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Stephen King Movies Home |
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Stephen King MoviesStephen King movies have thrilled the American viewing public for over 30 years. In all, Stephen King novels and short stories have been turned into 80 different feature length films, tv movies and television mini-series. In a few cases, like Carrie and Salem's Lot, there have been multiple film versions produced. Stephen King inspired films were among the most popular horror films of the 1980s and early 1990s, while movies based on Stephen King's writings continue to have appeal to the horror audience to this day. In the past 15 years or so, several Stephen King non-horror works have been adapted into highly-acclaimed cinema, such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile (which is supernatural, but not what I would call "horror"). Of course, neither was the first non-horror movie Stephen King had a success with; he wrote the 1986 coming-of-age tale, Stand By Me.
Carrie (1976) - Carrie was the first Stephen King novel turned into a film. This story of a high school girl with telekinetic powers and a crazy mother scared the hell out of me when I saw it as a child. Even more than the bucket-of-blood scene at the prom, I remember Carrie telekinetically throwing the kitchen knives at her mother and, especially, her hands bursting through the grave in the final scene. The Shining (1980) - Some Stephen King fans hate this Stanley Kubrick and Jack Nicholson film adaptation, but I think it was great. Apparently, Stephen King found the movie upsetting when he first watched it, saying in interviews that Kubrick dismissed several of the novel's themes, such as family disintegration and alcoholism. King also didn't like the casting of Jack Nicholson, since he was already famous for playing a mentally unstable character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and therefore the audience was less likely to be surprised by his turn to madness in the film. Stephen King appears to have softened his stance on this version of the film over the years, though. Cujo (1983) - A rabid St. Bernard troubles a family that was already troubled by a history of infidelity. Meanwhile, characters from the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine go through their normal lives, after having lived through the Frank Dodd murders. Christine (1983) - This time, the menace is a car possessed by something supernatural that wants to kill anyone who doesn't like the 1958 Plymouth Fury, named Christine. Eventually, Christine is demolished by a pink septic tanker truck named Petunia. The Children of the Corn (1984) - Stephen King's take on the "strange children" theme in horror fiction. This brings me to one piece of advice, if you're ever stranded outside of the cities: watch out when you meet a young man name Malachai. Actually, expand that to include any teenager with a Biblical name. The Running Man (1987) - Okay, this is more of an action movie than a horror movie, but any movie with Richard Dawson playing an evil gameshow host is well worth the price of admission. Contains some classic Schwarzenegger lines like "Killian, here's your Subzero, now plain zero," and, when Killian calls the Governator a bastard and demands he drop dead, Schwarzenegger quips, "I don't do requests." That was what we called entertainment in the Eighties. Maximum Overdrive (1988) - Winner of a Golden Raspberry Award for worst director, Maximum Overdrive is generally considered a piece of trash. Actually, it's kind of like a horror-comedy, because of several laughable scenes. You might not get the kind of entertainment you were hoping for, but you're entertained nonetheless. Pet Sematary (1989) - I remember watching this as a young man and the instant review from the Stephen King-challenged was, "They just ripped off Chucky", which came out in theaters the year before. Actually, it was a whole lot more. When a man learns that animals buried in a particular pet cemetery return from the dead (though they return "evil"), it's only a matter of time before he buries his recently-dead son in the lot, hoping to bring him back to life. Mayhem ensues. Misery (1990) - One of the best of Stephen King's movie adaptations, about a successful writer who kills off his most famous character, just because he's sick of writing the guy. Unfortunately, a car wreck in the middle of winter leaves him at the mercy of his #1 fan, who demands the writer bring the character back to life in a new book. Brilliant. Equally great are the performances of Kathy Bates and James Caan. 1408 (2007) - John Cusack, Mary McCormack and Samuel L. Jackson starred in perhaps the best Stephen King movie of the 21st Century. While it might not be an instant classic, 1408 is definitely worth the 1:46 minutes you'll invest in it. King gets back to basics with a twist or two on the old haunted house story. More Stephen King MoviesHere's the remainder of the feature-length horror movies based on fiction by Stephen King.
Stephen King Short FilmsStephen King has written a load of short stories, so it's only naturally that there are a number of short movies based on Stephen King stories. Many of these turned up in movie anthologies like Creepshow or The Nightshift Collection. For the record, the five Stephen King movie shorts in Creepshow were "They're Creeping Up On You", "Father's Day," "Something to Tide You Over," "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" and "The Crate". Also, the three short films from Cat's Eye were "The General", "The Ledge," and "Quitters Inc." and the two shorts from Stephen King's Nightshift Collection were "The Boogeyman" and "The Woman in the Room".
Stephen King Television Episodes
Stephen King Television MiniSeries
Stephen King TV Movies and Remakes
Stephen King TV SeriesThe Dead Zone (2002) - Based on his 1979 novel Stephen King Music VideosFinally, let's not forget the strange Michael Jackson music video from 1997 that was based on a Stephen King story. This was supposed to be a part of a comeback for the legally-challenged Michael Jackson, and it featured a collaboration with the director of the Thriller video, John Landis. Unfortunately, this 40-minute horror music video was a complete wreck. With awful dialogue interspersed with a late-era Michael Jackson looking weirder than the dancing zombies, Ghosts just didn't work the way Thriller did. You can't really blame Stephen King for all that mess, though. |
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