It's spooky season, and for many movie lovers, that means it's time to watch some horror. In the age of streaming, there are countless rabbit holes you can fall down when looking for the perfect horror movie to watch. From the endless sea of content on Netflix to the surprisingly solid offerings from free streaming sites like Tubito, it can all get a little overwhelming. We're here to help by narrowing things down a bit and offering suggestions based on the works of Stephen King, one of the greatest horror virtuosos of all time.
Beginning with 1976's Carrie, dozens of films based on King's work have been made over the years. Some of them were great, some not so great, and more than a few of them were downright terrible. There are, of course, masterpieces like The Shining that change regularly. But today we're here to offer some suggestions to watch beyond the super-obvious that will help enhance your Halloween season. Here are some of the best Stephen King movies to watch this year and why they're worth your time.
Christina
John Carpenter was nicknamed “The Master of Horror” for a reason. We're talking about the man who created “Halloween” and “The Thing” and many other classics. Only good things can happen when this man gets his hands on Stephen King's source material. Two masters of the genre merged into one. The result is 1983's “Christine,” which Carpenter directed only because he needed work. Still, the man did his job and did it well. The story of a killer car may have seemed absurdly stupid, but because Carpenter knows how to walk a fine line, the movie still did incredibly well. Will a movie about a car that kills people sometimes be frivolous? You assume. But Carpenter knew how to get the most out of the material.
“Christine” is a film that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the early 1980s and serves as a nice time capsule of non-slasher horror films from that era. Slasher films were so dominant at the time that it was easy to forget that there were many other things going on in the genre as well. It's not one of the most talked about King adaptations or one of the most talked about Carpenter films, but maybe it should be a little higher on both of those lists.
Silver Ball
For some reason, we don't see many great (or even good) werewolf movies anymore. Hollywood is more content chasing ghosts, vampires and masked killers. There are classics like “The Wolf Man” and “An American Werewolf in London” that are worth revisiting, but one that often gets left out of conversations is 1985's “Silver Bullet.” It could be argued that directed by Paul Naschy and based on King's The Werewolf Cycle is one of the more underrated werewolf films ever made.
The film depicts a werewolf stalking a small town, and only a young kid in a wheelchair (Corey Haim) wants to know the truth. With the help of the black sheep's uncle (Gary Busey), they set out to find and destroy the monster. While it wouldn't be right to say that The Silver Bullet is a total masterpiece, it's also fair to say that it's better than its reputation suggests. Both as an adaptation of King and part of the canon of werewolf films, it is worth a second – or perhaps first – look.
Misery
If this were a ranking of Stephen King films (which it isn't), leaving out 1990's Misery would be an absolute crime. There are times when adaptations of King's work differ significantly from the source material and have varying degrees of effectiveness. King became famous for hating Stanley Kubrick's The Shining even though it is widely considered a cold classic. But director Rob Reiner is incredibly faithful to what's on the page in his version of King's 1987 novel of the same name, while making seemingly every right decision to make sure the story resonates on the silver screen. The resulting film is a concise, suspenseful and suspenseful thriller for years to come.
The plot centers on Paul Sheldon (James Caan), a novelist who is involved in a terrible car accident and is saved by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who is his biggest fan. A former nurse takes care of him in her remote home, but things take a different turn when she learns that the author plans to kill off his iconic character, Misery Chastain, in his latest book.
It is a film without a moment of lull, which evokes tension and fear in the viewer each time it is watched. There's a reason for that. “Misery” is the only film based on King's work to win an Oscar, and Bates took home the best actress award for her role. Along with films like The Shawshank Redemption and another film we'll discuss in a moment, this is one of the greatest adaptations of King's work ever put to the screen.
This
When you say the name Stephen King, there's a damn good chance that for a large number of people, the first thing that comes to mind is Pennywise the Clown. That's because the author's 1986 novel “It” remains, almost 40 years later, arguably his most acclaimed work. In 2017, director Andy Muschietti adapted this work to the screen in a way that appealed to audiences like no horror film before. This isn't hyperbole either, as “It” remains the highest-grossing horror film of all time. More than just a film that came at the right place and time, “It” deserves praise.
Muschietti decided to split King's powerful novel into two parts, with the first entry focusing on the Losers' Club, who in their youth had a rivalry with Pennywis, brilliantly played by Bill Skarsgård. The resulting film is dripping with '80s nostalgia, which isn't just there for nostalgia's sake, but actually serves the story. It's a movie that looks great, has amazing scares, amazing production values, and is perfectly cast from top to bottom. It is as close to perfect as genre cinema of this scale allows.
For what it's worth, even though “It's Chapter Two” didn't quite achieve the same height as its predecessor, I'd like to do a double feature here to get the full story. In this writer's humble opinion, the second “It” movie is better than its reputation suggests. Watched together, the two films are one hell of an impressive take on the King classic.
Dead Zone
Although not as scary as, for example, a killer clown who eats children Directed by David Cronenberg, The Dead Zone is probably the most unfairly overlooked Stephen King adaptation ever. Coming from a true master of the genre with one of Chistiopher Walken's best performances, there has never been a better excuse to watch this harrowing tale of a man whose life is torn to shreds by a tragic car accident, which resurfaces with extraordinary force five years later. he doesn't want to – which gives him a responsibility he can't ignore.
The film centers on Johnny Smith (Walken), a teacher who, after waking up from a coma, discovers that he can predict people's futures. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after shaking hands with an ambitious and amoral politician, he is forced to decide whether he should take drastic action to change the future. It is a slow, twisted story about serial killers, subsequent dilemmas, tragic love and terrible political overtones. “The Kingcast” co-host Eric Vespe called “The Dead Zone” an “overlooked masterpiece” while writing for /Film in 2021. This has to count for something.
I recently re-watched this movie for the first time since I was a teenager and was blown away by it. While “The Dead Zone” is available for streaming, for physical media collectors I cannot recommend Scream Factory 4K enough, which you can download on Amazon. It really looks like a new movie and is packed with special features. Regardless of how we choose to watch it, this is a must-see for King fans and horror fans in general.
