What's happened to Stephen King's movies?
 

What has happened to movies based off Stephen King's work? Has Stephen King's writing become sub-par or is it the people who turn them into movies?

I think it's both. The movies aren't being made by good directors, and the stories themselves are a little silly and/or predictable.

King's writing is pure brilliance compared to most of the shit that's been made from it. The Mist was damned good though, I thought.

..really?

If you ask me - or pretty much anyone else around here - The Mist was easily one of the best SK adaptions ever made.

Nothing has happened to Stephen King's movies. The last 2-3 adaptations have been more than faithful to the core material, and have been kickass at the same time.

You might need to see a shrink, who deals in movie-watching disorders.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. And for clarification, I'm talking mainly about the movies and not the books. The movies I find are just ridiculous. The only one I have liked recently was 1408, and even that was a little, blah. Don't get me wrong, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Stand By Me, etc... are great films, it's the more recent ones that got me thinking this. Films like Dreamcatcher and The Mist.

Yeh, I'd agree with you there dude. His earlier work is a lot better than the shit he churns out these days. He hasn't got guys like Carpenter, De Palma or Romero directing/adapting his work. The Mist was great but its been a long time since a SK adaption has kick my ass.

A lot of it comes down to aesthetics too. The majority of the later adaptions have been made for TV.

I still watch and enjoy most of 'em anyways and I'd rather watch an adaption of his later stuff than reading his books.

I thought 1408 was really average. It was like The Shining-lite

Yeah, but there were a couple of moments that had me going. More than the others.

It did start off well for sure and had some creepy moments but just burnt out towards the end for me.

You liked 1408, but didn't like The Mist?

...to each their own, I guess.:confused:

I heard that..... :cool:
1408 should have been much better with actors like Cusack and Sam L. ....but it was just painfully dull with bad direction.
Unlike The Mist which was a shot in the arm for Stephen King film adaptations.

The only competition The Mist has with any other stephen king movies is The Shining. I liked 1408 too...

If I had a top 5

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. The Shining
3. The Mist
4. Pet Semetery (even though the book KILLS it)
5. 1408

most stephen king movies are really bad, Pet Semetery and 1408 aren't even that amazing but they get on there anyway.

Really? I'd have Carrie in my top five for sure...

it was in my original 5, but I haven't seen it in forever and forget a lot of it.

Same as mine, almost, mine is more like this:

1. The Shining
2. The Mist
3. Pet Semetery
4. 1408
5. The Shawshank Redemption

Not only Carrie but Misery, Delores Clairborne and The Green Mile... oh wait- I guess I have a completely different top 5- with the exception of The Shining.

You should check it out again, better than 1408 I thought. Then again, so was The Dead Zone and The Green Mile... but that's all a matter of opinion. :)

Misery... almost forgot about that one.

Shawshank
The Mist
Misery
The Dead Zone
&
Carrie

would probably be my five (not in order).

The Dead zone was bad :p

Misery could easily replace 1408 in my list though, misery or carrie. I DID like 1408 though

I didn't forget that one... that one holds a special place in my heart....see I have this fear/disgust towards breaking ankles... so the infamous sledgehammer scene sets that movie apart from the others for me. By the way, I normally hate when they don't stick to the material from which the movies are made(which is why I hate Wanted) but I found the whole ankle thing much much more disturbing.

Just like Shaft...

Did you just call Frank Darabont a bad director?

If Frank Darabont wrote the screenplay and directed Pet Semetery it would be in the same league as The Shining

I don't think 1408 should be in anybody's top 5 list.

What about Stand By Me one of the greatest films adapted from his work.

Stand by me is a great movie, its just not in my top 5 SK movies. And also, these are personal top 5's so, you may not think that they deserve to be there, but others might.

...am I the only one that hated every second of 1408?

Sad excuse for a movie. Just a 90 minute excuse to show off a bunch of big, crazy set pieces and worn out plot devices. Cusack is capable of and deserves far better...admittedly, he seemed to be having fun, but it wasn't hard to tell that he was just there for the paycheck.

You are so right Psycom. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. Thanks for catching that for me.:D

I'm not a big fan of the guy. I can't stand The Shawshank Redemption it's such a bubblegum prison flick. Ghosts... of the Civil Dead and Midnight Express kill that shit.

