AH, I may have misunderstood the question. I was going from the standpoint of "best films from a King source" not "best adaptation from a King source" which is different.

I can't say I care really, King's ideas are good, his storytelling and writing skills are bad, so generally I would welcome an adaptation that diverts from the source! One of the reasons The Shining is so good is probably because Kubrick and his team just took the initial premise then improved (hugely) it for the medium of film.

[QUOTE=Gojirosan;86784]Kubrick's The Shining is the best. A masterpiece on many levels.
QUOTE]


It's a great movie but not so much a Stephen King adaptation as Kubrick's own take on it. I think it works because it doesn't use all the supernatural elements that are included in the book; the animated hedges for example. What works on page might not work on screen and Kubrick recognised this. The sense of isolation hasn't been matched on mainstream cinema (apart from Carpenter's The Thing).

My favourite SK books are the first four Dark Towers. I hope they're left alone.

For me its The Stand, although it looks dated now, it's just so epic, i must have seen it at least 10 times. non Mini-series king would have to either The Mist, or Shawshank...

Great poll - saw the multiple choice a lil too late, so I just checked Stand By Me - but in my book, it is the best, as it manages to capture the story and the feeling of it even better than the story itself...

Runner-ups in my book would be:

Carrie
Dead Zone
The Shining (but as stand-alone film, not as film from the book)
Misery

- I still cannot understand how all the love for The Mist comes together, I found it weak and the ending plain out sucked...

It just goes to show how different we all are. I enjoyed The Mist and that was down to the interplay between characters. The CGI is a bit ropey but I hear that it is a better watch in the B&W version.

As for the ending; one of the most nihilistic endings I've seen in what I'd consider a mainstream Hollywood movie. Darabont really took a chance with that. I think it worked very well and if it catches you in the wrong frame of mind, God help you.

Darabont is the main reason why I've got a good feeling for the upcoming Walking Dead TV series.

The Mist is possibly the best horror film i have seen in years!

My opinion on The Mist may change in the future but for now, my initial reaction was of disappointment. Mostly of how the FX looked. Spielberg and Winston set the bar pretty high with their work on Jurassic Park and it's been downhill ever since for CGI.

My favorite King adaptation is The Shawshank Redemption. That film is pristine. Frank took a perfect novella and made an even better movie. Couldn't have believed that was possible. When I first read Different Seasons back in 1982 I put that story on my short list (along with The Mist ironically) as stories I wanted to adapt to film if I got the chance one day.

I also love Misery and Stand By Me. Mick Garris deserves a lot of credit for what he did for his work on The Stand and The Shining. Kubrick's version is a great horror movie but as an adaptation, it basically fails. The TV movie follows the book and has a lot of great moments and fantastic music. The Stand is amazing but suffers from bad FX.

Love The Dead Zone, Cujo and Pet Sematary too.

I don't know where the Dark Tower series is in negotiations but I would love to see it show up as an HBO series where they don't have to worry about the MPAA or individual film length. They could probably do all 7 books in a couple seasons (10 episodes x 2 = 24 hours - 1st/last 2 hours each). Then, as King writes more, they can add seasons. This would be better than multiple features over probably a decade and 100's of millions of dollars in budgets.

The Stand does suffer from bad FX and it obviously hasn't aged well, but it's still an amazing feat of television story telling, Misery is a blast, Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes is just phenomenal. Couldn't stand Garris's The Shining though.

Storm Of the Century is an often over looked film, but it's actually one of the best King films.

Worst King FilM?

Dreamcatcher, utter shit(weasle)

Oh no!! Dreamcatcher is one of the better ones IMO, i loved it!

I thought it was more entertaining than the book.:shocked:

Creepshow
The Dead Zone (Cronenberg)
The Green Mile
Salem's Lot
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining (Kubrick)
Silver Bullet

The Dead Zone is right up there with the best of them.
Walken's sympathetic performance is fantastic.:nod:

Worst?

Sleepwalkers (though I still love its absurdity! And Clovis rules!)
Maximum Overdrive
It
Silver Bullet
That TV version of The Shining - actually laughably inept.

There are others I haven't even bothered to watch after the first few, tragic minutes.

It? Really? i think it's one of the better king adapts, yeah the giant spider looks silly but it's still a pretty creepy flick.

The first part of It is really good but it rapdily goes down hill during the second.

