Stephen King Film Adaptations

Stephen King is a hugely successful author, with over 50 published novels and numerous short stories to his name. Many of these have been made into movies, some extremely well known, others less so, and on this page I have collected together as many of these films as I could find.

To read about my favourite Stephen King novels, check out my article about My top 5 Stephen King Novels

Photo of Stephen King courtesy of Pinguino - wikimedia commons

Carrie was Stephen King's first published novel and was made into a movie in 1976. It stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie, a shy, bullied, teenage girl with telekinetic powers who learns to use these powers as the story progresses. Spacek was Oscar nominated for her role in the film, as was Piper Laurie, who plays her devoutly religious, insane mother, Margaret.

The film also stars a young John Travolta and Nancy Allen.

Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption; Apt Pupil; the Body; and The Breathing Method.

The first three were all made into Hollywood movies; 'The Shawshank Redemption', 'Apt Pupil' and 'Stand By Me'.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is regularly included in lists of the greatest films of all time and was nominated for seven Oscars, including best film and best actor for Morgan Freeman. It also stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, on who the story focusses.

Apt Pupil was made into a film in 1998 starring Sir Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro.

Stand by Me (1986) is a fantastic film starring River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell and Kiefer Sutherland. It is a coming of age story about four young teenage boys who, hearing some older boys discussing the body of a missing boy that they've found, set off on a trek to find the body themselves.

The Shining was the second movie based upon a Stephen King novel. It stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a writer who takes a job as a caretaker at an isolated hotel off-season. While there he becomes influenced by a supernatural presence, driving him mad and causing him to attempt to murder his family.

The Shining is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all time and Jack Nicholson's 'Here's Johnny!' is instantly recognisable.

Christine was made into a film in 1983, directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon as a nerdy teen, Arnie, who buys a red and white Plymouth Fury, only for it to have a strange effect on him as he restores it. Lots of mysterious deaths follow as Arnie works on Christine further.

The Green Mile was made into a film in 1999 starring Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan and David Morse, with Duncan being nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.

The story is set in death row in a Louisiana prison. One of the prisoners is John Coffey, a giant black man, convicted of the rape and murder of two white girls. John is a gentle man and has extraordinary healing powers which he demonstrated on one of the guards (Hanks) and the terminally ill wife of the prison warden. We follow the stories of John, the other prisoners and the guards up to John's execution date.

It was adapted into a two part TV serial in 1990, starring the fantastic Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown. The scene with Pennywise in the drain talking to the little boy who's lost his toy boat is especially chilling.