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Top Ten Stephen King Film Adaptations

An article by Brooks Rich



Let’s talk about Stephen King. He is one of the most prolific writers of all time and one of my favorites. Sure, sometimes King goes overboard with his ideas and he has recurring themes and characters in his works. There’s almost always an alcoholic, a writer, and a villainous religious fanatic. Also, Maine. Always Maine. King is most known for writing horror and to be fair –he has written some truly terrifying novels. Salem’s Lot might be next to Dracula as the scariest vampire story of all time. Let’s also not forget The Shining, Misery, and IT. But King has also written some of the most beautifully moving stories about growing up, death, and faith. 

There has been a fair share of film and television adaptations of his work. Just this year three were released: In the Tall Grass, Pet Semetary, and IT Chapter 2. I would be willing to bet that everyone has seen at least one Stephen King adaptation. For this article, I am counting down my 10 most favorite Stephen King film adaptations. I’m excluding television series and mini-series and sticking exclusively with movies.


10. Creepshow
        Creepshow is perhaps one of the best known anthology horror movies. It encompasses five stories either based on Stephen King short stories, or written by King exclusively for the film. It was directed by George Romero. It’s an interesting mix to be sure and some segments are better than others… but overall, I find Creepshow so fun and so wonderful. Really, the only segment I don’t like is The Lonesome Death of Jody Verill, which has Stephen King himself playing a simple country bumpkin who finds a meteorite. It’s over the top silly and has never worked for me. If this segment wasn’t in the film, I would rank Creepshow much higher because the other four segments all work. The two best in my opinion are The Crate and They’re Creeping Up On You. In The Crate, a college professor finds a crate under the stairs of his building which contains a blood-thirsty monster in it. He decides to feed people to it. In They’re Creeping Up On You, a bigoted, obsessive-compulsive clean freak has his apartment invaded by cockroaches. Romero gives the entire film an odd comic book feel so the acting always feels over the top. There would be no Tales from the Crypt without Creepshow. If you’re looking for the fun side of horror, give Creepshow a watch. 


9. 1408
        This film and short story do not get the credit it deserves. It’s about a writer who goes around debunking famous haunted sites. He wishes to stay in the Dolphin hotel’s famous room 1408 – a room so evil people die within only one hour of staying there. John Cusack plays the writer and Samuel L. Jackson plays the hotel manager who begs him not to stay in the room. Well, we’d have no story if he didn’t stay in the room, so of course he’s given the key. Once Cusack is in the room, the film kicks into high gear. This is not a typical ghost film. It’s never really stated that it’s a ghost haunting the room. The room is just evil. That’s the best way I can describe it. Check this film out and track down the short story if you can. Both versions are fantastic.    


8. Silver Bullet
        OK… this is simply a personal choice putting this film above 1408, which technically might actually be a better film. But I love Silver Bullet. Based on King’s short novel Cycle of the Werewolf, this is a werewolf story featuring Gary Busey as a drunk fun uncle and Corey Haim as a paraplegic boy with a badass souped-up wheelchair. Always a favorite of mine, it is sad that it  is probably the least known in this particular list. It is a pretty standard werewolf story – but it works! Sometimes a film has to be nothing more than what it sets out to be. We need a story about a kid with an awesome wheelchair going after a werewolf with his awesome uncle Gary Busey. I’m in.

Note to readers…the placement of the remaining films was really hard … just personal preference.



7. The Mist
I almost feel guilty putting The Mist so low because this film is astonishing. Based on a novella by King, it tells of a small town in Maine, of course, that is consumed by a mysterious mist. Within the mist are horrific creatures that pick off people one by one. The story follows a small band of survivors hiding in a grocery store. Sure this might sound like a typical monster film but there are two things that make The Mist stand out. First, the true monster is one of the evil and most hateful characters King has ever written – religious wack-job Mrs. Carmody, who makes the inside of the store more dangerous than outside in the mist. Marcia Gay Harden is brilliant as Carmody, and by the end, you’ll hate her more than the monsters. The second, is one of the most gut wrenching and tragic endings in horror cinema. King himself praised director Frank Darabont for coming up with an ending better than the book. Do not let this be spoiled for you. See the film for yourself. 


