Top 10 Best Stephen King Movies
14.07.09 # Top Ten # 61 Comments
He’s the master of horror, but sometimes also the master of drama. Never has the quality of adaptation of an author’s work varied so widely – his books have been turned into truly wretched films (‘Graveyard Shift’, ‘Maximum Overdrive’) and bona fide classics. Here are the top 10 best Stephen King movies ever made.
10. The Running Man
Loosely based on King’s novel, ‘The Running Man’ sees criminals in the near future trying to escape death on Live TV. It’s the ultimate 80s movie with Schwarzenegger caught in a net, stripped of his Hawaiian shirt and thrown into an arena to take on various mad dog wrestlers with lethal ‘powers’ such as deadly ice hockey or the ability to fire electricity bolts and sing opera. Arnie dispatches them with the help of some incredible one-liners – why did those have to go out of fashion? ‘The Running Man’ is also a commentary on voyeuristic TV, which becomes ever more accurate with every passing year.
9. Secret Window
A personal preference, ‘Secret Window’ is essentially a Johnny Depp one man show, and there’s no one more entertaining to spend time with. It’s the perfect movie if you’ve ever sat down to write a screenplay or a novel, it nails what the process is like and presents the lifestyle I’d personally love to live (‘near total isolation’ – check). Maybe without the murders. John Turturro turns up on Depp’s door accusing him of plagiarism and it leads to his life unraveling. The twist at the end is a bit old, but it’s still fun to see it play out.
8. The Green Mile
A great movie that would have stood taller were it not overshadowed by other Stephen King prison drama ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. ‘The Green Mile’ is strong character work mixed with gruesome executions. Never has a sponge looked more sinister. It’s also quite a depressing exercise as it essentially involves a series of nice people being put to death:
7. The Dead Zone
David Cronenberg + Stephen King + Christopher Walken. Now that’s a formula. Walken is at his unpredictable-nervous-tick best in this story of a schoolteacher who awakens from a coma to find he has psychic powers. He can see anyone’s past, present and future with just a touch – so the tormented Walken sets out to assassinate Martin Sheen before he can become a dangerous U.S. President. In the end he only delayed it until ‘The West Wing’.
6. Carrie
While not a particular favourite of mine, ‘Carrie’ was the first Stephen King novel to be published, the first to be adapted into a feature film, and it opened to much critical acclaim. Sissy Spacek plays the socially outcast girl who discovers her telekinetic powers after going through puberty. When the teasing from her peers, including John Travolta, gets too much she snaps and goes on a murderous rampage. Personally if I was the prankster at her prom I wouldn’t have chosen a bucket of blood, it’s low on laughs. A good wedgie would have done it.
5. IT
TV mini-series technically, but the production values are up there with most theatrical releases anyway. Tim Curry may be a cheeseball now but he gives an amazingly dark and haunting performance as Pennywise The Clown, a demon tormenting a set of children. Stephen King’s work often focuses on a group of kids and then jumps those characters into adulthood to have them revisit their roots – ‘It’ proves what a powerful and poignant story telling device that can be.
4. Stand By Me
The ultimate coming of age film, that taps into everything a boy wants a boy’s adventure to be all about. Richard Dreyfuss is the writer recalling the time in his childhood he and his three friends set off to find a body, in the hopes it would make them famous. I myself once found a dead body with my siblings and it set off a day of adventure, that included us hiding from a police boat, ‘Stand By Me’ makes that day seem much more innocent and nostalgic than it might otherwise have appeared.
3. Misery
What makes Kathy Bates so frightening in this movie is that we’ve all met someone who’s kinda like her – a fanatical personality with no sense of humour, no love in her life and an unbreakable moral code that’s not firmly attached to reality – the horror feels quite plausible. Let’s hope Stephanie Meyer never takes a tumble in her car and needs rescuing. Kathy Bates won an Oscar and James Caan gives arguably the best performance of his career too, especially considering he can’t tell her what he’s really thinking and so has to communicate it to us through other nuances.
2. The Shawshank Redemption
Flip a coin between this and the number 1 for the top spot. Comparing the two movies is like chalk and cheese anyway, they are both top of their respective genres. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ has been voted the best movie ever made on IMDB and it’s hard to argue with that, but I just did. The wiser Morgan Freeman seems, the better the movie, and here’s he is at 100% wisdom. An amazing story of hope and triumph against the system, this feels like it could have been made in 40s, 50s, 60s, it’s timeless cinema at its very best.
