Stephen King

Carrie (1976)

Carrie (1976)
Rating: ★★★★
Jun 6, 2000Telekinetic Teen's Revenge/Stephen King Adaptation
The very first Stephen King adaptation, a hit that made King's name. Brian De Palma directs with flamboyant visuals that make you gasp but the film would be nothing without its amazing central performances from Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie
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The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980)
Rating: ★★★★
Mar 18, 2001Haunted Hotel/Cabin Fever/Stephen King Adaptation
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel throws much of the book out but has duly become a classic. Jack Nicholson goes grandly mad amid Kubrick's stupendous production and unsettling set-pieces
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The Dead Zone (1983)

The Dead Zone (1983)
Rating: ★★★
Jun 7, 2000Clairvoyance/Stephen King Adaptation
David Cronenberg adapts a Stephen King novel with Christopher Walken waking from a coma with clairvoyant abilities. An okay film if one that lacks the personal intensity and rich themes of Cronenberg's original works
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Children of the Corn (1984)

Children of the Corn (1984)
Rating: ★
Jun 5, 2000Pagan Child Cult/Stephen King Adaptation
A fifteen page Stephen King story about a patricidal child cult has spawned this film, nine sequels and a remake. Not a very good film, this is stuck with padding a very slight original out to a full-length film
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The Running Man (1987)

The Running Man (1987)
Rating: ★★
Apr 1, 2003Action/Future Televised Gladiatorial Combat
This adapts one of Stephen King's Richard Bachman novels but the book is sidelined to become an Arnold Schwarzenegger action comic-book on the oft-used theme of a future where people compete in televised gladiatorial games
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The Lawnmower Man (1992)

The Lawnmower Man (1992)
Rating: ★★
Dec 3, 2000Virtual Reality/Enhanced Intelligence
This has nothing to do with the Stephen King story about a Pan-worshipping lawnmowing service and is a film about Virtual Reality. Harnessing some top-drawer CGI effects of the day, this was influential on subsequent VR films
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The Dark Half (1993)

The Dark Half (1993)
Rating: ★★★
Aug 4, 2001Writer's Evil Doppelganger/Stephen King Adaptation
George Romero's adaptation of a Stephen King novel with writer Timothy Hutton haunted by an evil alter ego. Underrated and quite possibly the King adaptation that is the most faithful to its source material
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The Stand (1994)

The Stand (1994)
Rating: ★
Jul 1, 2019Showdown Between the Forces of Good and Evil After the Collapse of Civilisation/Stephen King Adaptation
The Stand is regarded as Stephen King's best novel, an epic that depicts the final showdown between good and evil in the aftermath of civilisation. The mini-series adaptation was alas placed into the ham fists of one of King's worst adapters. Mick Garris
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The Mangler (1995)

The Mangler (1995)
Rating: ★
Mar 21, 2010Possessed Laundry Press/Stephen King Adaptation
The single worst Stephen King adaptation ever made. Director Tobe Hooper fails to approach the story of a possessed laundry press with the same drollness that King did and inflates it into something ridiculous
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Trucks (1997)

Trucks (1997)
Rating: ★★½
Dec 16, 1999Vehicles Amok/Stephen King Adaptation
Remake of the same Stephen King short story that formed the basis of Maximum Overdrive about trucks turning against humanity ... Why remake a work that was poorly regarded first time around is a good question but this actually emerges as the better version
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The Shining (1997)

The Shining (1997)
Rating: ★★★
Mar 26, 2007Haunted Hotel/Cabin Fever/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King expressed dissatisfaction with the way Stanley Kubrick handled his novel and here remakes it as a tv mini-series that adheres more closely to the book. While Kubrick’s film is far better, this is not bad where even the perpetually awful Mick Garris subdues his tendency to overdo everything towards some subtlety
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Apt Pupil (1998)

Apt Pupil (1998)
Rating: ★★
Jun 30, 1999Nazi War Criminal Gives Lessons in Evil
Early Bryan Singer film from a Stephen King novella about the friendship between a boy and an aging Nazi. While well acclaimed, the film never seems to get its relationship right or communicate the true nature of Nazism’s evils
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Carrie (2002)

Carrie (2002)
Rating: ★★
Nov 22, 2004Telekinetic Teen's Revenge/Stephen King Adaptation
TV mini-series remake of the Stephen King novel, which restores many aspects of the book not in the 1976 film. Unfortunately, Brian De Palma has been replaced by a tv director who regards it as just another assignment
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Riding the Bullet (2004)

Riding the Bullet (2004)
Rating: ★
Apr 2, 2006Car Ride with the Dead/Stephen King Adaptation
One of the worst Stephen King adaptations due to being placed in the hands of Mick Garris, a director who has no concept of subtlety and constantly tries to turn every scene into a pop-up scare like a tatty carnival haunted house ride
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Secret Window (2004)

