Top 10 Best Stephen King Adaptations

Welcome to a special edition of "Movie Reviews..", where today, thanks in part to not having seen a good movie to review, I introduce my newest feature, the ol' Top 10 List. And what better way to kick this new segment off than with my favorite author, whose many novels and short stories have been optioned to film over the years, some meeting with critical and box office success, others not so much. Here we will celebrate what I feel are the ten best page to screen translations.

#10. The Dark Half. Directed by George Romero, from a screenplay also written by him, this stars Timothy Hutton in the dual role of Thad Beaumont/George Stark in a story of a writer (Beaumont) attempting to "kill off" his pseudonym (Stark), only to have the pseudonym come to life and try to bump him off. It's a nice, intense, cat & mouse game as Stark goes to lengths to track down Beaumont and his family and tries to assert himself as a real person. Really faithful to the source material, with exceptions to things that couldn't be shown on film that appear in the book, like one instance of graphic violence involving genitalia. Character actor Michael Rooker, usually seen as a bad guy, does a good turn as Sheriff Alan Pangborn, a semi-recurring character in King lore.

#9. Firestarter. After her starring role in "E.T.", Drew Barrymore was cast as Charlie McGee, King's little pyrokinetic. The story concerns Mcgee and her father, on the run from a covert government agency bent on capturing the two because of their psychic abilities: his to "Push" the minds and will of people, and hers, the destructive power of fire. Most of the book is on display here, the film keeps a good pace without losing too much of the material. Also on display are veteran actors George C. Scott as the scheming Rainbird, and Martin Sheen as Cap, the head of "The Shop". You can also find a pre-Tommy Lee Heather Locklear in the film.

#8. The Green Mile. Adapted by Frank Darabont for the screen (SPOILER: you'll see this name again), this is one of King's more melodramatic works, and that feeling is translated well to the screen. With only a hint of the supernatural, most don't know this as a King work (actually released as a series of novellas over a period of months), it deals with a group of prison guards working a stretch of Death Row in Depression-era Cold Mountain Penitentiary known as "The Green Mile" because of the flooring. Best performances in this epic film come from Michael Clarke Duncan as the gentle giant John Coffey, and Doug Hutchison as slime-ball prison guard Percy Wetmore, a villain so cruel, you can't wait for him to get his.

#7. Pet Sematary. One of his creepiest books was turned into a damn creepy movie as well, thanks mostly to the performance of young Miko Hughes as Gage Creed. The story is about the Creed family who move to a rural area in Maine that happens to have a busy highway running in front of it. The family cat gets killed by an eighteen wheeler while most of the family is out of town, so kindly neighbor Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne) takes Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) to the local "Pet Sematary" and the cat comes back to life, although not quite right, to the tune of having to kill it again. Eventually, Gage is killed in the same fashion, and Louis, sick with grief, takes his son to the Sematary, with predictable results. Very faithful to the novel.

#6. Misery. A pure psychological horror ride, this is one of King's earliest melodramas, without a hint of the supernatural. Kathy Bates turn as the psychotic Annie Wilkes earned her an Oscar award, and she remains one of the greatest villains on film. James Caan is perfectly cast as Paul Sheldon, where normally he would be the tough guy, here he is reduced to a helpless invalid at the mercy of a deranged killer. The stark, snowy setting of the film lends to the coldness of the killer, especially when she callously murders who you expect to be the saviour of the protagonist. This film also features one of the most brutal scenes of torture ever involving a block of wood.

#5. The Dead Zone. Featuring the always great Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith, "The Dead Zone" is another psychic themed story about a man who awakes from a five year coma with the ability to touch someone and see their past, present and future. Though the film only showcases a fraction of the book, it is a very accurate telling of that portion. Martin Sheen also appears in this film, but as a different character altogether than the one he plays in "Firestarter", here he is Presidential hopeful Greg Stillson, whom Johnny sees as eventually starting a nuclear war with Russia and decides it is his responsibility to stop him. Directed by David Cronenberg, also a heavyweight in the horror industry.

#4. Stand By Me. Rob Reiner makes another appearance on this list with his adaptation of the story "The Body" from the book "Different Seasons". Featuring a great young cast of actors-yet-to-be, this is also one of King's earlier melodramas without a horror undercurrent. It's just a coming of age story of four boys on a journey to see a dead body, and their happenings along the way, namely a race against a train, outrunning the neighborhood junkyard dog, and facing down the town bully in a test of wills. The boys learn more about each other than they ever knew and become stronger as friends for it. The late River Phoenix is here in his second role, and the one that put him on the map, and listen for Richard Dreyfuss as The Narrator.

#3. Creepshow. Not technically a direct book-to-movie port, (some segments were written specifically for the film), the two best segments were based on short stories: "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" ("Weeds") and "The Crate". King himself starred in the "Verrill" bit, about a dim-witted farmer who happens upon a crashed meteor that eventually turns him (and his entire house) into a rain forest. "The Crate", featuring veteran Hal Holbrook and the buxom Adrienne Barbeau, is about a crate containing a mysterious, carnivorous something. The rest of the stories are good, too, and feature a who's-who of Hollywood: namely Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, and Ed Harris before they became well known names. This also features the first time King and Romero worked together, and King's son Joe plays the kid in the vignettes between the stories.

 #2. The Shawshank Redemption. Adapted from the same collection as "The Body", "Shawshank" is a melodrama focusing on one man's 20 year journey through the prison system as a wrongly convicted man. Although met with critical success at its time of release, it didn't go over well with audiences until available on home viewing outlets, and has since gone on to cult status. This was Frank Darabont's first King adaptation, and is very faithful to the source material, with two glaring exceptions: the poster covering Andy's escape tunnel is Rita Hayworth, not Raquel Welch and Morgan Freeman's character Red is a white guy in the story. But only die-hard fans will note these exceptions, they don't detract from the movie. Also, one of the funniest scenes from the book was filmed, but cut from the movie.

#1. The Mist. Coming in as the best adaptation, "The Mist" is about a small community that gets overtaken by a mysterious mist after a big storm, and there are deadly things in the mist. But just as deadly are the townspeople who are confronted by something they can't explain or defend against and eventually start turning on one another, forming two camps in the supermarket they are holed up in: the religious zealots and the "down-to-earthers". Being that the source material is a short story, of course certain elements had to be added to lengthen the movie, but everything added actually fit, and where the story had an ambiguous and open end left to interpretation, the film version has one of the most shocking endings ever. All of the characters felt lifted straight from the pages and the actors picked to portray them were spot on. Marcia Gay Harden has you wanting the slap the shit out of her character every time she is on screen, and that is precisely how I felt about the character while I read the story. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, this is yet another Frank Darabont adaptation (told you that you'd see that name again), and it is his best. Clearly, he understands King's work and knows how to translate his words to the visual media. If I see Darabont's name attached to a King project, rest assured I will be there.