10. “1408” (2007)
If you only have time for one Stephen King-inspired hotel-bound film, obviously it’s going to be “The Shining.” But if you have space in your life for two, check out (or check into) Swedish director Mikael Håfström’s “1408” a lurid but enjoyable psychological horror following John Cusack as a supernatural debunker who checks into the titular room to prove that it is not haunted. Samuel L Jackson‘s mysterious hotelier is a good foil, but really the film belongs to Cusack and to the impressively trippy visuals which see everything in the room, in particualr a large painting of a ship at sea, come to queasy life as Cusack’s sanity frays during the course of one night, and repressed guilt and tragic memories and whole alternate timelines torture his unquiet mind.
9. “Apt Pupil” (1998)
With Bryan Singer‘s recent career apparently disappearing down the increasingly soulless rabbit hole that is the “X-Men” franchise, it’s instructive to remember that there are others strings to his bow, especially in terms of tight, psychologically satisfying thrillers. His debut, “The Usual Suspects” is obviously better-known, but “Apt Pupil” based on the King novella in which an impressionable kid discovers that his neighbor, played by a superlatively icy and persuasive Ian McKellen is a Nazi war criminal and is ideologically seduced by him, is almost as strong. And now it has an added melancholy by being one of the finest turns in a career snuffed out by the untimely death of its younger lead, Brad Renfro, who more than holds his own in what’s essentially a two-hander between him and his revered co-star.
8. “Dolores Claiborne” (1995)
A reteam of King and Kathy Bates after her Oscar-winning breakout turn in “Misery,” “Dolores Claiborne” didn’t get anywhere near the same amount of attention, and that’s a shame because it’s a rather terrific, sad little movie, of the kind that a major studio would never make today. With no trace of supernatural elements, it’s nevertheless a kind of a ghost story, as alcoholic journalist Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) returns to her Maine home when her mother (Kathy Bates) is accused of murdering her elderly employer, twenty years after she was accused of killing Selena’s father (David Strathairn) With a terrific screenplay by Tony Gilroy, and restrained, career-best direction from Taylor Hackford, it’s never showy, flirting with veering back from melodrama, and resting entirely on the shoulders of its two terrific leading ladies as they delve into a legacy of pain and abuse without the film ever feeling exploitative.
7. “The Mist” (2007)
When we heard that Stephen King’s 1980 novella was going to be a TV show, our immediate response was to wonder why, when the Frank Darabont film has one of the most definitively, unimprovably ballsy endings of any horror movie ever. But then again, that ending was a pure invention for the film, and is so memorable that it also threatens to kind of obliterate the movie’s other fine qualities. Making the most of a pared-back budget and a b-list cast (especially a standout Marcia Gay Harden as religious zealot who is arguably more terrifying than the beasties outside) the story of a small New England town that is trapped by a mysterious, monster-filled mist is one of the grittiest, and most convincingly pessimistic films in the King canon.
6. “The Dead Zone” (1983)
One of the usually chilly David Cronenberg‘s most humane films and one of usually psycho Christopher Walken‘s least psycho performances, “The Dead Zone” is atypical all round, and does not easily fit even within the canon of King adaptations. Unfolding with more care for psychological drama than scares, it follows Walken’s mild-mannered teacher who emerges from a coma to find that the love of his life (Brooke Adams) has married someone else, and that he now has the ability to see the future of anyone he touches. The old “would you go back in time and kill Hitler” chestnut is then given a vigorous philosophical workout when he meets a politician, played by a charismatic and sinister Martin Sheen, whom he realizes will cause massive destruction
5. “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994)
It’s become fashionable in recent years in snobbier circles to dismiss Frank Darabont‘s perennial favorite as middlebrow, maudlin and overly sentimental. And indeed, it might be all those things, but it’s also completely sincere and extraordinarily effective, so we’re sticking by it. Not a hit in theaters, it became a home video phenomenon, and it’s not hard to see why: the story of Tim Robbins‘ innocent man incarcerated, his friendship with Morgan Freeman‘s Red and his long-term escape plan is twisty, tearjerking and tremendously well-told. Even at the time, this old-fashioned, heartswelling crowdpleaser felt pleasantly anachronistic, and over two decades later, it’s clear that it really is the type of film they just don’t make anymore.
