These Are a Few of My Favorite Kings

After having recently re-watched Stanley Kubrick's amazing film version of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), I was inspired to write a list of my favorite Stephen King adaptations to date. Mr. King defined my childhood---I was in the fourth grade when (perhaps inappropriately) I began reading King, beginning with "Dolores Claiborne," and "Carrie." A year later, I read "It," and steadily after that I made my way through just about everything he'd ever written, up until about "Dreamcatcher," when, sad to say, I felt like I just kind of out grew the wonderful Mr. King. And that's really not to criticize his writing---his excellent works scared me as a child, and I think today they simply remind me of the horrific powerlessness I felt in a dark, deep, and mysterious world at such a young age. His works have not always been successfully adapted for the big or small screen (like It, 1990, or Children of the Corn, 1984) but we all have our favorites. Here's 15 of mine.

Best Stephen King Adaptations:

15. Sleepwalkers (1992)
14. Silver Bullet (1985)
13. The Green Mile (1999)
12. Apt Pupil (1998)
11. Cujo (1983)
10. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
9. Creepshow (1982)
8. Christine (1983)
7. The Mist (2007)
6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
5. Stand By Me (1986)
4. The Dead Zone (1983)
3. Carrie (1976)
2. Misery (1990)
1. The Shining (1980)



15. Sleepwalkers (1992)
Director: Mick Garris
Stars: Alice Krige, Madchen Amick
Why: King wrote this screenplay about a very strange mother and son duo that look like skinned cats when you hold a mirror up to then. Roaming around the US like vampires, they feed off the virtue of virginal young maidens, and cats are their sworn enemy. Silly? Hell yes, but you get the lovely Madchen Amick from “Twin Peaks” as the virginal object of desire and the terrifyingly creepy Alice Krige as a mother you just don’t want to fuck with and voila! A funny little horror film about skinned cat aliens that also features Ron Perlman, Clive Barker, John Landis, Joe Dante, and King himself is a definitely fun film to bust out with a crowd of people. (Note: One of my favorite horror anthologies I discovered as a kid was called “Twists of the Tale: An Anthology of Cat Horror”).

14. Silver Bullet (1985)
Director: Daniel Attias
Stars: Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Everett McGill
Why: Based on King’s novella, “Cycle of the Werewolf,” this film stars the recently deceased child star Corey Haim that discovers that a cherished member of his community has been turning into a werewolf and killing people. King often wrote excellent child characters, perhaps why he appealed so much to be as young’un. Haim is an intelligent, resourceful and heroic little boy against one of the better ‘80s werewolf features. And fans of People Under the Stairs (1992) will be happy to see Everett McGill, playing menacing and creepy here as well.

13. The Green Mile (1999)
Director: Frank Darabont
Stars: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, Patricia Clarkson, Sam Rockwell
Why: Stephen’s resurrection of the serial novel was turned into this award winning feature about prison guard and the relationship he develops with a prison inmate, who just might have special powers, and also may be quite innocent for the heinous crime that has seen him sentenced to death row. Darabont is the best director of King’s work, as his three adaptations all made this list.

12. Apt Pupil (1998)
Director: Bryan Singer
Stars: Ian McKellan, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davison, Joshua Jackson
Why: Ian McKellan is the real treat here, starring as a Nazi war criminal whose identity is discovered by a precocious young man (Renfro) who develops a bizarre cat and mouse blackmail relationship with the retired demon, based on the novella of the same name from the collection “Different Seasons.” While it was not critically hailed, I enjoyed the film---and it stands as one of the last decent Brad Renfro performances before his passing a decade later in 2008.

11. Cujo (1983)
Director: Lewis Teague
Stars: Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro
Why: While it’s not terribly horrific, the film does a decent job of switching from a drama about infidelity to rabid dog attacking woman and child in her broken down car in the country quite effectively. 80’s scream queen icon Dee Wallace stars as a mother who must show down a slobbery, scary St. Bernard. It’s too bad that child star Danny Pintauro would grow up to be a meth addict outed on manhunt.

10. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Director: Taylor Hackford
Stars: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Straithairn, Christopher Plummer
Why: Hackford does an excellent job at adapting this novel with Kathy Bates starring as a crochety old bitch of a maid accused of killing her bitchy employer (Judy Parfitt) which resurrects the accusations against Claiborne from decades prior when someone may or may not have killed her abusive husband. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Bates’ estranged daughter in this eerie, beautiful, bizarre drama.