Stupid story, badly made, I thought. As Loops says, the first half is promising, but ultimately it's rubbish.

For me it's easier to lump the King adaptations into two categories: Films, and made-for-TV movies as it's sometimes harder (and more unfair) to compare a 2 hour big budget blockbuster with a 3 part televised serial with no budget and few big name or no-name actors.

That said there are a lot of the TV movie King's which I enjoy a lot more than some of the bigger budget, supposedly better made films.

My favourite film adaptation has probably got to be Kubrick's The Shining (I am a bit of a Kubrick junky, though). Jack Nicholson just provides a master-class in the psychotic, and the pace and tension that builds throughout the film is superb, meaning that it is one of my all-time favourite horror movies (even though it is not my favourite Stephen King story). Misery is very close behind though.

I know people have a lot of love for Carrie, too but for I didn't rate the film much at all to be honest, probably because I love the book so much (I first read it when I was 8, and must have read it about 20 times since).The film seemed to gloss over a lot of the more interesting points of the novel to me, and even though Sissy Spacek gives a great performance, I just didn't enjoy very much. The addition of the ‘shock’ ending, which is not present in the book, is an interesting addendum though.

Other King adapted films I’ve enjoyed include The Shawshank Redemption (probably one of the most faithful to the source material), Apt Pupil (although I thought book was much better), Stand By Me (based on his short story The Body), and Carpenter’s Christine.

Cronenberg's The Dead Zone is also worth a mention, as it is sometimes forgotten, and of course stars the great Christopher Walken. It's not the best King adaptation (and far from Cronenberg's best), but is enjoyable nonetheless.

Reading some of the posts above The Mist seems to be dividing opinion greatly. My take on it is that while some of the performances were very decent, I thought it dragged in places and is not a film I’d probably re-visit very often. I haven’t watched the black & white version yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so to see if it improves much on some of the dodgy CGI in the colourised version.

Also; and I know it seems to be almost universal hated, but I have to say that I quite enjoyed 1408. Sam Jackson and John Cusack are usually safe bets performance-wise, and the story was engaging so I did enjoy it (some iffy CGI aside). The alternate ending present in the DVD extras also put an interesting spin on things too.

As for the TV movies, Salem’s Lot and The Stand are probably my favourites, with Storm of the Century, The Tommyknockers, It, and Needful Things being very enjoyable too. The Stand is probably my favourite King novel, and I think the TV movie really does the book justice and captures the events perfectly. Salem’s Lot is also very well made and is easily my favourite Tobe Hooper film.

The worst King film? The Running Man in my opinion. Now, before you all “blow a fuse”, the reason why I dislike it so much is because of the source material involved. King (writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachmann) wrote The Running Man as a tense dystopian thriller, and it is a phenomenal story which I love to read over and over. When you compare it with the film of The Running Man it bares almost no comparison. The film is a brainless cheese-fest (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but watching it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth when considering the phenomenal piece of work it is ‘adapted’ from.

When considering King you can’t disregard the cult fave Creepshow though, which is always a Halloween favourite in my house (even though I may be the only one watching it!). There is something about Stephen King horror tales that seem very accessible, as I can remember watching many at a young age, and know a great many people who enjoy his work even though they’re not fond of horror films. Plus, as his influence is spread so far and wide through books, TV, and films, it’s almost impossible to avoid something that hasn’t been influenced by the man. A lesser-known stand-out for me was The X-Files episode Chinga about a possessed doll - great fun.

Blimey, haven't been on here for so long I feel I should post in the newbies section first :lol:

My selection, for what it's worth, would be :

1) The Shining (nothing can be added to what's already been said)
2) Misery (loved it so much I nearly purchased a Liberace CD)
3) The Mist (mainly because of the downbeat ending. Being a miserable git anyway, I do love a non-Hollywood ending). I think I prefer the b/w version too, being an old Universal junkie.
4) Shawshank. Cliched choice I know, but one of the first movies I upgraded on blu-ray. Actually, it's not really cliched at all... it is a fantastic piece of cinema.

Okay.... # 5 in my list..... I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose 99% of you here, but...

5) The Langoliers. Yep, you read it right. I loved the original novella, so instantly took to the tv adaption. Had it on VHS and then on dvd. I won't hold my breath for the blu-ray though :lol:

I have never seen the adaptation of The Langoliers, but the story itself was one of the few post-Christine (roughly the point where I think he started losing it, or I started losing interest in him*) Stephen King tales to have impressed me.


