top 5 stephen king movies

[bitemytoenails]

I went to a really good talk at the BFI last week about stephen king and movie adaptations, interested to hear what others feel are the best adaptations. Personally i really did love the shining though sk hated it! I also really loved the crappy children of the corn film...

I love Shawshank, Stand by Me, Dolores Claiborne. All based in King short stories or novellas (is that word still used?).

I find King odd, he writes some amazing stuff such as the above then all that hideous horror stuff such as Tommyknockers, which I thought was a ridiculous book and tv series and that thing about the clown, both of which are horrible.

I've never seen The Shining, too scared to watch it.

he's such an interesting writer but his film adaptations are so hit and miss.

Probably naff but I liked pet sematary & misery

I liked firestarter, the first shining (there was also a two or three parter which was more true to the book but not as good imo)

Shawshank and green mile
Bag of bones

I suppose it depends on taste. The three I've cited are interesting, complex stories about situations that could happen.

Personally I think a lot of his horror is just daft but obviously he's immensely successful so a lot of people like it.

I think all the best ones which really capture the feel of SK well are those by Frank Darabont. The Mist, The Green Mile and Shawshank are all excellent.

I really don't like Kubrick's version of The Shining. It's reasonably entertaining if you pretend it's not a SK adaptation but it compeltely missed the point of the book and reduced everyone to the most one dimensional version of the characters possible, especially Wendy.

I do like 1408, it's a lot of fun and it pleases me no end that the hour long countdown passes almost in real time

I've also got a real soft spot for some of the rather cheesy made for TV films. There's a version of The Shining which for me is a much better adaptation than Kubrick's even though it suffers from dodgy effects and daytime TV acting in places (apart from Steven Weber who is brilliant as Jack Torrance). I also enjoy IT (mostly for Tim Curry!!) and The Langoliers.

It's not an adaptation of his own work but I did really enjoy the TV series Kingdom Hospital which SK was heavily involved in. I also enjoyed Rose Red which he wrote specifically for TV.

11.22.63 was excellent and I've just started watching the new TV series of The Mist which is pretty interesting so far. DH very much enjoyed Under the Dome, at least the first seasons or so, and I really liked the book so that's on my list of stuff to watch.

I've just seen there's a TV adaptation in the works of Wizard and Glass which (despite the fact it's my least favourite DT book) I'm actually far more interested in than the DT film.

Hi cornflake, the curator would have agreed with you re the shining. i will have to re read, i really did like 1408 too. i didn't realise that kingdom hospital was influenced by lars von trier who i do love but am not an expert on!

i agree that I love the cheesy made for tv king stuff too, what are you expecting from the new IT movie?

The TV mini series of The Stand starring Rob Lowe was ace. He is so goddam beautiful.

Carrie

I loved the Shining...even visited the Timberline Lodge in Oregon where the external hotel filing was done. Also beautiful!

The Green Mile and Shawshank, The Shining also brilliant.
I'm a huge SK fan but thing many of his books don't translate well into films with a few exceptions of course

Stand by Me is one of my all time favourite films. I also love The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

I'm a huge wuss and not a fan of horror at all, so I've seen hardly any others.

@CornflakeHomunculus really interested to hear there's going to be a TV adaptation of 'Wizard and Glass' (it's probably my favourite of the Dark Tower series though!).

I'm a big SK book fan but have only now got round to reading The Shining. Is the film really no good? I've never really found many of the film adaptations of his books great, with the exception of Misery.

Oh, and Shawshank ♥️

I'm not expecting to be blown away by the new IT but I am hoping it's going to be fun. SK himself seems very happy with it, which is a good sign although to be fair there aren't many adaptations of his work that he's really negative about.

It does seem like Andrés Muschietti gets the book and I did like Mama very much so again, that's positive. Some of the child actors are also very good.

I'm not bothered by the change of when the film is set, I think it's a reasonable decision both stylistically and it terms of ease of filming. I'm not 100% sold on the design of Pennywise but we've no idea how much he's actually going to be in the film. They're keeping the various guises he will appear in quite under wraps as they want them to be surprises hence the lack of anything but clown footage in the trailers.

Oh, and it's got Roberto Campanella (Pyramid Head and the janitor from Silent Hill) and Javier Botet (the titular character in Mama and the hideous red thing in Crimson Peak) playing monsters. Which bodes very well indeed

On the whole, I'm hopeful but not expecting a masterpiece. I'd much rather be guarded now and be pleasantly surprised than get hyped and be disappointed!!

Stand by Me, Misery (although not as true to the book as I'd have liked), Shawshank Redemption, Green Mike and the Shining.

I'm keeping everything crossed for the new IT as that's my favourite book 😊

Whatever you do, do NOT watch Cell; Worst. King adaptation. Ever. You have been warned.......

Misery is my favourite

I loved The Dead Zone (Christopher Walken)

1. Dead Zone 2. Carrie 3. Shawshank 4. Misery 5. Firestarter

Least said about Maximum Overdrive the better

Stand by me, the green mile, shawshank and misery are the most faithful adaptations imo.
Others are good shows/films in their own right, but not good as adaptations (Carrie, under the dome, the shining).
Others are terrible films, spectacularly missing the point, even though the books were good (looking at you, Cujo ).

I forgot about The Dead Zone - love that film.

Misery, stand by me, the green mile, the dead zone, shawshank redemption, The dark tower was faithful to the characters, not the books

Never read the shining never watched it either.

Mini tv series that didn't bother me. The Stand (of course), IT first season of The Dome.

pp27 agree with The Cell

Just watched The Mist mini series - it was ok. I know many don't like the ending of the film (which I preferred to series) but Ive not read that story.

Agree with Misery, Stand by Me Shawshank/Green Mile. Find The Dead Zone strangely eerie now Trump is in charge of the button.

I saw IT last night and enjoyed. Need to re-read book now

Christine is a fantastic film.

Will look up The Stand starring Rob Lowe

It 'the original'
Misery
Green mile
Stand by me
Christine

As I have been explaining to my children, the books are much better than the films.

The Green Mile
Can I count Storm of the Century, think it was a straight to TV two parter
Misery
Secret Window
Dreamcatcher

I just remembered "Golden Years" which was a good tv series. I think King wrote it especially for the screen rather than it being an adaptation of one of his books.