Summary
- Doctor Sleep is a great adaptation because it diverges from the source material, using the film's setting to create a more satisfying conclusion.
- Christine may not be the greatest film, but it's undeniably fun to watch as it brings Stephen King's fascination with dangerous cars to life.
- The Mist's adaptation may deviate from the original ending, but it's still regarded as a good horror movie with a bleak and divisive conclusion.
Stephen King, dubbed The King of Horror, is known for being a truly prolific author and one of the greatest storytellers of our time. It's no surprise then that so many of his stories have been adapted for the silver screen. Usually you would assume this would result in a mix of movies both good and bad, but it's actually remarkable how many Stephen King movie adaptations are downright excellent.
You would also expect them to exclusively fall within the horror genre, but that isn't the case either. King is best known for spooks and scares but has branched out several times over the years into different forms of storytelling. Read below to find which of his stories have had the best showings.
10 ꦬ Doctor Sleep
Directe🌳d by Mike Flanagan, Doctor Sleep is the much anticipated sequel to The Shining. Following a now adult Dan Torrance the film follows him vying against a group called The True Knot who travel America feasting on the energy of psychic children.
What makes Doctor Sleep great is how it ignores King in favour of Kubrick, being a sequel to the film, rather than the novel. This means that the conclusion can happen back at The Overlook Hotel, which stays standing, unlike in the novel where it burns down. It's a far better location for a conclusion than the empty car park King used. Doctor Sleep is a good adaptation specifically because it knows when to do divert from the source material.
9 Christine
A cult classic, Christine is the best example of Stephen King's fascination with cars as a source of danger. A supernatural automobile, Christine somehow manages to convey personality and menace without ever being able to speak or emote. Another piece of movie magic from the legendary John Carpenter.
Controversially, King himself described the film as "boring", being one of his least favourite adaptations alongside The Shining. His opinion certainly carries weight but in this instance it's hard to justify. Christine might not be one of the greatest films ever made, but it's an undeniably fun watch.
8 The Mist
The Mist, starring Thomas Jayne, is generally regarded as a good horror movie and a solid adaptation of Stephen King's original work. It deviates from the original in a major way though and this has been a point of contention since the movie released in 2007.
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Where the novella and the movie differ is the ending. In King's original ending the conclusion of the story is left ambiguous, whereas Director Frank Darabont offers the viewer a more definitive and bleak ending which has divided opinion.
7 Gerald's Game
Gerald's Game is a favourite among King fans for the same reasons it's so hard to adapt to screen. It focuses almost entirely on a woman handcuffed to a bed with no clear way to escape as starvation and dehydration slowly set in.
Horror director extraordinaire Mike Flanagan pulled it off, thanks in large part to the performance of Carla Gugino. She carries the show, understandably since she mostly has no one to interact with. It's worth noting though that even for the most horror hardened viewers, Gerald's Game contains one of the most uncomfortable gore sequences ever filmed.
6 It
You co🎃uld argue a🌟ll day about whether the 2017 movie or the 1990 miniseries is better, but both adaptations of It have their merits and many of them are the same. Superb acting, great effects, direction and musical score. Either one is well worth your time and you really ought to watch both.
While the 2017 movie does rely on jump scares a little too heavily, it excels thanks to performances from the child actors and especially Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. He had big clown sized shoes to fill after the superb interpretation of the character by Tim Curry in the miniseries, but does such a good job that his version is the one people think of when they 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ask for more.
5 Carrie
Carrie was the first novel King had published, after his wife Tabitha fished it out of the trash and told him it was actually worth something. She was right, Carrie is one of his most famous works not just for coming first but for exploring uncomfortable themes like religious zealotry, abusiv🌌e parenting and school bullying. The novel has been adapted several times, but the original attempt is easiﷺly the best.
Released in 1976 it doesn't shy away from the dark subject matter with strong performances from Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving and even John Travolta. The only downside to the movie is that it feels like it could be longer, running for only 98 minutes.
4 ♔ The Shining
Stephen King has been notoriously critical of Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining, largely for how it deviates from the original work. In the novel Jack Torrance is a good man pushed beyond the limits of his sanity. In the film adaptation however Jack, played by Jack Nicholson, is insane from the beginning and only grows more dangerous as the movie goes on.
Wherever you stand on the debate of the film versus the novel, it's clear that the film is great all on its own. Kubrick brings his usual cinematic mastery and Nicholson offers up a career defining performance. All work and no play might make Jack a dull boy, but Jack Nicholson in this film had nothing dull about it.
3 The Green M🧸ile
The Green Mile can feel difficult to summarize for people. It's a prison movie, but also a supernatural one, that isn't really about either of those things. It's about the darkness and the light inside all of us, the kindness and the cruelty of which we're all capable.
An all-star cast including Michael Jeter, Sam Rockwell and even Tom Hanks is superb but absolutely outshone by the♍ late Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey. His portrayal of the gentle giant is the soul of The Green Mile and quite rightly remembered as a highlight of his career.
2 Misery
There are a lot of things which can make a movie great. The score, the script, a unique twist. All of these fall apart though if not supported by a talented actor. A skilled actor can often turn an otherwise mediocre film into a good one, but a generational talent in the perfect role? That's how magic is made.
Kathy Bates has an incredible body of work to her name, but nothing shines as brightly as her performance in Misery. Portraying the obsessive and dangerous Annie Wilkes, Bates brings a life to the performance that is rarely seen in cinema. She elevates the entire film and is in fact so good that Stephen King was impressed by her so much that he wrote two further characters with Kathy Bates specifically in mind, namely Dolores Claiborne and a rework of a char♏acter in the tv script for The Stand.
1 𝓰 The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption is considered one of the if not the greatest movie ever made. It is, to put it simply, flawless. The performances from Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are beyond reproach, with a special mention for Clancy Brown. It's a film that could be analyzed and discussed endlessly, every aspect of it is a joy to watch.
Two things in particular make it stand out as the best Stephen King adaptations. The first being that of all his movie adaptations it is both the most popular and the most critically acclaimed, being nominated for more Academy Awards than any of his others. The second is that most people don't even know it's based on a Stephen King story. It stands apart as a work all of its own with no need for the King of Horror to be attached to it.