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HorrorDaily's Five Best Stephen King Film Adaptations

Stephen King is a household name, everyone from your grandmother, to your child

knows who he is. King's the guy who's books gave us nightmares growing up, and influenced millions of people to take a walk on the dark de.

I have fond memories of reading 'It' by the light of the stars when I should have been sleeping, but with a book like 'it', what eight year old is going to be sleeping after?I also have fond memories of going to Blockbuster ( for the younger readers out there, we use to go to a Blockbuster in order to rent VHS, and DVDS), and trying to convince my parents to let me bring home Pet Semetary. When I was older, and they finally let me, a love for films based on King's writing grew and grew, and too this day, I love the films the man has brought to us. So I thought, how about I talk about my favorite five film adaptations.

While the man's mini-series are almost arguably better, I wanted to limit the material to just the films.

5. 1408

1408 is the tale of Mike Enslin(John Cusack), an author who writes about haunted buildings, while not believing in ghosts himself, and his stay in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. Over the course of what must be the longest night known to man, Mike learns that sometimes ghosts are real, and some times you should believe the warnings you hear. 1408 captures a great feeling of isolation, and hopelessness that will stick with you long after the movies finished.

4. Misery

Kathy Bates performance as one-screw-lose Annie Wilkes, is by far, the best performance in any of the films on this list, as the woman is the ngular most terrifying reason this movie works. Without Annie Wilkes finding Paul Sheldon, author of her favorite series of novels, in a car crash in the middle of a snow storm, and taking him in, to nurse back to health, her own special way, Misery would not be on this list right now. Thanks to Kathy Bates performance, Misery is able to build up a level of tenon that will have you grinding your teeth until the last frame.

3.

The Mist

Based on novella of the same name written twenty-seven years earlier, The Mist rolls into third place mply for it's ending. While the rest of the film is great, the characters decions make sense, and you generally care for them, the hell that is experienced at the end of the film is one that leaves an impact. Stephen King himself came out and said if he had thought of the ending in the film, it would of been in the novella. 2. Christine

Christine is the killer car movie to end all killer car movies. Directed by John Carpenter, Christine is the tale of a boy and his car, the boy in question being geeky Arnie, and the car being Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Christine has a mind of her own, and over the course of the film, really starts to charge Arnie from the nice boy he is at the beginning, to an total asshole. While the whole film looks great, the scenes in which Christine goes hunting, are both incredibly creepy, and odd at the same time, as it's a car stalking it's prey much the same way a certain masked man Carpenter helped invent does.1. The Shinning Was it any surprise to see Kubrick's The Shinning make the top of the list? Everything about the film, from the haunting locale of The Overlook hotel, to the chilling deterioration of

Jack Nicholson's character's mental state, to the creepy little kid, and the two dead girls, this movie is fucking terrifying. It's hard to believe Stephen King disliked this adaption, when just about everyone agrees, it's the best.

Not a bad list by any means, but howzabout a little Maximum Overdrive? That took a pretty good story and transformed it into an awesome work of beauty that remains my have King film.

That'd be number seven on my list, with Cujo being x.

Totally disagree on The Shining. It was a terrible adaptation of the novel. Nicholson goes in looking a little off kilter to begin with, I don't see any great "transformation" taking place. The novel was King's full length take on the idea of a place - a house, a town, or in this case hotel - as being inherently and unapologetically evil and the eventual effect it would have on the people who are unfortunate enough to cross it, a theme he'd touched on in previous novels. The father should be as much a victim of the place as the people he terrorizes and instead he's the full blown villain with the hotel taking a backseat.

As a standalone it is a good movie. The isolationist effect definitely gets the viewer's attention and the imagery - particularly of the twins and the blood in the elevators - is completely iconic now. But as an adaptation? No way. An adaptation should pay tribute to the work it is drawn from,

not slaughter it to tell a different story.

As for the others... well, it's so difficult to pick the "best"

and there are so many left out. I couldn't put together a list of great King adaptations without Stand By Me, even though it's not straight horror.

Oh god, how the hell did I forget Stand By Me!

THE LANGOLIERS!

Hell yeah The Mist!

Stand by me over 1408.

Yes, definitely The Mist. Thank you for including that. Misery is a great call.

Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption for sure.

Also I'd mention Running Man. And although I realize it was terribly abridged, I enjoyed Needful Things a lot.

I would definitly have included lver Bullet.

lver Bullet gave me nightmares as a kid and is the main reason I am a huge werewolf fan.

I totally agree with Christine, The Mist, Misery, and 1408 being on the list but I am one of the few who just didn't care for The Shining.

Great list.

Another incluon might have been Pet Semetary.

I definitely agree with these choices. Maybe not in the order their in, but I do agree with them. I actually really liked 'Salem's Lot' even though it was a 'made for T.V.' film.