Bryan Singer, who has since been accused of sexually abusing a child on the film's set.
I have tried to assess the movie on its own merits. Arthur Denker, a Nazi war criminal in hiding, is blackmailed by Todd Bowden, a high school student, after he discovers the real identity of an elderly man in his neighborhood. The film is dark and complex, but the performances from Renfro and McKellen make it worth watching, as does the way the tension builds and builds.
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Carrie has been adapted many times. The high school horrors that Carrie endures before her bloody breakdown at prom were added to by the director. The lead roles of the terrifying mother and daughter duo are played by Chlo Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. There is a third act filled with carnage, gore, and fire. Peirce's remake can't hold a candle to Brian De Palma's version of the film.
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Kevin Klsch and Dennis Widmyer's version of King's early creeps is coming out a full 30 years after the first adaptation. It's a good choice if you're looking to be scared and disturbed, as what it lacks in character development it more than makes up for.
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It wasn't Kathy's best outing in the Stephen King adaptation, but it was still a good one. The widow who was accused of murdering the elderly woman she was caring for and her tense relationship with her estranged daughter are both played out in flashbacks. It's a well-told, well-acted story, but it's also a dark and disturbing one with monsters that are all too human.
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The kind of place that should be peaceful, but ends up being ripped apart by supernatural forces is what Classic King is about.
The Creed family moved away from the big city to watch their children grow up. A grieving father goes to a burial ground steeped in local legend to find solace after his dream is shattered. Sometimes the results are really bad. With a creeping camera and frightening practical effects, director Mary Lambert brought King's scary prose to ghastly life. A generation of King fans were influenced by this cautionary tale that warned of the dangers of dead people.
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What do you get when you give a collection of King's short stories to George A. The best horror anthology of all time.
The standard bearer of horror is this film. The five shorts written by King, in what is also his screenwriting debut, are brilliantly woven together throughout the film through animated scenes portraying a comic book that carries the tales on its pages.
If you haven't seen the film, there's a good chance you're familiar with the scene in which the star of Naked Gun and Airplane! died. Jon Lormer rose from the grave and surprised his family with a severed head and a cake as he exclaimed "Happy Father's Day!" King stars as a dull farm boy who sees his farm and eventually his own body overtaken by an alien moss like lifeform in The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.
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King disliked the movie adaption of The Shining. Mike Flanagan had a lot to prove with a sequel that would integrate the 1980 psycho-thriller and the 1977 novel's follow-up. Some fans bristled at the changes from the book, but others cheered how the next chapter was an ambitious, bloody, and deeply unnerving one.
Danny Torrance is still haunted by the grown-up, but he has a new star in his corner. The real stars of this film are Rebecca Ferguson as the evil, sexy, and enviably stylish child-killer, Rose the Hat, as well as a brave young girl with "the shining", who is also the evil, sexy, and enviably stylish child-killer,
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We know there is more than one haunted hotel movie on King's lineup, but don't forget to pack your bag for the Dolphin Hotel as well. If you like haunted hotel reviewer and book author Mike Enslin, you can force your way in despite the manager's warnings, even if you can't check in.
Special effects are used in this adaptation of King's short story and they even shot three different endings. The real winner of this film is Cusack, whose performance is mostly contained to the hotel room
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Andy Muschietti's adaptation of this tale of small-town evil turned out to be a delight, even though I was nervous going into it.
Muschietti's film also taps into the awkward highs and lows of adolescence that King's book masterfully portrayed.
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How do you turn a story about a single room into a movie? You didn't for a long time. The novel came out in 1992 and it took 25 years for Mike Flanagan's adaptation to arrive on the streaming service. It's easy to see why King thought the book was unfilmable when he first read it, as the story follows a woman who gets trapped in a remote lake house after her husband dies. Much of the story takes place in her head, but Flanagan's direction uses flashbacks and imaginary conversations to bring her nightmare to life.
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While two of writer/director Frank Darabont's King adaptation have risen to the lofty heights of all-time greatest film lists, The Mist has been largely under the radar. It has a decent audience rating and positive reviews, but it seems to have been lost in the shadow of his earlier work. It's not a good one.
