Stephen King's Best Movie With 94% on RT Is Coming to Netflix This Week

Stephen King's Best Movie With 94% on RT Is Coming to Netflix This Week
Image credit: Columbia Pictures

No, it's not The Shining or The Shawshank Redemption.

Rob Reiner's film largely defined the coming-of-age genre for years to come, became an enduring landmark in pop culture, and is remembered as the most sincere and sensitive adaptation of Stephen King 's prose.

When one thinks of the King of Horror's tour of the big and small screens, one thinks of cult flicks, monumental sculptures of prose, be it Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption, or Brian De Palma's Carrie.

Stand by Me may seem like a small movie compared to the aforementioned films, but it has an infinitely large heart.

What is Stand By Me About?

While we all endlessly yearn for the 80s, in the 80s, King cherished the memories of the 50s and his own childhood in dirty jeans and torn sneakers.

The holidays are coming to an end, but there is still time for one last adventure: somewhere there, beyond the bridge, lies the body of a neighbor's boy. If you find the dead boy first, you can become heroes for the whole area – so four boys set off on a journey.

There are many incidents ahead: a garbage dump and an angry dog, a bridge over a river and a night in a dark forest. Behind them are parents worried about everything but their sons, and a childhood doomed to end sooner than desired.

Stand By Me Is the Best King Adaptation, According to the Author Himself

Even if you haven't seen Stand by Me or picked up a copy of Different Seasons, you've probably seen footage of it or one of the many cultural homages to the march of the four boys. The most common reference to the '80s classic belongs to Stranger Things: in the show's first season, the Duffer Brothers quoted a walk along the tracks.

Stephen King's compliments about adaptations of his works are not so reliable: the author often compliments filmmakers and praises many adaptations. But King has repeatedly admitted that Stand by Me is his favorite of the films based on his works.

In turn, director Rob Reiner, even 30 years after its release, called the adaptation his best movie. It is unlikely that the two authors could be accused of an excessive desire to praise each other. They were the same age, both born in 1947, and each was 12 years old in 1959.

Two boys met and realized that they would never be able to be friends like they were when they were 12, and made a movie about it.

Stand By Me's Release Date on Netflix

You'll soon be able to watch the best Stephen King adaptation on Netflix – Stand by Me hits the platform on September 1.