9. Creepshow (1982)
Director: George A. Romero
Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Hal Holbrook, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, E.G. Marshall
Why: Based on a comic book by King, Romero takes several horrific vignettes and weaves them into a delightfully creepy film I used to love as child and still love today. My favorite part of the film is “The Crate” with a boozy and bitchy Adrienne Barbeau.

8. Christine (1983)
Director: John Carpenter
Stars: Keith Gordon, Harry Dean Stanton, Kelly Preston
Why: The story is quite simple – a nerdy boy falls in love with a possessed car and leaves behind his best friend a girlfriend that’s entirely too attractive for him anyway to keep his 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine happy. Of course, the best parts are when Christine gets jealous. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

7. The Mist (2007)
Director: Frank Darabont
Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones
Why: The most recent adaptation on this list, Darabont expertly adapts King’s short story from the collection “Skeleton Crew.” A group of people are trapped in a grocery store enveloped by a deadly mist that harbors dangerous, deadly creatures killing anyone that ventures outside. A microcosm of good vs. evil in the form of a fundamentalist Christian preacher played by a delightfully evil Marcia Gay Harden ratchets up the tension in this excellent feature.

6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Director: Frank Darabont
Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, James Whitmore
Why: Darabont’s crowning achievement, I am well aware that this is the number one rated film on imdb.com. There is such a thing as praising something too much. But this is one damn good movie, and one of the best movies about male friendships ever made. Based on the novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” from the collection “Different Seasons,” Robbins stars as a man in prison that didn’t commit the crime which he was sentence for. Morgan Freeman ends up being his friend and confidante, resulting in one of the most enjoyable prison breaks ever put to film.

5. Stand By Me (1986)
Director: Rob Reiner
Stars: River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connell, Wil Wheaton, Cory Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland
Why: An excellent film about a group of young boys that trek off in the woods to look for a dead body they’d heard about, this has to be one of the best coming of age movies ever made. Starring another dead protagonist (the 3rd on this list, after Haim and Renfro) the 80’s was a hard decade for the child star. Based on Stephen King’s novella “The Body,” also featured in “Different Seasons,” this lovely, melancholy movie is one of the best flics to come out of the ‘80s.

4. The Dead Zone (1983)
Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerrit, Martin Sheen
Why: Cronenberg is one of the best directors that has ever lived. Period. His adaptation of King’s novel is fucking excellent. Creepy Walken stars as a man that wakes up from a coma and discovers he has developed psychic abilities and mourns the woman that moved on (Adams) while he was in a coma.

3. Carrie (1976)
Director: Brian De Palma
Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, John Travolta
Why: A first in many ways, this was King’s first novel, Sissy Spacek’s big break, De Palma’s first huge success (after the excellent Sisters, 1973) and a return to the screen for legendary Piper Laurie (who had not been in a film since 1961’s The Hustler) Carrie, the story of an awkward, telekinetic, abused young woman is on a level of pop cultural existence that few films ever reach. Prom has never been so horrific before or after this film. And anytime someone talks about pig blood, you know what comes up in conversation.

2. Misery (1990)
Director: Rob Reiner
Stars: Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth, Lauren Bacall
Why: My number two pick was a toss up between this and Carrie, but I suppose it’s Kathy Bates legendary/infamous/amazing/wonderful Oscar winning performance as the world’s greatest psychotic number one fan is unparalleled to this day. The story of a famous writer (Caan) who ends up in a horrible accident, only to be rescued and taken care of by a mentally deranged nurse in her isolated country home is the ultimate celebrity nightmare.

1. The Shining (1980)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers
Why: King was very unhappy with Kubrick’s adaptation, but it just happens to be one of the creepiest, eerie and beautiful films I’ve ever seen, so there. The story of a somewhat sinister and recovering alcoholic writer that moves his wife and son to reside in the massive Overlook Hotel as the caretaker for the 5 month brutal winter and becomes a homicidal maniac is one of the only movies ever to unnerve me as a youngster. Recently re-watching it this past weekend with two virgins to the material was a real treat---it’s lost none of its potency to thrill. Nicholson is hilariously and somehow fittingly over the top, while Duval turns in quite the entertaining performance as an effective hysteric---she’s pathetic but she’s not stupid---nice balance. The amazing score and stunning cinematography moved me to thinking about all the wonderful creepy, scary movies we’ve had thanks to Stephen King (whether or not he liked the celluloid reflections of his words). The Shining is just one of those films to watch over and over again to remind us of why movies are just so damn good.