Best Stephen King movie/tv show adaptations

[Calibandar]

Came across this list and because do like the atmosphere in some of these Stephen King adaptations, a lot, I thought I'd see what else is out there.

 

http://www.ifc.com/2015/08/the-definitive-ranking-of-stephen-king-movies

 

Which ones are your favorites?

Mine would be:

Top tier, the truly excellent

Shawshank, Green Mile

Second Tier : Good to very good

The Mist, Hearts in Atlantis, Storm of the Century, Stand by me

Third tier: Decent

Dreamcatcher, Big Driver, Misery

 

[Fez]

Shawshank Redemption has to be the top of the list I think. Its nearly a perfect movie. 

The Running Man is cheesy as hell, but its so much fun its probably my second favorite. I recognize its not the second best Stephen King adaptation though. That's probably either Stand By Me or The Green Mile I think.

I also really like Hearts in Atlantis and The Mist.

I don't much care for The Shining, Carrie, or Misery, but I recognize they are all very good. They just aren't my cup of tea.

The Langoliers is terrible, but I've got a soft spot for it.

 

[Lichen]

The original Salem's Lot by Tobe Hooper. Not only because. 

The remake was just godawful garbage.

 

[Nictarion]

Shawshank is the only one on that list that I actually own, so I guess it's probably my favorite. 

Some others that I really like: The Shining, Stand By Me, The Mist,  and Pet Sematary. Zelda from Pet Semetary probably scared me more than any other movie when I was a kid. Hell, that scene still makes my skin crawl. Not really a great movie though. 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

23 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

Shawshank is the only one on that list that I actually own, so I guess it's probably my favorite. 

Some others that I really like: The Shining, Stand By Me, The Mist,  and Pet Sematary. Zelda from Pet Semetary probably scared me more than any other movie when I was a kid. Hell, that scene still makes my skin crawl. Not really a great movie though. 

I think Pet Semetary is a very good Horror flick when you consider the timeframe. It came out in an era of slasher flicks (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St, etc) and was very different than the standard fare of the day. That movie also scared the living shit out of me when I was a kid. Good stuff, Maynard.

[Ramsay B.]

15 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

I think Pet Semetary is a very good Horror flick when you consider the timeframe. It came out in an era of slasher flicks (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St, etc) and was very different than the standard fare of the day. That movie also scared the living shit out of me when I was a kid. Good stuff, Maynard.

Zelda scared the living hell out of me when I was little. 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

The Running Man is cheesy as hell, but its so much fun its probably my second favorite. I recognize its not the second best Stephen King adaptation though. That's probably either Stand By Me or The Green Mile I think.

"You look pissed Ben, but you have every right to be." Yeah vastly different than the book, but I loved them both. Apparently Batfleck is trying to make this into an actual show.

 

Shawshank is probably the best King depiction, but I like King's supernatural stuff, and so that weighs my choices here...

 

First Tier: It, The Stand, Storm of the Century, The Dark Tower movies (in the future), Stand by Me.

Second Tier: Shawshank, Green Mile, Running Man, The Shining (the old version), Salem's Lot, Hearts in Atlantis.

Third Tier: Misery, Cujo, Pet Semetary.

[RumHam]

I assume you people talking about The Shining are talking about the movie, not the TV version? The movie is interesting and has some great visuals. I don't think it's a bad film. But it is an absolutely horrible adaption of that book. 

2 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Storm of the Century

Probably shouldn't count as it's not an adaptation. He just wrote it as a screenplay.

[williamjm]

I think Shawshank is definitely the best of the adaptations I've seen (but there are a lot I've not seen). Carrie and The Dead Zone (film) are probably the next best, although The Running Man is also fun as a cheesy 80s B-Movie.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

15 hours ago, RumHam said:

I assume you people talking about The Shining are talking about the movie, not the TV version? The movie is interesting and has some great visuals. I don't think it's a bad film. But it is an absolutely horrible adaption of that book. 

Probably shouldn't count as it's not an adaptation. He just wrote it as a screenplay.

I think Shining is my favourite of his adaptations because its such a slap in the face to King, and I tend to find him quite a horrible writer, so that makes me happy.

[Myshkin]

If it doesn't have this guy then it can't be the best King adaptation.

[Fiddler]

4 hours ago, Myshkin said:

If it doesn't have this guy then it can't be the best King adaptation.

He was fantastic, favorite part of that min series (I'm old enough to remember the Stand first coming out on TV over 4 nights).

While it is hard to argue Shawshank as the best adaptation, my favorite is The Green mile.  Tom Hanks and Micheal Clarke Duncan were great in that and I love the story.  It was the first introduction to Duncan and I found him to be a great actor in everything else I saw him in.  I will still bawl like a baby at that move.

[Guest]

Stand by Me - i remember going to see the film and only after it started did I realize it was based on a King short story I has read. Great film

[Richard Writhen]

It is the best, followed probably by The Mist and The Shawshank Redemption.

[Joe Pesci]

It, Shawshank, Stand by Me, The Shining, The Stand, and of course I enjoy the Running Man for its 80s bodaciousness.

 

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

I agree with the Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile but my favorite is The Running Man mainly because of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson, although I would love to see a more faithful adaptation. And I also really like Needful Things.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 I've got a relatively obscure one. The revamped Twilight Zone 1985-86 did an episode based on the Stephen King short story "Gramma" that was in the Skeleton Crew collection. Pretty damn solid for a twenty minute adaptation.

 

 

  

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

That would be good, Harlan Ellison wrote the episode. 

[The Anti-Targ]

Of the movies / TV shows I've seen I pretty much agree with most placings on the list, except:

'It' as a two part miniseries (IIRC) part one was sheer brilliance, fantastic portrayal of Pennywise by Tim Curry, part 2 was total crap. And unlike the person who compiled the list who thought the good far outweighed the bad, my disappointment at how the story wound up was so great that it v=overshadowed all the awesomeness of the first half, So it drops someone in the bottom half of the list for me.

The Green Mile is great. One of the criticisms given is that John Coffey is slow or dimwitted. That's actually not how I saw John Coffey. I saw him as a gentle giant, loving and caring of the good people in the world, fully knowing the injustice of his situation but resigned to the fact there's nothing he can possibly do about it, but staying true to his nature. my recollection of him is that just because he speaks slow doesn't mean he thinks simple and shallow.

I also like Langoliers probably a bit more than it deserved, and I think it deserves to be a wee bit higher on the list, but not too much higher.

[Weeping Sore]

I've always liked The Dead Zone with Christopher Walken. Carrie (the original Brian De Palma version, of course). I'm not sure why people don't like Misery, other than there were necessary cuts made to the book, which maybe King's most perfect work. Kubrick's The Shining is a great movie that doesn't worry itself about fidelity to the source material, much like his 2001 and to a lesser extent A Clockwork Orange.