Last Updated on August 5, 2021
I’m not sure if it’s due to the law of averages or if it’s a complete misnomer that the film adaptations of Stephen King aren’t very good. At this point, the regal King – our preeminent horror scribe – shelves two novels a year, not counting all the short stories the dude has and continues to churn out over the years. Naturally, some of the cinematic versions of his stories are going to fall flat. And many have. However, when preconceiving this here compilation, I was surprised to realize how many of his stories have aptly translated to the big-screen.
We all know the out-of-genre contributions…STAND BY ME and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION are justifiably considered two of the finest films ever crafted. Personally, no movie means more to me than STAND BY ME. I truly think it’s a perfect movie. It’s my favorite. And SHAWSHANK? Who doesn’t well up at Morgan Freeman’s heart-wrenching voice-over at the end of the film? Pure magic.
But for our purposes here, let’s take a look back at the Top Ten most successful horror-film adaptations of King’s work. Vampires, werewolves, giant bugs, killer cars, troubled psychics, unbalanced fanatics, no subject has been unturned. All hail The King!
WARNING: MINOR TO MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!
#10. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986)
Buy MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE on DVD here
Marking his only directorial effort to date – be it big or small screen – perhaps The King was tired of seeing his stories get placed on the cinematic chopping block. His response? One of the most entertainingly cheesy, twisted, over-the-top action-horror romps we’ve had the good pleasure to revel in. Y’all know the crux: when a trailing comet permeates Earth’s atmosphere, all the machines become animated in a homicidal scourge to rid all human targets. I can just hear the shredding AC/DC riffs now, set to a manic and kinetic pace, Emilio Estavez running around in some painful 80s threads. Now let’s be honest, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE isn’t a great film, even by King’s own admission, but opposed to his other tale of automotive terror (CHRISTINE), this one has a light, not-to-be-taken-serious mien that allows us to just sit back and have fun. Even if he was “coked out of his mind” while making it (which he’s admitted), 25 years later and MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE really hasn’t lost its speed!
#9. PET SEMATARY (1989)
I’ll go ahead and say the most frightening bit of business in Mary Lambert’s PET SEMATARY is that Zelda bitch, who was actually played a man (Andrew Hubastek). When she cavorts her way toward the lens in that one scene, her sickening spinal meningitis on display, I lose my shit every time. Then there’s Pascal, a brain-splattered teenage jinni who walks and talks…not to mention the eerie Gage, who never disappoints when he lifts the scalpel with murder on his mind. Not sure about you, but like many of King’s film adaptations, I saw PET SEMATARY on cable at an impressionable age. Therefore, nostalgia has just as big a part of the appeal nowadays as any qualitative merits the film deserves as a whole. And while it would have been interesting to see what George Romero could have done with material, or even Tom Savini for that matter (Romero was attached to direct, Savini turned it down), Lambert deftly follows King’s own screenplay adaptation. A quick aside, I’ve partied with Beau Berdahl, one of the twins who plays Ellie Creed. Awesome lady!
#8. SILVER BULLET (1985)
A besotted Gary Busey? Corey Haim in a motorized wheelchair? In a tale of lycanthropic ravage amid an idyllic town? What’s not to love about that intoxicating concoction? Y’all know the deal, when the quaint town of Tarker’s Mill is overrun by a spate of grisly slayings, each done so under a full moon, it takes Haim’s character to spot a fuzzy beast in the dense fog to convince the townsfolk something otherworldly is running afoul. And while it would have been interesting to see how Don Coscarelli (PHANTASM) would have handled the material (he was originally slated to direct, but dropped out over creative differences with producer Dino De Laurentiis), TV director Daniel Attias lends a great deal of 80s camp and kitsch to his one and only feature film. And as silly as it at times, can you imagine how over-the-top the film would be if, as initially scripted, the werewolf in the film spoke? An unspeakable level of hokum the film would sink to, wouldn’t it? As it is, SILVER BULLET is not only one of the better King adaptations, it remains of the more exemplary werewolf yarns.
#7. CREEPSHOW (1982)
In what remains almost thirty years later one of the most sterling horror anthologies, Stephen King matches wits with zombie maestro George Romero in the 1982 classic CREEPSHOW. The result? A diverse five-part symphony of terror! Based on King’s short stories “The Crate and Weeds,” the film boasts a distinct comedic tone with that of the macabre, blending an ensemble of some of the best character actors, new and old, we’ve ever seen in a horror flick. Hell, King himself plays the title character in “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” segment, a sight I personally never tire of seeing, despite the smoked ham performance he turns in. Rounding out the chapters are “Father’s Day,” about a zombified patriarch serving revenge on his family…”Something To Tide You Over,” in which the great Leslie Nielson buries his adulterous wife and her lover neck deep in the sand until the tide does them in…”The Crate,” a grisly monster tale with Adrienne Barbeau and Hal Holbrook…and of course, “They’re Creeping Up On You,” a skin-crawling stint featuring a swarm of cockroaches. I dig the third and fourth segments the most…which is your favorite?
#6. SALEM’S LOT (1979)
Perhaps only rivaled by IT, Tobe Hooper’s 1979 appropriation of SALEM’S LOT has to be the crowning made-for-TV film based on King’s work (or mini-series, if you’d like). Sandwiched betwixt EATEN ALIVE and POLTERGEIST, Hooper shows tremendous verve in painting a tale of ghastly vampires subsuming a small New England town. The brooding atmosphere, the rain dappled streets and impenetrable fog, the arresting appearance of the vampires themselves…all of it weave together in such an eerie way that it’s surprising to think the film earned a PG rating. But it did. Apparently Larry Cohen wrote a first draft of the script, which was deemed lousy. Longtime TV scribe Paul Monash was brought on, and Cohen fought to retain screen credit. He failed, but as you may know, he ended up writing and directing A RETURN TO SALEM’S LOT in 1987. George A. Romero was also approached to direct, but when the property was turned into a potential TV vehicle, Romero understandably felt he’d be hamstrung by network restrictions. Personally, here’s one instance when I’m glad Romero didn’t take the gig, as I think what Hooper laid down is pretty damn solid!
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