The recent slew of films based on Stephen King’s work spawned the idea of taking a closer look at the history of big screen adaptations of his work and how they’ve fared in the grand scheme of things.
I know there have been success stories in the past, but I’m also aware of some truly terrible films and TV shows that should’ve never seen the light of day.
So, why not start at the very beginning, and take a look at some of the most notable cinematic works that have been adapted from the source material of none other than Mr. King himself.
It all began with the very first Stephen King adaptation for the big screen in 1976 with the film Carrie, which is based on the novel of the same name and is directed by Brian De Palma.
Although not hailed as a masterpiece, the film was nominated for two Oscars for the performances by the lead and supporting actresses and has stood the test of time fairly well, and is still considered to be among the better King adaptations ever made.
And yet, it took four more years before the next adaptation would hit the theaters with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), starring Jack Nicholson. This is now widely considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest horror movies of all time, although it failed to garner any nominations at the Academy Awards.
It is not the last King adaptation to receive widespread praise, but it is the last for around a decade. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t put out more movies with King’s name attached to it – quite the opposite in fact.
The 1980s were filled with new movies like Cujo (1983), Christine (1983), and Pet Sematary (1989) that did not perhaps garner high critical praise but did manage to find an audience and make money regardless.
And those weren’t the only King adaptations that came out in that decade – there were 13 other films released as well, but pretty much all of them failed to stand out as anything extraordinary and that’s how thing would remain until 1990.
That year saw the release of Misery by Rob Reiner, starring Kathy Bates and James Caan who all three worked together to deliver the best King movie since The Shining a full decade earlier.
I only recently watched this film for the first time and was surprised by how well it held up, and Kathy Bates in particular came through with a performance so intense that it got her a well-deserved Oscar.
Interestingly enough it also became the first, and so far only, Stephen King adaptation to receive an Oscar. However, we wouldn’t have to wait long for another critically acclaimed King film, because the 1990s would prove to be a little different from the previous decade in that regard.
Only four years after the first win The Shawshank Redemption (1994), starring Morgan Freeman, came out and was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor in Leading Role. And although it did not actually win a single one of those it has become something of a classic film to say the least.
In fact, it currently holds the spot as the highest rated movie of all time on IMDb, a feat which I think more than makes up for all the snubs at the Oscars that year. But the 90s weren’t over yet and we still had one more great King movie to look forward to.
Which brings us to The Green Mile (1999) starring Tom Hanks, a film that was also nominated for a total of four Oscars, once again including Best Picture, and once again it had to settle for nominations only.
And that has more or less been it for critically acclaimed big screen adaptations for the time being, but the 2000s did bring with them three solid, although somewhat flawed, movies with Secret Window (2004), 1408 (2007), and The Mist (2007).
It has now been a decade since the last good Stephen King movie came out, but all of the sudden this year has so far brought with it no less than four new films, three of which have been fairly well received.
The new version of It (2017) in particular has been a great success by all accounts, however Gerald’s Game (2017) and 1922 (2017) were both very good films as well, so this year has by far been the best year for Stephen King fans in recent history.
That brings us up to date as far as film adaptations go, but what about TV adaptations? Well, that’s a far rockier road to go down as there has honestly never been a truly great TV show based on Stephen King’s work, and even decent ones have been extremely rare.
In fact prior to 2016 the only TV shows I would consider even decent were two mini-series from the 1990s – It (1990) and The Stand (1994) – and even those were deeply flawed and far from great.
Last year though we did get an adaptation of the novel 11/22/63 (2011) starring James Franco and I think this is the closest we’ve gotten to a good TV show based on King’s work for far, and even this one failed to impress me too much.
I must admit though that there is a new show out that I haven’t seen yet – Mr. Mercedes (2017) – based on King’s recent detective novels and from the few things I’ve heard it does look like it should at least be a notch above the previous TV adaptations.
It also stars the fantastic Brendan Gleeson, known from movies like In Bruges (2008), so I’m very much looking forward to watching this at some point. And who knows, maybe we even have the first genuinely good TV show based on King’s work on our hands – it certainly would be about time.
So, in conclusion, over the last 40 years Stephen King’s material has proven to be challenging to adapt into film and TV, but when done right it has also proven to be some of the best source material available.
I for one look forward to seeing what else future film makers can come up with when it comes to adapting Stephen Kind’s work, because there’s no shortage of material there, and considering the success stories, it’s material well worth exploring rather than exploiting.
Update:
I have since originally writing this watched Mr. Mercedes and while it is not perfect and even somewhat cheesy at times, it is a solid TV show and probably the best TV adaptation of any Stephen King work to date.
Matthew Hawthorne 