{"id":25901,"date":"2017-08-01T10:26:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T14:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=25901"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:53:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T23:53:57","slug":"five-essential-stephen-king-movies-and-five-youre-better-off-avoiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/01\/five-essential-stephen-king-movies-and-five-youre-better-off-avoiding\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Essential Stephen King Movies, and Five You\u2019re Better Off Avoiding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s a pretty interesting time to be a Stephen King fan, as 2017\u2019s seen the emergence of King in almost all media. His works \u201cIt\u201d and \u201cThe Dark Tower\u201d are being adapted in to highly anticipated feature films, \u201cThe Mist\u201d has been turned in to a series for better or for worse, and Scream Factory are re-releasing \u201cMisery\u201d on blu-ray later in the year for fanatics. With \u201cThe Dark Tower\u201d coming to theaters very soon, I thought I\u2019d ring in the occasion by highlighting five stellar Stephen King movies, and five you\u2019re much better off avoiding.<\/p>\n

What are some King adapted movies you think are worth watching, and what are some you think should be avoided? Let me know in the comments!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>5. Stephen King\u2019s It (1990)
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s good to see where Stephen King movies were, once upon a time. Not only were his movies adapted in to television mini-series, they were events. \u201cIt\u201d from 1990 isn\u2019t a masterpiece, but it\u2019s managed to become a mainstay in the genre. That\u2019s mainly because of its strong performances by Jonathan Brandis, Emily Perkins, and Tim Curry, who plays the horrifying bogeyman known as Pennywise. The wheels fall off in part two, but otherwise, it\u2019s a solid adaptation.<\/p>\n

5. Sleepwalkers (1992)
\n<\/strong>Vampire cats. Alien<\/em><\/strong> vampire cats. Energy sucking<\/em><\/strong> alien vampire cats. Anthropomorphic Incestuous<\/em><\/strong> Energy sucking alien vampire cats. And cameos from Clive Barker, Stephen King, Joe Dante, Jon Landis, Ron Perlman, and Mark Hamil for some reason. Avoid.<\/p>\n

4. Carrie (1976)
\n<\/strong>Brian DePalma\u2019s tale about bullying and pure evil awakening to the hail of mocking and brutality is still about as relevant as ever. Even in spite of the film being made in the mid-seventies, a lot of the themes are still very evocative. There are also a slew of great performances from folks like John Travolta, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, and Sissy Spacek. It also garners a very iconic finale, where Carrie slaughters her entire school in one fell swoop using her newly acquired mental powers.<\/p>\n

4. Langoliers (1995)
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s a two part TV movie about people lost in another dimension on an airplane. They\u2019re stuck in an airport bereft of people, and they turn one another for some reason. There\u2019s unusual hallucinations, and badly computer animated monsters in the finale. It\u2019s\u2026 incoherent dribble. Avoid.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>3. The Shining (1980)
\n<\/strong>Stephen King has spoken against Stanley Kubrick\u2019s adaptation of his novel time and time again. Every film fan knows that King adamantly despises the way Kubrick transferred his novel to film, but there\u2019s also no denying \u201cThe Shining\u201d is still an iconic horror film in its own right. With amazing performances from folks like Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, \u201cThe Shining\u201d is a mystifying, and compelling horror tale.<\/p>\n

3. Tommyknockers (1993)
\n<\/strong>There are Aliens, there\u2019s a small town filled with a lot of obnoxious and dysfunctional people, the aliens feed on the people\u2019s darker desires, and there\u2019s a ton of hammy acting, forced drama, and really awful special effects. With two parts total, this adaptation has some good ideas, but is a fairly middling film. Avoid.<\/p>\n

2. The Shining (1997)
\n<\/strong>The three part adaptation of King\u2019s novel is intended to be so much more loyal to the source material, and while it\u2019s not the worst movie ever made, it does waste an awful lot of time on some fairly ineffective material meant to scare. Stephen Weber, and Rebecca DeMornay are fine, but the movie plods along, while Courtland Mead is just terrible as Danny. It\u2019s only worth watching if you\u2019re a King completionist. Avoid… maybe.<\/p>\n

2. Misery (1990)
\n<\/strong>Inspired by King feeling held prisoner by his fans only accepting his horror work and openly rejecting his efforts to write fantasy and drama, \u201cMisery\u201d is a stellar horror drama about a superstar writer held hostage by a rabid fan who insists he write for her, and complete the book in the exact manner she wants it. The film by Rob Reiner garners a host of memorable moments including character Paul getting his ankles hobbled, and villain Annie refusing to accept a plot hole in a Paul\u2019s book. It\u2019s a gem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>1. Dreamcatcher (2003)
\n<\/strong>Lawrence Kasdan effectively wastes a banner cast of excellent actors in a movie so bad it feels like someone actively trying to imitate the tropes of Stephen King\u2019s typical stories. There are aliens, and a virus in a small town and quirky characters that re-unite after a tortured childhood, a disabled character used as a magical plot device, and alien poop monsters. Not to mention Morgan Freeman offers up a rare god awful performance. This is a baffling, nonsensical waste of time. Avoid at all costs.<\/p>\n

1. Stand By Me (1986)
\n<\/strong>Based on the novella by King known as \u201cThe Body,\u201d the Rob Reiner directed drama is a brilliant and heartbreaking coming of age story about four boys who travel across their country to see a dead body. During their journeys, they experience all kinds of unusual incidents, including a confrontation with junkyard owner, and a hilarious encounter with leeches. Starring Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O\u2019Connell and River Phoenix, \u201cStand By Me\u201d is just a richly acted, and engrossing drama with themes about grief, death, and the unpredictability and unfairness of life.<\/p>\n

Not Exactly a Stephen King Movie to Watch for the Hell of It
\n<\/strong>In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
\n<\/strong>John Carpenter\u2019s underrated 1994 horror thriller is a loving ode to both HP Lovecraft and Stephen King, as he sets the story on an insurance investigator who realizes popular author Sutter Cane\u2019s fans are suddenly becoming murderous, raving lunatics after he\u2019s gone missing. Seeking to figure out where the author went, and hoping to claim his latest manuscript, he travels to New Hampshire to find him, and is dropped in to a labyrinth of monsters, madness, and an insane exploration on existence and the power of the author. It\u2019s a dark, disturbing and brilliant horror film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a pretty interesting time to be a Stephen King fan, as 2017\u2019s seen the emergence of King in almost all media. His works \u201cIt\u201d and \u201cThe Dark Tower\u201d are being adapted in to highly anticipated feature films, \u201cThe Mist\u201d has been turned in to a series for better or for worse, and Scream Factory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,302,477,553,1760,982,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-25901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-list-junkies","tag-adaptation","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-john-carpenter","tag-rob-reiner","tag-stephen-king","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25933,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions\/25933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}