It's not a perfect movie, some of the special effects look a little dated here and there, but it's still leagues ahead of most monster movies, with a chilling human antagonist and a convincing analogy of the dangers of fundamental religion.
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It is unlikely that either Stephen King or David Cronenberg would have known that The Dead Zone would be so timely. Johnny Smith is a provincial school teacher about to marry his sweetheart in the 1983 adaptation of the author's novel. Johnny woke up with a psychic ability after a car accident that almost killed him. It will take him a long time to realize that his powers are more than just seeing the future. When a Trump-like figure is introduced midway through the film, it becomes political. The Dead Zone seems to tell us that we still have a long way to go in learning from our mistakes.
There is much to enjoy about the film. The film is a cinematic feast thanks to the award-worthy performances by Christopher Walken and Michael Sheen. If you want to see The Dead Zone in its full glory, you need to look for the film's digital restoration.
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The Shining is one of the strangest movies in movie history. It's probably one of the most famous horror movies ever made, as the film sits comfortably in the top 250 movies of all time on the internet. King is not a fan of the show. Really. Over the years, the author has described the movie as "cold" and "one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film"
Does he have something to say? Jack Nicholson's character in the film doesn't look like he does in the book, while Robert Duvall's character doesn't look like he does in the novel. The Shining is one of the best films of all time, and it's frightening, genuinely scary, and features imagery that will burn themselves into your brain.
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The word "iconic" is thrown around lightly, but Brian De Palma's Carrie is truly distinguished. People who don't like scary movies may not have seen Carrie, but they know the image of a girl in a pretty prom dress. Margaret White used to say, "They're all going to laugh at you!"
Sissy Spacek plays the telekinetic teen girl, a sheepish misfit mocked for her awkwardness and her mom. An act of kindness from a popular girl could be a turning point in Carrie's life. King is not a fan of happy endings. De Palma's adaptation gives us chills, screams, and haunting imagery. Spacek and Laurie both received Academy Award nominations for their riveting and unnerving performances.
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It's not easy to make a three-hour movie, but Frank Darabont's prison-set thriller is so tense, emotional, harrowing, and beautiful that it feels half that length.
Taking place in a death row penitentiary in 1935 Louisiana, The Green Mile sees prison guard Paul Edgecomb and his colleagues coming to terms with the miracle gifts of a giant of a man who has been sentenced to death for the murder of a woman. There are a lot of characters in The Green Mile that are memorable in their own way. It feels cliché to say that a movie is a roller coaster of emotions. The story can shock, make you laugh, and cause a tear to the eye.
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It was going to be at the top of the list. It would've been ridiculous for us not to include it because it's one of the best movies of all time. It deserves to be in movie history. I enjoy King's work, but this is one of the rare times where the film surpasses the source material.
Tim Robbins is perfect as Andy Dufresne, a man who suddenly finds himself behind bars for a murder he claims not to have committed, while Morgan Freeman is perfect as Red. Mark Rolston and Clancy Brown both played violent inmates in the film. The film will be watched and studied for a long time.
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Is Annie Willkes the greatest female movie villain of all time, or is she played by the greatest female movie villain of all time? It's possible.
Misery is a terrible film that will have you sweating every time James Caan leaves the screen. There are some classic moments of dialogue and some scenes that will probably never leave your mind. Misery is an excellent thriller, one of two powerhouse King adaptations, and one of the greatest suspense movies of all time.
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You could make a convincing case that King's shorter novels and novellas work better on screen than his longer works. Stand By Me is a great example of this. The body is a coming-of-age tale about four friends who go hunting for a dead teenager while evading the local bullies, and was written by Raynold and Bruce A. Evans. It depicts the highs and lows of childhood in a tear jerking way. The novella packed a powerful punch of nostalgia and Rob Reiner's direction channels this in its own way, placing the boys' friendship front and center, then considering them through a throughful adult lens. The narrator writes that he never had any friends like the ones he had when he was a kid. Does anyone?
Don't forget to keep an eye out for a young Wil Wheaton as budding writer Gordie Lachance, a young Jerry O'Connell as the sweet Vern Tessio, and of course, the exceptional River Phoenix as Gordie's. The movie's performances have a good place in cinematic history.
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