4. “Misery” (1990)
Rob Reiner‘s first five films were all (brilliant) comedies, so it might have seemed strange that he was turning to horror for the sixth title in his near-unparalleled run of form. But “Misery” which reads much grimmer on the page, makes the strong case for the interrelation of comedy and horror: both are, above all, about timing, and Reiner’s witty sensibility delivers the scares here with the precision of a perfect punchline. And sometimes the scares are laughs. Also featuring two great performances from James Caan as the stranded novelist and the Oscar-winning Kathy Bates as his No. 1 fan, and a hobbling scene that still makes us squirm and clutch at our ankles to think of, “Misery” is furthermore strangely prescient about our current era of obsessive fandom.
3. “Carrie” (1976)
The horrors of going through puberty in a hormone-infested institution full of your peers can be related to by more than most, but it takes the special combination of Stephen King and Brian De Palma to come up with a horror film that’s both as terrifying and deeply felt as “Carrie.” Based on King’s debut novel, it opens with oddball Carrie White (an Oscar-nominated Sissy Spacek) getting her first period (something her monstrous, fundamentalist Christian mother — Piper Laurie — never prepared her for) in the shower, and being tormented by her classmates as a result. As it turns out, Carrie has telekinetic powers so this, and their subsequent prom prank, turns out to be something of a mistake. De Palma brings all his Hitchcockian skills to racking up the tension, but crucially, it’s his empathy with his central character that makes Carrie into a classic, pitiable yet terrifying movie monster that can hold court next to Bela Lugosi‘s Dracula and Lon Chaney‘s Wolf Man.
2. “Stand By Me” (1986)
“Misery” (see above) may have been the first horror film Rob Reiner made, but it was the second Stephen King adaptation. His first, adapting the novella “The Body” turned out to be arguably the greatest coming-of-age drama of all time, a nostalgia-soaked, beautifully played rite-of-passage tale that, perhaps along with the works of Spielberg, is largely responsible for that universal experience of childhood Americana that many of us of a certain generation share. The story of four 12-year-olds (River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell) bonding during an adventurous trip to find a dead body, features great supporting turns from Kiefer Sutherland and John Cusack too, and feels like a personal memory even if your circumstances were not at all similar — a memory as sweet and evocative of a sun-dappled ’80s childhood as the taste of cherry-flavored Pez.
1. “The Shining” (1980)
Probably the only person that disagrees with “The Shining” being the best Stephen King adaptation is King himself, who once wrote that it was one of the few adaptations of his work he could “remember hating,” adding “What’s basically wrong with [Stanley] Kubrick’s version of ‘The Shining’ is that it’s a film by a man who thinks too much and feels too little; and that’s why, for all its virtuoso effects, it never gets you by the throat and hangs on the way real horror should.” Well, due respect to the author, but anyone who’s seen the King-approved 1997 made-for-TV miniseries version starring Steven Weber knows exactly how wrong he is. Kubrick made something that doesn’t just elevate the source material, but also the horror genre in general, coming up with something richer, stranger and more profound. Of course, much of this is down to Kubrick, but despite his feelings on the movie, much of King’s text remains in there, so he should perhaps learn to feel a little prouder about the thing.
A reminder, in case you forgot, we included only theatrically-released Stephen King movies here, so avoiding miniseries like “The Stand” and the original “It,” TV series like “The Dark Zone” re-do or “11.22.63”, TV movies like the “Carrie” and “Children Of The Corn” remakes or “Dolan’s Cadillac,” and an original screenplay like “Sleepwalkers,” which isn’t really an adaptation. We also decided not to include anthology “Tales From The Darkside,” which only has one of its segments based on a King story, and “The Devil’s Gift,” thought to be plagiarized from King’s “The Monkey” but never officially acknowledged as such.
We also didn’t include sequels to King movies, like “Pet Sematary 2” or “Carrie 2: The Rage,” or the “Children Of The Corn” sequels, unless they were directly written by King himself (which none were). How will “The Dark Tower” and, later in the year, “It” figure in? Come back for our reviews of those movies nearer their releases.