My favorite SK adaptions:

1. Christine
2. The Dark Half
3. Carrie
4. Misery
5. Silver Bullet

Stand By Me and The Shining dope for sure. Really like Pet Sematary too and I'm one of the few cats that dig Maximum Overdrive.

It and Salem's Lot were the best of the made for TV stuff.

I personally, have hated, almost every single SK film I've seen.

IT sucked. It was slow, boring and nowhere near as scary as everyone says.

1408, while not a horrible movie, was just dull and boring.

Misery was interesting, but not something I'll watch again, anytime soon.

The Shining...Ugh...I hated this one. I only watched about 40 minutes of it and fell asleep.

The only two SK films I have seen, that I enjoyed at all, are, The Green Mile and Stand By Me.

Ha who thought It was scary? Maybe if you were 8 years old or something.

Watch Christine its great fun!

I liked Secret Window even though most people hated it. I actually preferred the movie to the story for a change. But then again I'm a sucker for Johnny Depp.

I was eight when I saw it, and it scared the shit out of me so much that I couldn't finish watching it. I went about two years afraid to take baths. I was in and out like a flash so that Pennywise wouldn't get me. That was until one summer I decided to rent It and I watched the whole thing only to be disappointed by the ending. It is that kind of shit that turns me off to SK.

My point is that Stephen King movies are really bad for the most part.

I saw "The Mist" not so long ago, i liked it. Even though the idea of the army tapping into another dimension seemed really far fetched. 1408 was ok, but it wasn't great.

favourites in no order

The Stand
Misery
Christine
the shining
Maximum Overdrive
Needful things
The Mist

I can't really remember any others at the moment

Totally, especially the made for T.V. movies....with the exception of It...because Pennywise was a creepy fucker.

Movies based on SK's works are fairly enjoyable to watch. Plenty of em, like the TV movies, are below par effects-wise and performance-wise.

I d say The Mist is pretty much up there alongwith the best of SK's works onscreen...second only to The Shawshank Redemption and The Shining, the latter not being SK's exact version, but rather a filtered SK idea which Stanley Kubrick made his own.

My own choices (in no exact order) for recommended viewing based on SK's works would be :

• Christine,
• The Shawshank Redemption,
• Carrie,
• The Dead Zone,
• Silver Bullet,
• Stand by Me,
• The Running Man,
• Pet Sematary,
• Misery,
• Storm of the Century,
• The Shining, (both Kubrick's and Garris's versions)
• The Green Mile, and
• The Mist.

The ones which I thought were decent enough to be worth a watch:

• 1408,
• It,
• Children of the Corn,
• Thinner,
• Needful Things,
• Dolores Claiborne, and
• Creepshow.

All the rest are skippable.

Unlike some, I don't regard Salem's Lot (original and remake) too highly (I thought it was pretty boring actually),
Cujo which wasn't the least bit scary,
Firestarter was totally forgettable,
Cat's Eye was yawn-inducing,
Maximum Overdive was so bad it isn't even funny,
The Lawnmower Man was eminently disappointing,
Graveyard Shift sucked,
Sometimes They Come Back was another sore disappointment,
The Tommyknockers was absurd,
The Dark Half could have been SO much better but wasn't,
The Stand was a big pathetic attempt,
The Mangler held so much potential but missed the mark,
Quicksilver Highway sucked with a capital S,
and so did Riding the Bullet.


And don't even get me started on The Night Flier, The Langoliers, Hearts in Atlantis, Rose Red and The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer.

If I missed any others, they would be either A) not watched by me yet, or B) too sucky for me to even bother to remember right now.

Almost everyone I talk to. It's pathetic. Not to mention, everyone that's watched it, now has coulrophobia.

that would be my list.

For the most part, I agree with you, accept for a few, I liked Hearts in Atlantis, and The Dark Half. Thats just me though, and obviously besides the ones in my top 5, the others you are pretty much dead on.

I totally forgot about Creepshow, fuckin' killer flick. Awesome on so many levels and one of the few films that capture what horror's all about.

Aw, forget it.