Favourite Stephen King Adaptation

[93gilmour93]

The Shining
Carrie
Children of the Corn
IT
Misery

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Edit - it's also baffling that people could call Maximum Overdrive a bad movie. Yes, it's mindless fun and deserves to be pilloried by critics. But that movie did every single thing it set out to do. That's flawless execution right there, and it's not like the source material was trying to be Hamlet

"Star Emilio Estevez has said that "Maximum Overdrive" is the one movie he regrets doing, even acknowledging that King feels bad for even putting him in that position. As Estevez tells it, "The few times that I've connected with him over the years, he's like, 'Can you forgive me for that?'"
[...]
Giulietti says that despite King's brilliant mind, he wasn't much of a director. "He didn't know where to put the cameras," she said."

Link

"King himself later denounced Maximum Overdrive, calling it a “moron movie,” while admitting he was under the influence of substances during shooting."

Link

I mean... even if it "did every single thing it set out to do" (like porn does?), it would only mean they were aiming for dumb crap, which doesn't seem to be the case for the creators since they're all sorry they did it.

 

[Primary Assist]

"Star Emilio Estevez has said that "Maximum Overdrive" is the one movie he regrets doing, even acknowledging that King feels bad for even putting him in that position. As Estevez tells it, "The few times that I've connected with him over the years, he's like, 'Can you forgive me for that?'"
[...]
Giulietti says that despite King's brilliant mind, he wasn't much of a director. "He didn't know where to put the cameras," she said."

Link

"King himself later denounced Maximum Overdrive, calling it a “moron movie,” while admitting he was under the influence of substances during shooting."

Link

I mean... even if it "did every single thing it set out to do" (like porn does?), it would only mean they were aiming for dumb crap, which doesn't seem to be the case for the creators since they're all sorry they did it.

I freaking love porn

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I freaking love porn

As you should, but if you think common porn videos are good films because they did the job, you definetely went blind doing the deeds.

 

[Spawn]

The only one I genuinely love: The Shining

I like to various degrees (no order):
The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Doctor Sleep
The Mist
Misery
Stand By Me
It Chapter one and Two
1408
The Running Man
Gerald's Game
11.22.63 (TV adaptation)
The Outsider (TV adaption)

Honestly that's a pretty good list of adaptations from one writer

Ones I dislike (either don't hold up or were never any good):
Carrie
The Dead Zone
Children of the Corn
Firestarter (the new one is the only one I've seen lmao)
Pet Cemetery (both OG and 2019 versions)
Hearts of Atlantis
Secret Window
1922
Storm of the Century
It (TV adaptation)
The Tommyknockers
In the Tall Grass
Dreamcatcher
Cujo

I'm surprised I've seen so many of the movies based off his books/stories.

 

[Primary Assist]

Forcing myself back on topic, it's a shame we haven't gotten a great adaptation of The Stand. The 90s series had promise and its first 90 minutes are about as riveting as you can get. But then it fell off HARD. At least until they sang the national anthem in the Boulder Free Zone. (In Boulder Free Zone, bomb disarms you!) Immediately thereafter though it went back to being mediocre.

The one from 2020 is just horrible in every way. Stunted storytelling, a bizarre flashback format that takes away all of the impact of an ongoing plague, tone deaf mixing of character's races and genders in a way that seemed like they were trying to check a box, and the absolute misery of Ezra Miller. Ezra Miller is an interesting case - not a bad actor, but similar to Zach Efron, if they've been cast in a movie then you automatically know the movie isn't going to be any good.

Did anyone watch Chapelwaite? I'd love a great adaptation of Jerusalem's Lot, one of my favorite novellas by King, but it looks too dark and serious. A major reason why early King is so fun to read is precisely because his writing is so glib and just self aware enough while taking itself seriously enough to tell a story. An adaptation would need to be equal parts as fun as ominous

 

[Voodoo Child]

Shawshank

(Power gap since it’s at least a top 20 all time movie)

Stand By Me
Misery
The Shining
The Green Mile
The Mist

 

[hangman005]

The worst adaptation has got to be The Dark Tower...

View attachment 836879

Haven't seen or read Dark Tower but for me it was The Langoliers...

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Salem's Lot is underrated and tends to get underlooked.

 

[The Nuge]

The best probably has to be The Shining, but 11/22/63 is my favourite book so I’m pretty partial to the TV adaptation

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

If anyone has about 5 hours to kill this is an amusing podcast on this topic:


I don't have anything super insightful to add here. It's funny how there isn't a ton of grey area when it comes to King adaptations. He really does divide into the handful of good, a bunch of bad and not a ton to debate in between.