1. The Shining
Ok, so Kubrick did alter it a great deal from the book (so much so that King himself hated the film) but the core elements remained. Arguably the most frightening horror movie ever made, ‘The Shining’ remains just as powerful today because of how unique it is. Kubrick’s visual style is so distinctive that other horror directors don’t seem to want to go near it and the incredibly effective techniques have rarely, if ever, been imitated. It was as if Kubrick invented a whole new, brilliant language for horror cinema that no one picked up on. That’s what leaves ‘The Shining’ a cut above every other film here.
Honourable Mentions
The Mist, 1408, Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary, The Stand, Children Of The Corn, Storm Of The Century
Which do you think are the best Stephen King movies? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Where is The Mist on this list????
The Mist is in Honourable Mentions. It nearly made it. I think it divides people a bit. The Stand could easily have been on here too, there are a lot of great movies to choose from.
Sorry, I’m retarded!
I loved the Shawshank Redemption but it is the story and actors that makes it so good, whereas the Shining is the more original movie (even though I didn’t like it as much) so I think I would have to agree with you. -1 for the Mist, a big load of rubbish, glad it was kept off the list.
It was definitely one of the scariest films of my childhood and I daren’t watch it again because I think it may have lost its edge slightly in these modern times. When will kids learn not to talk to clowns down drains 🙂
Best Stephen King movies ? What about Christine and Maximum Overdrive ?
Christine is one of my favorite movies. I also like Silver Bullet.
I felt that Christine was a little disappointing as a movie, although this scene is very cool –
Maximum Overdrive is great fun to watch, but I’d say it’s one of those so-bad-it’s-entertaining films.
I saw It when I was probably around 12 and it terrified me, now I cant watch it, its just way too boring. I had no idea the clown was Tim Curry though! I dont think i’ve seen him in anything good since Rocky Horror… I should probably pick up a copy of It this week and give it another chance.
Annie, Legend, Clue, Hunt for Red October, Loaded Weapon, Three Musketeers, Congo, and so many voice parts in animated films and series that it would make Mel Blanc weep.
Tim Curry is not just Dr. Frankenfurter, and actually tries very hard to distance himself from that role.
Only five of these are actually good movies. That’s really depressing.
That Would Be
– The Dead Zone
– It
– Carrie
– Secret Window
– Stand By Me.
am I Right?
Misery has to be one of the scariest ones in the list, being so true to life if nothing else, its one of few that i could actually imagine myself in that scenario. i have to agree though, the shining deserves top place on the list, its one of the scariest movies of all time, and its a nice change from the shawshank redemption always coming out on top.
What about Christine?
Seriously? You put Children Of The Corn on the honorable mention when it would better be suited for 8th, 9th, or 10th.
Secret should have placed higher 🙁
children of the corn is really really really really good :)i love stephen king books 🙂
Children of the corn should of made the list.
Wow, “Shawshank” was voted “best movie evar” by those wise and sage people who frequent IMDB? That MUST make it so. Clearly, a Grade-D prison movie that features such unique and ground-breaking concepts as “all prisoners are innocent” and “all policemen are scum”, not to mention the surprising, never-seen-it-before-or-since plot twist of “all Christians are Evil” surely MUST be the best movie of all time. Lord knows that until I saw “Shawshank”, I was totally unaware of the fact that rapists and murderers absolutely love Opera music. Yup, “Shawshank” is clearly superior to, say, “Casablanca” and “The Godfather” and “The Dark Knight” and “Citizen Kane”.
It couldn’t possibly be that the dorks who inhabit IMDB are a bunch of insecure children that have only picked “Shawshank” as their “favorite movie” because they lack the maturity, intelligence, and individuality to pick a “best movie” based on merit. Nope, I’m absolutely CERTAIN that they don’t all vote for it merely to stroke each other’s fragile egos.
Your comment is ridiculous. It makes me laugh at how ignorant you are lol. I love how you put the dark knight as one of the best movies of all time. Good movie, but really come on. Shawshanks a good movie your probably the first person I’ve heard say otherwise. You need to calm down.
On a side note I’d have to agree with Stephen King differences between the book and the movie ruined the Shinning for me. Still thought it was a good movie, but not on the same level as the book.
Hi Maven. I bet you have slightly above average intelligence, but think that you´re a genius. You seem like that type of person.
What about Hearts in Atlantis?
Wow,Maven. What a smug asshole you are. It must really upset you to know everyone doesn’t share your obviously superior tastes in movies, being the intellectual giant you are. The Dark Knight one of the greatest movies of all time? Outside of Heath Ledger’s performance it was crap. But that’s just my OPINION,just as your views on Shawshank are an OPINION. Get your head out of your ass, you pseudo-intellectual dickhead.
Love that you put the stand in honorable mention, as a movie, I would have loved it, if I hadn’t read the uncut version of the book before seeing it. In my mind, that book will always be King’s best work. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Cell was pretty good too, I’d like to see that in movie form *if* they do it right.
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