*Though having said that, the very worst Stephen King book I have ever read - indeed, one of the worst books I have ever read full stop - was The Gunslinger, which IIRC was written before the Christine/Pet Sematary junction.

Sorry Dark Tower fans, but that first book was just appalling. I have refused to read subsequent Dark Tower efforts as I suspect they would annoy me even more. Fantasy is a hard enough genre to write interestingly as it is, never mind trying to write it if you only have the skills of Stephen King!

I doubt you'll be alone in that opinion of the Langoliers, Gojirosan :lol:

But I think the reason I like it, is because I've always had a soft-spot for tales involving a small, select band of people, alone & against big odds (in this case time-eating bad CGI furballs). Don't get me wrong, I love the huge epic 'whole world uniting against outside invaders' type scenarios (ID4 being my cheesefastic favourite. And yes, I did upgrade to blu-ray!), but find the tales involving small groups much more interesting.

Mind you, Re the Langoliers, the blind girl did grate a bit :lol:

Personally I'd love to see an adaption of 'The Long Walk'. A Bachman novel, and well worth a read, especially if you're into the likes of 'Battle Royale' etc.

There was just something so tight and compelling about his writing style in The Langoliers that worked so very well - something I find lacking in most of his post-80s work.

Plus it's a cracking idea.

I've tried to see the mini-series but it's always seemed practically impossible to find.

It's easy to get. Still on R2 : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-King...7464979&sr=1-1

Haha! Thanks. I should point out that the last time I looked was pre-DVD! :lol:

ah the Langoliers, bad acting, CGI and a really annoying little girl, all these flaws but for some reason i absolutely love it.
There are some exceptions to the acting, David Morse as the Captain and Bronson Pinchot as Toomey are the best. Even Dean Stockwell is only playing a variation of his A.L character from Qantumn Leap but it's still a great entertaining 3 hour movie, the director managed to get the atmosphere of being the only people left, spot on.

I have The R2 dvd and an old VHS copy, an it's great.

I hated The Shining by Garris and his Desperation, but his adaptation of The Stand is my fave King 'TV film' so far.

My top three would be:
3] Stand by Me
2) Carrie
1) The Shining

I see MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE,SILVER BULLET and CAT'S EYE have been rereleased.

I like SILVER BULLET and CAT'S EYE.

Quitters Inc and The Ledge,both from his NIGHT SHIFT book are winners.:nod:

Quitters Inc,is actually not a bad business idea.
Could you see James Woods on Dragon's Den looking for investment? :lol:

Shawshank Redemption by a mile IMO. None of the others even come close.

I actually like The Langoliers as well. As usual, not as good as the story from Four Past Midnight. I also liked Golden Years.

I love Golden Years.

I need to pick up the Dutch extended (tv version) dvd some time.

What's the difference, i didn't even know there was. :)

All but one of the dvd releases contain a shorter version of the series and a different ending than was originally shown apparently.

I think the R2 Paramount dvds must be NTSC-PAL transfers.

Amazing !

I just ordered a copy lol

Please don't tell me you bought it from ebay just now?

Golden Years was great, its a shame it was never allowed to fully develope into the full series that was originally hoped for.

:doh:

well, i saw the word adaptations and thought fair enough as youll never get the elephantine detail cushioning the ****INGHELLITSA...insert creepy mcguffin here bits...
i loved the story The Mist but thomas jane no thanks, hes the new chuck norris ie has 1 expression.

Carrie...still the greatest teen angst film ever, with Fun and maybe Gummo close seconds...

The Shining...yes we can argue the merits but an axe IS scarier than a croquet mallet, pity about the maze not coming alive though that would have been nice...

why do people salivate like dogs at The Shitshank Redemption btw??? ive seen better prison films by far and it wasnt even the best story in that collection...go figure.

oh, and i love cat's eye.

There was one on ebay for about £5 including postage, but it's gone now, that's why I asked. Still a few more there, not as cheap though. I really should hit that buy button!

I bought one from a chap in the Netherlands. :)

Just off the top of my head , i tend to think that there aren't many decent King adaptations.

Looking at the list that certainly is not the case.

I tend to think of the bum numbing 3 hour tv marathons and shudder without even contemplating the Mist, Shawshank, Hearts in Atlantis etc, quality films all.