Every Stephen King Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best. Stephen Kings work has been adapted so many times sometimes by King himself that its impossible to find a single unifying thread in all of the film adaptations. Sure, a lot of them are horror certainly a lot of the worst are horror, but thats largely because the boom period for King movies was the 1. As his canvas and reputation has expanded over the years, his work has been turned into dramas, comedies, musicals, and even a Bollywood movie. Because of this dissonance, ranking King movies is particularly difficult The Mangler and The Shawshank Redemption barely seem to exist on the same plane of dimensional existence, let alone on the same list of movies. As It hits theaters, we rank every Stephen King film adaptation, from The Shining to Pet Sematary. Express Helpline Get answer of your question fast from real experts. But nonetheless, with the latest King adaptation, It, opening this week, we gave it the old college try. For the purposes of this list, we looked at theatrical releases only, and excluded Lawnmower Man, an adaptation so vastly different from the original that King sued to get his name off it. With one notable exception, youll find the adapted movies turned out much like King himself They got more serious and substantial with age. Maximum Overdrive 1. The one movie King ever directed, and well, you know, Stephen King is a wonderful writer who should probably stick with writing. Watch The Hunt For The BTK Killer Online Hulu' title='Watch The Hunt For The BTK Killer Online Hulu' />The movies tone is set in the opening scene, in which a man played by King tries to take money out of an ATM, and the ATM calls him an asshole. Apparently, a comet has passed by Earth and given mechanical objects sentience, and once they attack humanity, Emilio Estevez helps lead a human resistance. Big Bang Theory Season 2 Episode 10 Online Free. The movie isnt even absurd enough to have fun with this lunatic premise, and King has zero skills as a director  visually, narratively, or in any other sense. King has called it the worst adaptation of any of his works, and we are not about to disagree. Though, according to King I was coked out of my mind all through its production, and I really didnt know what I was doing. The Mangler 1. 99. Of all the Stephen King adaptations, we must confess that this one has our favorite title. Boy, though, is this thing ridiculous. What, exactly, is the Mangler, you ask Well, the Mangler is a demonically possessed laundry pressThis setup leads to hilarious scenes of an angry laundry press pressing up and down, like a hungry, hungry hippo. Eventually the Mangler develops legs and starts chasing people. Its all terrible, but, you never know, it might be your thing. Maybe youre into laundry press cosplay. You do you. 3. 8. Graveyard Shift 1. Graveyard Shift is as schlocky as low budget horror films get. Its premise Overnight workers at an abandoned then reopened textile mill keep dying, and no one can figure out why. Wanna guess why We dont want to give it away. All right, theyre being killed by a giant batBecause bats hunt at night, you see. In the short story, its a giant rat. Bats are much more cinematic. This movie looks like it was made for about 3. Riding the Bullet 2. What was a thin, simple premise in Kings novella widely considered the worlds first e book, by the way, in 2. Director Mick Garris is an old King hired hand he directed several of Kings straight to TV movies, including The Stand and the version of The Shining that had Steven Weber, of all people, in the Jack Nicholson role and he tries to make this into something much more portentous and profound than it really is. Sleepwalkers 1. 99. Its Mick Garris again this was actually his first collaboration with King, hacking away at another King movie, this time with an original script from King. What are Sleepwalkers, you ask According to the Stephen King Wiki, theyre an ancient and forgotten nomadic race of vampiric shape shifting werecats. In the movie, theyre an incestuous mother and son who need to feed on virgin blood, and well, you can probably guess where it goes from there. Amusingly, the Sleepwalkers cannot survive contact with simple house cats, which leads to all sorts of ridiculous scenes of our bad guy screaming in horror at the sight of Garfield. This movie is probably most famous for being terrible, but secondarily for having all sorts of horror movie cameos, from King himself to Tobe Hooper to John Landis to Ron Perlman to Mark Hamill to Clive Barker to Joe Dante. Silver Bullet 1. Considered faintly ridiculous when it came out, Silver Bullet looks even worse now the special effects and creature makeup are bad even for a horror movie from 1. Need proof Hows this They really might have been better off just having a guy carry a mounted bear head around. You do have to admire a movie that casts Gary Busey as the doting, protective father but only a little. Cell 2. 01. 6. The second teaming up of John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in a King movie crashes and burns in a dumb cautionary tale about well, about how cell phones are going to kill us all by sending a signal that turns us into murderous monsters. King wrote the book early enough 2. Our smartphones have come up with far more creative ways to kill us today. Dolans Cadillac 2. This is not a documentary about a fancy American car belonging to the Knicks owner, though you have to admit it wouldnt be that surprising to see that show up at MSG some summer afternoon. Instead, this is a slight, limp crime thriller starring Christian Slater and Wes Bentley years before each faded star would make a comeback based off an old King short story that even he had probably forgotten. The movie tries to be a grindhouse schlockfest, but can barely work up the energy. This got a brief theatrical release before zipping straight to video, and has only ever been brought up again in lists like this. Cats Eye 1. 98. This was made back when horror anthologies were all the rage, and King was at the center of them. The gimmick here Theres one cat that connects all three stories, two based off Night Shift stories and one written for the film by King. The biggest star at the time was Drew Barrymore, fresh off not just E. T., but also Firestarter. But the best performance in the best vignette comes from James Woods, as a man who is so desperate to quit smoking he will try anything. The movie feels pretty dashed off, and its more reminiscent of The. Watch Made In U.S.A Mediafire. Twilight Zones whimsy than it is scary. But there is a cat. Needful Things 1. You wouldnt think a moral fable about a possibly demonic shop owner played by Max von Sydow wreaking havoc on a sleepy small town, pursued by heroic sheriff Ed Harris, could possibly be bad but, alas, it is. With a better director than Fraser Clarke Son of Charlton Heston, Von Sydows whimsical evil would have had menace and wit, but this plodding film has neither. How do you make Harris and Amanda Plummer boring Its really hardNeedful Things somehow finds a way. Creepshow 2 1. 98. The sequel doesnt feature George Romero behind the camera though he did write the screenplay, but its still based on King stories albeit lesser known, less fun ones than the original. None of these are as scary or as inventive as in the first film, though The Raft in which horny teenagers get devoured by a creature from the deep lake in which theyre swimming makes us squeamish still today. This one did poorly enough that it would be 2. Romero nor King were involved. The Night Flier 1. One thing King hasnt written a lot about is journalism and media at least, not until Twitter and the Donald Trump administration.