10 Worst Stephen King Adaptations, Ranked from Just Bad to Totally Awful

As much as Stephen King loves to explore the duality of human nature in his books, the adaptations of his works are no different – there are a sufficient number of masterpieces that are already recognized as cinema classics, as well as outright failures.

The list of King's unsuccessful works is so long that the number ten is far from being the limit. But we have chosen cases of the most egregiously bad adaptations so that you know exactly what is not worth watching at all.

10. The Stand, 2020

There are so many characters in King's source material of the same name that it is simply impossible to devote screen time to the development of each of them, even in the TV show format. In addition, the adaptation greatly simplified the main conflict of the novel, depriving the characters of the inner struggle of choosing between good and evil.

The changed ending was one of the lures of the show – Stephen King wrote the script for the final episode, where events unfolded differently than in the book. It turned out to be exciting, but did not save the failed series.

9. Cell, 2016

One of the last full-length King adaptations can't even be called an adaptation – only the names of the main characters and a small part of the plot remain from the 2006 novel of the same name.

Fans of the author hoped that the new meeting of John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, who acted together in 1408 based on King's story, would end with the same success, but it turned out that even such actors were not able to pull the movie out of the captivity of the script's weakness.

8. Pet Sematary, 2019

King's original book was not just a horror story about the other world where characters come back to life, but a powerful dramatic story about the inability to come to terms with loss and letting go of the people you love. The first film version of the novel made in 1989 was not bad, although it lacked many valuable subplots.

The 2019 iteration turned out to be a complete failure. The dramatic intensity gave way to cheap jump scares and boring storytelling. After watching it, there is no other desire than to read the original novel again.

7. Desperation, 2006

The novel Desperation is unique in King's work, the author actually wrote it twice – it has a twin book The Regulators. They intersect characters, mirror events and plot twists. Neither one nor the other is one of the author's best works, so it was difficult to expect something incredible from the TV adaptation.

But director Mick Garris managed to make the adaptation even worse – the acting is terrible, the plot is predictable, and the dialogue is so ridiculous that the viewer simply does not notice it.

6. Thinner, 1996

Stephen King's novel Thinner was not only characterized by its typical creepy atmosphere, but it was also full of black humor with allusions to mass insanity and faith in healers and psychics.

The movie retained the plot twists, but not the suspense with which the author kept the interest of the reader who opened the book. In addition, the weight loss of the main character, played by Robert John Burke, is not shown radically as in the book, where a person turns into a living corpse – on the screen the viewers saw only a thin person.

5. The Dark Tower, 2017

The movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey was supposed to be the first in a series of adaptations of King's Dark Tower novels. But the movie was such a failure that there was no talk of a sequel.

The Dark Tower is a master class in how not to adapt King. For the most part, fans blamed the writers for monstrous miscasting. But the problem with The Dark Tower is that it completely failed to capture the spirit of the source material and failed to understand its significance.

4. Dreamcatcher, 2003

For the author himself, this story became special: the book was written after the accident King had in 1999, which almost led to his death. While writing the novel, the author was recovering from the tragedy, and he himself admitted that in many ways it was this idea that got him back on his feet.

The 2003 film version was indeed released in a hurry, but it turned out to be not only fast, but also weak. The film added nothing to the story and took away important subplots. Despite the fact that the film stars Thomas Jane, Timothy Olyphant, Morgan Freeman, Damian Lewis and Jason Lee, Dreamcatcher misses every opportunity to be a worthy King adaptation.

3. The Dark Half, 1993

Stephen King and George A. Romero seemed to be perfect for each other – their first collaboration, Сreepshow, turned out to be quite successful. After that, Romero tried many times to work with King again, but only succeeded once – with The Dark Half. And it would be better if that didn't happen.

In the book, King explored the dualism of human nature, which contains both good and evil. The film version, starring the excellent actor Timothy Hutton, was devoid of such dramatic delights and was largely unsuccessful due to weak direction and a script that abandoned an important layer of the original story for the sake of runtime.

2. Maximum Overdrive, 1986

It seems that Stephen King will never be able to wash away the shame of Maximum Overdrive. In the mid-80s, the author took it upon himself to make a movie based on his own story, since others could not properly translate his ideas to the screen. The movie was remembered by viewers, of course, but only as an example of how unsuccessful an adaptation can be.

Sometimes a bad movie is so bad that it becomes particularly entertaining, but not in the case of Maximum Overdrive. Neither the ridiculous jokes, nor the deliberate gore, nor the AC/DC soundtrack will make you watch it again.

1. Children of the Corn, 1984

King had always had a weak spot for cornfields, forests, or fields of long grass – any place where all sorts of dark entities might hide. But in his stories, the outer darkness was always an allegory for the inner workings of man, where no less evil lurks.

Children of the Corn unexpectedly and inexplicably spawned several sequels. Soulless dialogue, cheap effects, and boring sets – a movie about children who fall under the influence of a sinister cult that demands human sacrifices could not have been made worse.