Throughout the past several decades, master of horror Stephen King brought us too many scary stories to count. With over 60 novels under his belt and no sign of slowing down, King has undeniably left his bloodstained mark upon American literature - and film.
Since his debut novel, Carrie, which was published in 1974, filmmakers have tirelessly tried to bring his nightmares to life. While not all of his works fall under the horror genre, the ones that do have gone on to stake their claim within cinema by containing some of the silver screen’s most terrifying villains and memorable monsters. Pulsing with demonic children and bullied teens out for blood, here are Stephen King’s 11 scariest film adaptations.
13. It (1990)
The original It film, a made-for-TV mini-series starring Tim Curry as the demon clown Pennywise, is what many people will point to as the start of their coulrophobia. While I think that the 2017 film is a more terrifying film (and it sticks closer to the books), Tim Curry's Pennywise is hard to shake. Just ignore the finale, when he turns into the ridiculous spider creature. That sucks all the scary right out of it.
12. Doctor Sleep
It's rare when a sequel can be as good as its original; especially when it comes to the complexities surrounding Doctor Sleep. A film that had to be loyal to King's novel of the same name, itself a sequel to his seminal work The Shining, but it also had to respect Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, a film which King notoriously did not like and changed the ending of the book. Director Mike Flanagan did a brilliant job with this, balancing all of this with a wonderful story of an adult Dan Torrance using his shining as little as possible for a quiet, simple life, until evil forces rear their head and Dan - and his shining - have to come out swinging.
11. Children of the Corn (1984)
In the first few opening minutes of Children of the Corn, bloodthirsty youths have taken over Gaitlin, a small, rural Nebraska town, when they decide to murder all the adults in a violently gruesome fashion. Linda Hamilton and Peter Horn star as Vicky and Burn Stanton, a good-natured, married couple who stumble upon the now desolate Gatlin and fall prey to hellbent children hiding amongst the corn while stalking their latest victims. Based upon the short story under the same name which wound up in King's 1978 collection, Nightshift, the slasher horror film drips in blood and menacing kids who dream of ruling the world, one adult at a time.
10. 1922 (2017)
Tensions run high in 1922, a southern gothic horror story bathed in dark intentions and murderous affairs. Based upon the 2010 novella written by King and taking place in 1922, a Nebraskan farmer named Wilfred James (Thomas Jane) plans to murder his wife, Arlene (Molly Parker) with the help of their 14-year-old son, Henry (Dylan Schmid). The film is a harsh and gritty portrait of toxic masculinity, and the lengths to which men will go in order to have power. Co-starring Brian D’Arcy James (Spotlight) as the town’s sheriff and Kaitlyn Bernard as Henry’s love interest, both father and son must reconcile with their souls in this bleak tale of dishonest men doing honest work amongst cornfields, cattle, and rats.
9). Christine (1983)
John Carpenter takes King for a spin in his 1983 cult classic horror film, Christine. An adaptation of the 1983 novel under the same name, Carpenter has a fun time bringing a killer car to life that goes on a path of destruction all in the name of love. King often champions underdogs in his work, and Christine is no exception as it follows Arnie (Keith Gordon), a high school outcast who slowly descents into madness after purchasing a vintage, 1950s car named Christine that contains supernatural powers. As Arnie is tortured by bullies at school, he comes into his own as a bully himself and uses his love-stricken, homicidal car to exact his revenge on enemies in violent ways all the while cruising along to old fashioned rock and roll.
8). The Mist (2007)
The Mist is a suffocating monster movie drenched in suspense as a mysterious mist slowly rolls into Bridgton, Maine, and engulfs the entire town. While shopping at the local grocery store, David Drayton (Thomas Jame) and his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) get trapped inside the building when it becomes clear a destructive, undetectable monster is lurking within the mist, attacking anyone who dares venture into the outdoors. What follows is a claustrophobic two hours, as customers within the store inevitably butt-heads while trying to decide their best plan of action against the indestructible mist. Based upon King’s 1980 novella, it takes a while for the monster to make its screen debut, but once it does, viewers get their money’s worth in blood and guts.
7). Pet Sematary (1989)
What is dead may never die in Pet Sematary, one of King’s most terrifying installments that explores death and all its ramifications. The film stars Dale Midkiff and Denis Crosby as Louis and Rachel Creed, a married couple that moves from Chicago to small-town Maine with their two young children, Ellie (Blaze Berdahl) and Gage (Miko Huges), in addition to their cat, Church. As they acclimate to their newfound surroundings, Louis is quick to discover that something evil has been growing in the soil behind their picturesque house at the supernatural pet cemetery, a place where various town members bury their dead pets. When Church is killed by a truck, Louis buries it in the pet cemetery and it comes back to life, but it's no longer the cat they had previously come to love, and it stinks of death and evil intentions. Directed by Mary Lambert, King wrote the screenplay himself and even makes a cameo in the film, which is an extravagant and bloody affair filled with cautionary tales.
