Best King-based Movie?

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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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It's hard to get them down to one or just a couple. I like so many of them.

Carrie (1976 version), Salem's Lot (1979 version), The Shining (1980 version), Creepshow, The Dead Zone, Cujo, Stand by Me, Pet Sematary, Misery, Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile, 1408.

I really hope the new It will be good. I always wanted to see that as a theatrical movie. There's something about a lot of the tv-movies, where I feel the format of tv doesn't fully work for the material. Tv has a certain more superficial feel to it than movies, somehow the tv-films and series are more 'flat'. There are positive exceptions, like Salem's Lot (1979), the only one I fully love. But even with the best of them like It or The Stand I feel somehow they could have been more.
I suppose it's also to do with the rhythm and editing of tv-movies: they have a certain predictable rhythm to them which is not the case with theatrical movies. And I think they have to hold back more on the shocks and gory effects. Also I think the acting in tv isn't always that great (although it has to be said a lot has changed in tv nowadays for the better).
That said, I DO enjoy most of them, but I think even the best are not quite as good as the best theatrical ones. I thought 11/22/63 was a very positive exception too.
 
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Zone D Dad

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Apr 17, 2017
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For best, in no particular order: Carrie (Brian DePalma), The Dead Zone, The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, 'Salem's Lot - 1979 (if that counts being a mini-series), The Green Mile, Misery, Stand By Me.

I've said before that Apt Pupil is a great adaptation, it's just such a disturbing story that I tend to overlook it.
 

johntfs

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Nov 18, 2008
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One of the weirdest things for me is how the best King movies either diverge greatly from his vision (The Shining) or are not actually horror-based (Stand By Me, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption). I will give significant honorable mention to The Mist movie because damn, that ending was brutal as Hell. I admit to not being a huge fan of The Green Mile because the only time I've enjoyed the "magic Negro" was in Candyman. Because his magic was teleporting behind stupid people and gutting them with a bigass hook.

For the record, which I'm not a fan of Maximum Overdrive/Trucks, I hold to the belief that the Cars/Planes movies are distant sequels to it. I kept hoping we'd get a Cars/Boats(Submarines) movie where the characters would have to race to Bone Mountain, ie the mountain made from the bones of humanity after the vehicle rebelled and murdered us all.
 

Steffen

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Aug 9, 2015
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The two best (for me) listed below, the rest in no particular order.

1. Stand By Me
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. The Mist
4. Misery
5. Creepshow
6. The Green Mile
7. 1408
8. Carrie (1976)
9. The Stand
10. Storm of the Century

Notable mentions:

The Dark Half
Salem's Lot
Dolores Claiborne
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
 

ghost19

"Have I run too far to get home?"
Sep 25, 2011
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I like Maximum Overdrive and Trucks too. I have no idea why, I just like them. Do you know why you like them?
Saw it when I was a kid, just loved the AC/DC soundtrack and thought the plot was cool. I'd already read Night Shift, which is where I read "Trucks" and saw that the movie was based on the story. At that time in my life, anything that remotely had to do with Stephen King got my immediate and full attention. I was also a fan of Emilio Estevez so all in all, I very much liked the movie when I first saw it and still do.:)
 
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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Saw it when I was a kid, just loved the AC/DC soundtrack and thought the plot was cool. I'd already read Night Shift, which is where I read "Trucks" and saw that the movie was based on the story. At that time in my life, anything that remotely had to do with Stephen King got my immediate and full attention. I was also a fan of Emilio Estevez so all in all, I very much liked the movie when I first saw it and still do.:)
...hell, the SK cameo was worth the price of admission!.....
 
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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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Carrie, Salem's Lot (Tobe Hooper, technically it's tv, but it's played in theatres too), The Shining, The Dead Zone, Creepshow (I don't think it's quite as good as the others, but I really like the visual style), Stand by Me, Pet Sematary (along with the Rob Reiner films I would say this is closest in tone to a SK book), Misery, 1408.

Honorable mention to Dolores Claiborne. I like The Green Mile and Shawshank too, but I'm mostly a horror/thriller fan, so clearly not as much as the others.
 
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Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
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One of the weirdest things for me is how the best King movies either diverge greatly from his vision (The Shining) or are not actually horror-based (Stand By Me, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption).

That's not always true, think of Carrie, Misery and 1408, which no-one would dispute are great films.

(Just saw I had already answered this thread. I was reading a reply I very much agreed with and realised it was my own...)
 

Gerald

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Sep 8, 2011
2,201
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The Netherlands
Actually, if I had to pick just one, it would be Carrie. That's about as perfect as a novel-to-film adaptation can get. Along with Scarface or Dressed to Kill, it's really De Palma at his best. The cast, cinematography, editing, music - everything is great about it. Also, since it's a short novel (by King's standards), that meant not a lot from it was lost. I would have liked to see the scene where Carrie goes into a church after she leaves the dance and makes everything inside move and fly around. But I think that might have been too expensive on the budget they had and perhaps it may have given the movie too many climaxes: Carrie wreaking havoc at the dance is a climax, confronting Billy and Chris in their car is one, the scene with her mother when she comes home, the dreamsequence at the end. It seems to have more climaxes than most films already.

It's too bad De Palma never did another King adaptation, although the subject of supernatural powers still interested him enough to make The Fury next, which isn't quite as good as Carrie, but still an interesting film, imo.
 
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Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
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Apr 11, 2006
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Actually, if I had to pick just one, it would be Carrie. That's about as perfect as a novel-to-film adaptation can get. Along with Scarface or Dressed to Kill, it's really De Palma at his best. The cast, cinematography, editing, music - everything is great about it. Also, since it's a short novel (by King's standards), that meant not a lot from it was lost. I would have liked to see the scene where Carrie goes into a church after she leaves the dance and makes everything inside move and fly around. But I think that might have been too expensive on the budget they had and perhaps it may have given the movie too many climaxes: Carrie wreaking havoc at the dance is a climax, confronting Billy and Chris in their car is one, the scene with her mother when she comes home, the dreamsequence at the end. It seems to have more climaxes than most films already.

It's too bad De Palma never did another King adaptation, although the subject of supernatural powers still interested him enough to make The Fury next, which isn't quite as good as Carrie, but still an interesting film, imo.
All 3 Carrie adaptations are good, I think. Different, but good.
 
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