Stephen King’s Best Horror Adaptations
Stephen King is one of, if not the most prolific horror writer in literature. Having published 54 novels and written nearly 200 short stories, it is quite rare to see a year go by without a new Stephen King story. With his work selling more than 350 million copies worldwide, Hollywood looks to his fan base to bring their hard earned cash to cinemas and ever since 1976 we have gotten a wide array of both good and bad adaptations. Let’s take a look of the top 5 adaptations.
- Pet Sematary (1989)
Animal related horror is common in King’s work but for adaptations, Pet Sematary is the creepiest of those stories, mostly because King wrote the screenplay himself. It’s the story of a midwest family who moves to Maine— I hope you like Maine because just about every single story King has written takes place there —and discovers that the nearby pet cemetery has a mystical power. It turns out that, due to it previously being an ancient Native American burial ground, whatever was buried there is then brought back to life. A lesson father Louis Gage (Dale Midkiff) learns when their pet cat comes back and a lesson he’ll regret when his baby boy is hit by a truck and he decides to experiment. The plot alone would make for a scary movie, but by injecting excellent atmosphere, capable acting and generally nightmarish scenes, this is a truly effective horror flick and well worth the price of admission.
- Carrie (1976)
What can be said about this film that hasn’t been said? It was the first ever adaptation of a Stephen King novel and it just so happens to be King’s first book. The story is about an abused teenager, Carrie White who is bullied by her peers at school and at home by her overly religious mother. Soon all of her stress manifests itself into psychic abilities at her high school prom which results in the death of most of her classmates and the people of the small town they live in. Brian De Palma’s direction is creepy and disturbing. Sissy Spacek is Carrie even though she was significantly older than the character’s age. Piper Laurie is insane. The prom scene is a classic. What is there not to love?
- The Shining (1980)
Perhaps the most controversial adaptation of a Stephen King novel and perhaps the most popular. King has officially disowned this film, claiming it is unfaithful to his novel. The troubled production of this horror masterpiece arose from back-and-forth conversations between King and director Stanley Kubrick on everything from the casting, to the script, production design and even King telling Kubrick on how to treat his cast and crew. This caused a rift between the two that lasted until Kubrick’s death in 1999.
The film and the book share the same story, which is of the Torrence family (Father, Jack, Wife, Wendy, and their son, Danny) who are supposed to stay at the haunted Overlook hotel while it is closed during the wintertime but the film differs very much from the novel in other places. Characters act differently, events happen in the film that don’t happen in the book. The film brings up the notion that the hotel might not be haunted and it’s all in the characters minds. All in all, what Kubrick made is considered by many to be a horror masterpiece. For the story they were telling, it is a unique take on the genre. The film is iconic from the dialogue to the performances and scenes. It may not be the book but it’s something else.
- The Mist (2007)
Frank Darabont who directed previous King adaptations, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, does his first horror adaptation and it’s most impressive. In a small fishing town in (you guessed it) Maine, a large fog rolls in the day after a violent thunderstorm bringing with it Lovecraftian horrors that feast upon the townspeople and it’s up to a group of survivors in a local supermarket to find a way to kill these creatures before they end up killing each other .
Many fans complained that it wasn’t as good as Darabont’s other films but this is a completely different genre for him. They also complained about the changed ending from the book which I feel makes the film all the more disturbing. The scary elements work extremely well, but what really drives this one home is Darabont’s focus on the divide that forms between two factions of the townspeople – the paranoid, Bible-thumping types and the more rational-minded, decidedly left-wing members of the populace. This allegorical microcosm of Bush Jr.-era America is spot on, and elevates an already-excellent film to even greater heights.
- Misery (1990)
Misery is the only Stephen King film to win an academy-award. The scariest part about this film is the fact that the story is King’s most realistic to date. In it, author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) has gotten tired of writing his best-selling Misery series and as a result kills off the titular main character. On his way to his home in New York City, Paul gets in a car crash and is saved by a nurse named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who takes him home to heal him of his wounds. There Paul learns two things: 1. Annie is his biggest fan, especially of his Misery novels and 2. She’s a psychopath. When Annie learns of Misery’s death in the last novel, she goes insane leaving Paul bedridden as he is taken captive by her and is forced to write a new novel in which Misery comes back from the dead.
The best thing about the film is not only the back and forth between Caan and Bates but mainly how realistic it all is. All writers fear that one of their fans will be someone like Annie Wilkes. Bates plays Annie so well, she won the Academy Award for best actress because of it. The way she switches back and forth between calm and serene to hostile and angry is insane. You watch her when she is on screen hoping that she stays on her nice side. She is the scariest thing in this film and if you have not seen it yet, it’s time for you to have your nightmare fuel from Misery.