6). Gerald’s Game (2017)
Directed by Mike Flannagan (Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass), a longtime fan of King's work, the film adaptation of Gerald's Game is an agonizing horror story anchored in the powerful performance by Carla Gugino. Portraying Jessie Burlingame, Gugino stars opposite Bruce Greenwood (Mad Men), who plays her husband, Gerald, as they go on a weekend trip to a secluded house in Alabama to rekindle their relationship. After Gerald handcuffs Jessie to the bed with her consent, he begins to enact a fantasy to which Jessie strongly objects to, and in the process, he suffers a heart attack and dies. Trapped to the bed for the foreseeable future, the question of Jessie’s sanity runs through the movie, as it becomes unclear what she’s imagining and what’s real. The film went on to garner critical acclaim, and once Flannagan proved King’s work was in more than capable hands, he went on to direct Doctor Sleep, the 2019 sequel to The Shining starring Ewan McGregor. Let’s hope Flannagan continues this trajectory and helps bring more of King’s nightmares to life.
5). The Shining (1980)
The Shining is a ticking time bomb of suspense. We watch the fuse burn, and then helplessly witness the bomb explode in slow motion as it starts fires everywhere. Jack Nicholson stars as family man Jack Torrence, and along with his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall), and their young son Danny (Danny Lloyd), they move to the secluded Overlook Hotel in Colorado, where they plan to be the sole inhabitants all winter long, with Jack serving as the winter caretaker. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, The Shining is an unsettling psychological thriller depicting the unraveling of a man’s mind while living in complete isolation. The shoot for the film was notoriously grueling, especially for Duvall, who had to perform extremely draining emotional scenes take after take. King has famously said he does not like the film, due to Kubrick straying far from the main elements of his 1977 novel, which primarily functioned as a ghost story, but it remains one of the most iconic (and scariest) adaptations put on film.
4). Cujo (1981)
Cujo is like a 90-minute, never-ending heart attack as a St. Bernard named Cujo goes on a killing spree across Castle Rock, Maine during a heatwave in the summertime. Dressed in blood and fueled by hunger, Cujo continues to hunt down unassuming town members who are defenseless against his ferocious fangs. With riveting performances by Dee Wallace as Donna Trenton and Danny Pinatauro as her wide-eyed and terrified son, Tad, this adaption of King’s novel stays true to his work. The film removes all the fat from the novel by omitting the slow build-up that leads to Cujo’s violent rampage and instead cuts straight to the bone by telling a gripping story of survival amidst the unforgiving summer sun.
3). Misery (1990)
When King wrote the novel Misery in 1987, he was recovering from various addictions and attempting to stay sober. He used that as fuel in creating the deranged nurse, Annie Wilkes, who rescues a successful author after a terrible car crash and proceeds to hold him hostage while torturing him. The film adaptation, directed by Rob Reiner, stars Kathy Bates as Annie and James Caan as the successful author, Paul Sheldon. Annie is Paul’s number one fan, and as she addresses his wounds and nurses him back to health in a secluded cabin surrounded by mountains of snow, she forces him to write a new book about his heroine, Misery. Reiner was already familiar with King’s work, as he directed the successful 1986 coming-of-age classic, Stand by Me, based upon King’s novella, The Body. Reiner struck gold again with Misery, a panic-driven narrative with gruesome acts of violence and mind games scattered throughout. Much of the terror throughout the film is served by Bates, whose performance as the unhinged Annie Wilkes has gone on to be considered one of the scariest villains ever to appear on screen, and led to Bates winning Best Actress at the Academy Awards in 1991.
2). Carrie (1976)
The saying “hell is being a teenage girl” has never been more crystal clear than in the 1976 Brian De Palma film, Carrie. Starring Sissy Spacek in the titular role, Carrie White is a shy, 16-year-old high school student who's mercilessly bullied by her female classmates. It’s like Mean Girls on steroids with a bucket of pigs blood piled on top, and the ringleader, Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), gives Regina George a run for her money as a demonic Queen bee. The only catch is that Carrie has telekinetic powers, and as she continues to get bullied in disturbing ways, her powers begin to blossom. Co-starring John Travolta as Billy Nolan and Piper Laurie as Carrie's abusive mother, both Laurie and Spacek received Academy Award nominations for their gripping performances as lonely outsiders trying to reach for something they can't have. Based upon King's first novel, Carrie was a box office sensation and film adaptations of King's work have never gone out of style since.
1). It (2017)
Evil lurks beneath the gutters of Derry, Maine, in the 2017 horror film, It. Based upon King’s sprawling novel from 1986 that spans over 1000 pages in length, It is horror at its most basic form. Taking place over the summertime in the shabby town of Derry, kids ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers begin disappearing without a trace. A cannibalistic monster who goes by the name Pennywise the Clown is behind the dozens of disappearances, and a group of uncool middle schoolers bands together to take the beast down. It is the ultimate underdog story, and it functions as both a gruesome, nail-biting horror story and endearing coming-of-age tale with nostalgic moments of childhood laced throughout. When the film debuted in theaters, it became the fifth highest-grossing, R-rated horror film of all time with the aid of incredible performances by Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jeremy Ray Taylor. But, the film owes much of its bone-chilling horror to Bill Skarsgård as the monstrous Pennywise. With his maniacal smiles, razor-sharp teeth, and pip-squeaked voice, he becomes the epitome of evil as he feasts upon children’s fears.