Just beyond those most stone-cold of stone cold locks, The Dead Zone is a personal favorite. It's by no means underrated or forgotten but it doesn't always seem to crack the upper echelon (I think it should). And Christine gets better every time I see it. The FX rule still to this day.

I have a big soft spot for the original 'Salems Lot. It's flabby and oddly paced thanks to its origin as a TV movie but I dig it.

I would never say Sleepwalkers, Needful Things or Maximum Overdrive are good, but I like them for varying reasons.

Of the near consensus good King movies the only one I really have a problem with is The Mist. And yes, it's because of the ending. So many folks go gaga over how f***ED UP it is, but i just see Frank Darabount obnoxiously proclaiming "SEE I DON'T JUST MAKE SCHMALTZY FEEL GOOD STUFF!" It just feels phony and performative for me. Takes me right out of what otherwise is a pretty good movie.

 

[Raging Bull]

John Carpenter did an amazing job with Christine. The practical effects of the car reanimating itself are still great to this day. IIRC they used things like airbags to push out dents, filmed glass breaking in reverse, etc. He somehow managed to make a film about a killer car not cheesy in the 80's.

 

[frisco]

The Shining and The Dead Zone are the two I like the most.

My Best-Carey

 

[Power Man]

- Misery

- Shawshank Redemption :

To be fair I never read the book, so I dont know if it was a proper adaptation but on its own the movie was great

And Tim Robbins and Freeman, 2 great actors with amazing chemistry


- The Shining was great too; although Nicholson's character looked goofy AF when he was frozen at the end of the movie, kinda didn't fit the tone of the movie lol

- Carrie was fun

 

[SimGrindcore]

The best probably has to be The Shining, but 11/22/63 is my favourite book so I’m pretty partial to the TV adaptation

I was going to write something like this.

My favorite is The Shining (Top 5 film for me).

But I really enjoyed 11/22/63, definately underrated.

 

[Crow]

Huge Dr. Sleep fan but not sure how good of an adaptation it is.

Only book I ever read by him was Salem’s Lot.

 

[BMann]

I always enjoyed Needful Things with Max von Sydow as Leland Gaunt aka the Devil. A satire on the empty consumerism afflicting most of the world. The extended cut is the version to watch.

 

[cneely]

I've heard they might be doing an adaptation of The Long Walk.

If they do, they better get it right. My favorite King story hands down.

 

[The Macho King]

As you should, but if you think common porn videos are good films because they did the job, you definetely went blind doing the deeds.

Hey - they know where to put the cameras at least.

The answer for me is unequivocally The Shining. A few others are pretty good to very good, but The Shining is the only one that becomes great to me. Not a big Stephen King fan though.

 

[tTheVeganWoofMate]

Christine
Stand by Me

Imagine if Christopher Nolan did The Talisman and Black House.

Flanagan’s Dark Tower has potential. He is a “constant reader” and has done great jobs adapting Uncle Steve.

- Misery

- Shawshank Redemption :

To be fair I never read the book, so I dont know if it was a proper adaptation but on its own the movie was great

And Tim Robbins and Freeman, 2 great actors with amazing chemistry


- The Shining was great too; although Nicholson's character looked goofy AF when he was frozen at the end of the movie, kinda didn't fit the tone of the movie lol

- Carrie was fun

Misery and Shawshank are two of the bests adaptions if not the two best.

 

[Ducks in a row]

The Dead Zone

 

[Power Man]

Christine
Stand by Me

Imagine if Christopher Nolan did The Talisman and Black House.

Flanagan’s Dark Tower has potential. He is a “constant reader” and has done great jobs adapting Uncle Steve.


Misery and Shawshank are two of the bests adaptions if not the two best.

I was living in France when I first watched Shawshank, it was the french dubbed version but it still had the original english title

Then a few weeks later they played it on french TV but with the french version title which was "L'évasion" which means "the escape/breaking out"

I dodged a major spoiler tbh, not sure why they decided to go with that title

 

[CDJ]

The Mist, but only because me and my college roommate were watching it on TV incredibly hungover one morning and we saw the ending. Immediately looked at each other and burst out laughing to the point of tears. Was so over the top we couldn’t take it

Also the actress who plays the primary female antagonist did a good job in that movie too