6. IT Part 1
        I adore this film. I really do. I could go on and on about why I think IT Chapter 1 is one of the best horror films ever made. Bill Skarsgard’s performance as Pennywise, the Dancing Clown, is a revelation. Yes, people might be nostalgic for the original mini-series with Tim Curry, who of course is awesome because it’s Tim Curry. But Skarsgard’s Pennywise is on another level. Director Andy Muschietti directs the hell out of this movie. It’s beautifully shot, especially the opening scene where Georgie has his arm bitten off by Pennywise. It’s perfectly filmed and completely sets us up for what the film is going to be. It’s a shame the second one kind of crashed and burned and did not do justice to the fantastic Chapter 1. I wasn’t surprised that Chapter 2 didn’t work. The adult portions of the book are weak. But Chapter 1 does work because in my opinion, the scariest thing Stephen King ever wrote was the children portions of the book IT.


5. The Shawshank Redemption
        What could I possibly say about this film that hasn’t already been said? Based off King’s short story, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, this 1994 prison escape film is considered by many to be the greatest film ever made. It’s Frank Darabont’s first King adaptation, and it’s truly a spectacular film. It’s one of those that you just watch all the way through if you stumble across it. If for some reason you have never seen this film, stop what you’re doing and go watch it immediately. 


4. 1922
        This is a film that might have slipped past your radar. It was released on Netflix alongside Gerald’s Game in 2017, which also was the year IT Chapter 1 was released. I have issues with the pacing of Gerald’s Game so it’s not on this list but, good God, is this film a creepy ride! 1922 is an insidious film about a Nebraska farmer who conspires with his fourteen-year-old son in 1922 to murder his wife, who is planning to divorce him and sell her half of their land. They dump her body down a well and try to move on. Then the rats show up. Thomas Jane gives the best performance of his career as the murderous father, and from the opening frame there is just a feeling of dread all the way through. A fantastic film and the most underrated King adaptation in my opinion. 


3. Stand By Me
        In all honesty I could place these last three films in any order within the top three. I just kind of randomly picked an order to place them in. They’re three of my all time favorite films and come from three of King’s best works. At number three we have the greatest coming of age film of all time. Stand By Me, directed by Rob Reiner and based on King’s novella, The Body, from the same collection as Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption. Stand By Me has one of the best opening lines in film history… “I was twelve, going on thirteen, the first time I saw a dead human body.” Any filmmaker or writer wanting to do a coming of age story should read The Body and then watch Stand By Me. It beautifully captures that feeling of bonding with your friends over a summer and then having them eventually fade out of your life over time. There’s a bittersweet feeling to Stand By Me and it’s sure material remains one of King’s most touching works. 


2. Misery
        This is a film that I think has overtaken the book. Read Misery now and try not to picture Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes. She remains one of King’s most frightening villains as there’s a sense of reality to her. There are fans out there who take things too far; they feel they are owed something by creators. As an amateur writer myself, nothing chills me more than the scene where Annie has author Paul Sheldon burn his manuscript. There’s no way someone could make this film again. It was a perfect storm of director and actors. Also I don’t think modern audiences could watch a film that almost exclusively takes place in one bedroom. It doesn’t matter how many times I watch this film. It always creeps me out. 


1. The Green Mile 
Frank Darabont with the hat trick – as we now have his follow up to The Shawshank Redemption – a masterpiece of a film called The Green Mile. Based on a serialized novel of the same name, this is the best King adaptation. Even if I included TV series and mini-series in this list, The Green Mile would probably still be number one. Just thinking about this film gets me choked up. This is the artwork that most shows that King is way more than a horror writer. Where The Mist has a gut punch of an ending, The Green Mile has a tragic, but also at the same time, beautiful ending. Tom Hanks gives one of his best performances as death row guard Paul Edgecombe, who receives a faith healer on his block. Hanks leads an all star cast that is simply wonderful. David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan, Barry Pepper, Harry Dean Stanton, Michael Jeter, Sam Rockwell, James Cromwell, Bonnie Hunt. Yeah this is an impressive cast.  It doesn’t matter how many times I watch this film. I always cry at the end. I can’t help it.

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