The Ten Best Stephen King Horror Adaptions

A quick look at the films that captured King the best.

By: Josh McCormack

No horror author (or almost any for that matter) has been as prolific as Stephen King, and no other author has opened up so many opportunities for producers to suck the blood of literary works like King has.

With the new Pet Sematary being released this weekend, I thought we'd take a quick look at the adaptions of King's horror novels (so no Shawshank, Green Mile or Stand By Me, cause that just wouldn't be fair) by ranking my top ten favorite Stephen King screen adaptions.

10. The Mist

Frank Darabont's adaption of King's somewhat middle of the road monster story is frightening, beautiful and dreadfully brutal. It does what the best King adaptions do which is provide you with a small cast of well-defined characters with clear motivations and makes you feel for them when they meet their untimely fate.

The twist ending is beyond heartbreaking and while it's incredibly effective, it's too dark for me to not rank this movie higher on the list, although it certainly deserves mention.

9.  John Carpenter's Christine

John Carpenter's Stephen King adaption has some pacing problems in the second half, but for the most part Christine is everything you'd want from the creative mind of Stephen King and the badass style of Carpenter. While the conceit of a possessed Plymouth Fury might be silly, Carpenter uses a mix of great lighting, a wonderful score and great performances to make it pretty damn effective.

8. Salem's Lot

Tobe Hooper's television adaption is my personal favorite miniseries adaption of King's work. It's fantastically paced with a wonderful visual sense. Featuring some of the most disturbing images from any film based on King, it's yet another example of what an incredible filmmaker Hooper was and a reminder that he did not receive the credit as an artist that he so well deserved.

7. Pet Sematary (2019)

The latest adaption of Pet Sematary  is nearly a home-run if it weren't for a strangely executed final five minutes. Up until that point, it's the dark, grim fairy tale adaption of the story (one of my favorite King novels) that I've always wanted. The '89 Mary Lambert film has a large amount of fans and I would be lying if I said it didn't feature some wonderfully horrific images, but it's too witty for a story as tragic as Pet Sematary.

Even though this adaption is less faithful on a story level to that original book, the tone is perfect. Mixed with confident direction and committed actors, you have one of the better Hollywood remakes to be released in quite a few years. 

6. IT (2017)

The highest grossing horror film of all time pretty much deserves all of the acclaim it's gotten, in my opinion. Even as a first chapter of a two-parter, the film still works wonderfully on its own. 

Bill Skarsgard is the quintessential Pennywise (sorry Tim Curry) and all of the child actors light up the screen as if they were in a classic Spielberg film. It may be more focused on entertaining the audience than trying to dig deep into bigger ideas as other King adaptions do, but that just makes IT more of a blast. 

5. Carrie

My personal favorite King novel was adapted in 1976 by auteur Brian De Palma into one of the best film adaptions from King's canon. While De Palma was forced to exempt some of the more bombastic elements of the novel's final chapters due to either budgetary constraints or limitations in effects of the time, Carrie is still a wonderfully written and stylishly directed horror classic.

The key ingredient to the film is Sissy Spacek's INCREDIBLE performance as Carrie White. Even at a young age, Spacek proves to be one of the best actors of her time with a performance that just breaks your heart from beginning to end. 

4. The Shining 

Singing the praise of Kubrick's The Shining just feels tired at this point. It's a wonderfully dark and artistic nightmare that has confounded and fascinated viewers for decades now, even though King himself hates it.

It might not be the most accurate adaption of King's original vision (which is wonderful in its own way), but it takes the foundation and builds something new off of it in a way too many adaptions are scared to do nowadays. 

I was lucky enough to see The Shining on a big screen for the first time on an original 35mm print and it is undoubtedly one of the greatest moviegoing experiences I've ever had.

3. Misery

This tense two-hander directed by the always fantastic Rob Reiner is one of the best written King adaptions with a tour-de-force, Oscar winning performance by Kathy Bates.

King's personal fear of being held captive by a crazed fan translated into one of the most minimalistic and smartest adaptions yet. It also features THE iconic scene of James Caan's ankle breaking that still makes me cringe to this day. 

2. Cujo

Led by a strong performance from Dee Wallace,  Cujo takes a relatively simple concept and elevates it by being a harrowing story of a woman facing her own infidelities and the responsibilites of motherhood. 

This is King at his most visceral and the film captures that raw energy and emotion beautifully. 

1. The Dead Zone

Perhaps it isn't the popular choice, but David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone is the unsung masterpiece in the canon of King adaptions in my opinion. 

With the right blend of shock value and grief, The Dead Zone captures what makes King's appeal so universal. While Cronenberg is usually known for his cold and unfeeling cinematic ventures, his surprising ability to tap into the emotion of Christopher Walken's character of Johnny Smith is what makes the film work above all other adaptions. There are a handful of sequences in The Dead Zone I can't think of without tearing up.

A beautifully haunting story that shows King's thrillers are made for more than just scaring the hell out of people.