Stephen King Movie Discussion (1 Viewer)

[Dome Vongvises]

As a writer, King is strictly bestseller, potboiler stuff. Storytelling is everything in a King novel or story — such literary conventions as metaphor and symbolism are tossed aside in favor of giving his fans a "good read." More page-turner stuff than mind-provoking material.

Jack, you make it sound like it's a bad thing. But that's your call.

The Stand
- liked the adaptation enough.

Needful Things
- awful, but they got the right guy to be the shopowner though

The Green Mile
- Loved the film, but I want to read the books

The Shawshank Redemption
- I want to read the short story now. I love this film, and I wish there's a special edition of this someday.

Misery
- The book is more graphic?

The Shining
- Never read the book, but I love the movie.

Christine
- I liked the film, but I remember the book being more graphic, particularly one sex scene. Hey, I remember useless stuff from 8th grade.

Carrie
- Great opening. More movies need that.

Pet Semetary
- Haven't read the book, but I like the movie.

Salem's Lot
- I don't remember much.

Stand By Me
- Love this movie.

The Dead Zone
-

 

[Brian Kidd]

The Shining: Kubrick's film is one of the finest ghost stories ever filmed. It's not King's book, per se, but it takes what is good about the book and puts Kubrick's imprint on it.

Creepshow: This has been, and always shall be, one of my favorite films. A dead-on homage to the EC Comics of the 1950's.

The Stand: A miniseries of this length was the only way to do justice to the epic storyline of the novel. It succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. You have to take into consideration the constraints of a television budget and the things you can and can't show on network television. At the time, it was pretty daring of ABC to allow the graphic depiction of some of the corpses. I love this one.

The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile I group these two together because I feel like they follow a similar theme. Both are very competent and enjoyable adaptations of King's work. Darabont has a feel for King that no other director has been able to achieve.

Stand By Me Another wonderful adaptation. The child actors in this film were all perfect for their roles. Yes, even Corey Feldman. I feel like Feldman gets a bum rap because of his "Two Coreys" phase and that period where he dressed like Michael Jackson. He really is a decent actor. He worked constantly when he was a child because he was so damned good. I hope he gets the chance to do some substantial work in the future. Now the KANGAROO JACK guy can drop off of the face of the earth as far as I'm concerned. He was great in STAND BY ME and hasn't made a decent film since. Wil Wheaton is another one whose career was sadly derailed by derision over his character on Star Trek. He's a pretty talented guy and very smart and funny. River Phoenix was a real loss. He was an ACTOR. This stands as one of Rob Reiner's best. He has a flair for King's fiction as well.

Misery See above comment about Reiner. Kathy Bates rocks in this film.

Salem's Lot This miniseries scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. It doesn't hold up terribly well today, but it still has some nice moments in it. I'm curious to see the remake. Anyone know when it's scheduled to air?

Carrie Just saw this one again several months ago. Loved it. DePalma kicks ass.

The Dead Zone Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, and David Cronenberg. This film drips coolness.

I think that pretty well covers the King movies that I feel are at least mostly succesful as adaptations.

 

[Robert Floto]

Frank Darabont + prison + Stephen King = great movies!

My faves would be Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, but I still think that Misery, and The Dead Zone are among the classiest of King adaptations.

 

[Justin_S]

A few thoughts with more to come later:


Cujo- This is my absolute favorite of the King films. I love dogs, and I love horror, so this film is obviously right up my alley. Cujo is one of the most terrifying villains I've seen, yet I also feel very bad for what he's unwillingly become. The claustrophobic feeling of the film adds a lot to the menace and dread, and Dee Wallace Stone is great as usual. The film's realism and intensity works wonders, and if you ask me, this film is a definite classic! The only complaint I have is that the kid doesn't die like in the book.

The Stand- I absolutely LOVE this miniseries! It is definitely a favorite of mine. I thought it portrayed the novel very well. All of the actors do a great job and the film is just classic. It also emotionally moved me big time. I felt very bad for quite a lot of the characters. The evil characters were the only ones I felt for though. I really liked ALL of the evil characters very much, but I can honestly say that I don't think there was a single good/heroic character that I liked. Since I liked all of the evil characters, the emotion was stronger. Just to name a few I felt very bad for, the absolutely gorgeous Laura San Giacomo's Nadine character went through a lot of hell. I also felt bad for Miguel Ferrer's character and the Harold Lauder character, as well as Trashcan Man and several others. I also loved the lovely Shawnee Smith's wild character. I had a very strong liking of them all and really wanted the evil side to win. I truly think this is an epic horror film!


The Night Flier- After Cujo and The Stand, this fantastic film is the third best of the King adaptations if you ask me. Miguel Ferrer is one of my favorite actors, and he is sheer perfection as the antihero, Dees! He owns this film and delivers one of his best performances to date.

The film's storyline is also a very intriguing one, and it is executed very well. There is hardly a single scene in the entire film that I don't enjoy. The ending is one of the best endings in the last several years too, and Dwight Renfield is an outstanding villain! Also, the film's score is one of my favorites. Very eerie, and a perfect fit for the film.

A huge favorite, and easily one of the best horror films of the 90s!

 

[Keir H]

THE SHINING: I still happen to get the chills when I see Danny riding that big-wheel through that huge hotel then running into those twins..(shiver) I was very young when I say that movie and it still gets me. Wonderful. Never read the book though.

SALEM'S LoT: Another chilling movie I saw as a young teen..those vampires freaked me out and back then, you didnt need surround sound to enjoy the creepiness.

I think as others have mentioned, I enjoyed to a degree all of the book to movie adaptations. THey all had some entertaining value...although the "IT" movie was not all that. The book on the otherhand had me closing it from time to time it was so scary...of course that was way back when...