Secret Window (2004)
Rating: ★★★½
Apr 19, 2004Sinister Stranger/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King adaptation with Johnny Depp as a writer in a cabin in the woods harassed by mysterious stranger John Turturro. Screenwriter David Koepp directs a marvellously chill Turturro with lots of twisty surprises
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Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006)

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006)
Rating: ★★★
Dec 16, 2008Stephen King Anthology
TV mini-series that adapts eight Stephen King short stories. As with any anthology, the stories vary in quality but are generally quite reasonable
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1408 (2007)

1408 (2007)
Rating: ★★★★
Nov 3, 2007Haunted Hotel Room/Stephen King Adaptation
Very spooky Stephen King adaptation about a haunted hotel room. In contrast to other haunted house films, this is a one-man show that keeps itself minimally contained inside the room with considerable effect
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The Mist (2007)

The Mist (2007)
Rating: ★★★★
May 25, 2009Creatures in the Fog/Stephen King Adaptation
Frank Darabont delivers one of the best Stephen King adaptations where the story of people at siege in a supermarket from unseen creatures in a mystery fog outside becomes a study in fear and prejudice. With one of the great unforgettable endings
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Bag of Bones (2011)

Bag of Bones (2011)
Rating: ★★
Jan 20, 2012Stephen King Adaptation/Ghost Story
The perpetually terrible Mick Garris is allowed loose on another Stephen King book where he promptly reduces a subtle, ambiguous ghost story to a series of lunging pop-up scares without any concept of atmosphere or nuance
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Carrie (2013)

Carrie (2013)
Rating: ★
Oct 26, 2013Telekinetic Teen's Revenge/Stephen King Remake
Another pointless 70s remake that replicates the 1976 Carrie almost scene for scene but misconstrues the material by a mile. Crucially, it comes without the sensational casting that made the original, nor a Brian De Palma at the helm
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A Good Marriage (2014)

A Good Marriage (2014)
Rating: ★★
Feb 26, 2019Wife Discovers Her Husband is a Serial Killer/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King writes a screen adaptation of his own story about a wife who discovers that her husband is a serial killer. A strong premise that oddly misses most of the opportunities.
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Cell (2016)

Cell (2016)
Rating: ★★★
Jul 16, 2016Stephen King Adaptation/Cellphone Zombies
Adaptation of the Stephen King novel about zombies created by a cellphone signal. Critically panned but this kicks in with a sensational opening scene and overspills with more fascinating ideas than it has room to deal with
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11.22.63 (2016)

11.22.63 (2016)
Rating: ★★★
May 1, 2016Time Traveller Tries to Prevent the Assassination of JFK/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King adapted mini-series in which James Franco finds a mysterious door that leads back to 1960 and sets out to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy
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Gerald’s Game (2017)

Gerald’s Game (2017)
Rating: ★★★
Oct 15, 2017Woman Handuffed to a Bed/Stephen King Adaptation
Mike Flanagan tackles one of the most difficult Stephen King books from a logistics perspective – the book has only one character who is handcuffed naked to a bed for the duration – but pulls it off with great faithfulness
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In the Tall Grass (2019)

In the Tall Grass (2019)
Rating: ★★★
Oct 18, 2019Trapped in a Sea of Grass/Stephen King Adaptation
Vincenzo Natali, the director of Cube, adapts a novella by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill about people becoming lost in a topographically and temporally shifting sea of grass
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It: Chapter Two (2019)

It: Chapter Two (2019)
Rating: ★★
Nov 30, 2019Stephen King Adaptation/Killer Clown Monster
I had mixed feelings about the first part Andy Muschietti's adaptation of Stephen King's novel. The second part here is a better film, although it too eventually gets buried in over an hour's worth of Muschietti's jumpshocks
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Pet Sematary (2019)

Pet Sematary (2019)
Rating: ★
Jul 5, 2019Resurrection of the Dead/Stephen King Adaptation
Remake of the Stephen King novel that opened to very divided reaction. The surprise about the film is bar one central aspect it is surprisingly faithful to the book. On the other hand, the changes make the crucial difference
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The Stand (2020-2021)

The Stand (2020-2021)
Rating: ★
Mar 5, 2021Showdown Between the Forces of Good and Evil After the Collapse of Civilisation/Stephen King Adaptation
The Stand is in my opinion Stephen King’s greatest book. The question is whether this new mini-series version will improve on the laughably failed 1994 version
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Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)
Rating: ★★★
Jul 8, 2023Text Messages from Beyond the Grave/Stephen King Adaptation
A nicely made Stephen King adaptation about a teen who starts to receive text message from beyond the grave. From Ryan Murphy, the producer behind tv's Glee and American Horror Story
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